LEXINGTON, Ky. – Suzzona has come a long way since her days as a $10,000 claimer. Now 7, with 21 wins from 44 career starts, the Maryland-based mare will try to continue a hot recent streak for jockey Julian Pimentel as one of the top contenders in a rugged field of filly-mare turf sprinters Friday in the $100,000 Franklin County Stakes at Keeneland.
ELMONT, N.Y. – Dust and Diamonds, a blowout winner off a 49-week layoff at Saratoga, breaks from the outside in a field of seven and will be favored to win right back for her red-hot connections in Friday’s $54,000 optional claiming feature.
In two starts for former trainer Mike Trombetta as a 2-year-old, Dust and Diamonds was a front-running debut winner at Laurel over eventual Tempted Stakes winner Full Moon Blues, before rallying to finish third in the Presque Isle Debutante.
Though trainer Dale Romans still believes his Preakness winner Shackleford can be effective at 1 1/4 miles, he and owners Michael Lauffer and Bill Cubbedge appear to be targeting the Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile rather than the Breeders’ Cup Classic for their 3-year-old.
“The Dirt Mile is probably the way to go, the way we’re leaning anyway,’’ Romans said Wednesday morning at Belmont Park, where he paid a visit to his 30-horse stable. “It just fits him better right now.’’
ARCADIA, Calif. – Crown of Thorns, a two-time stakes winner who was second in the 2009 Breeders’ Cup Sprint, has been retired and will stand at stud at Spendthrift Farm in Kentucky in 2012, trainer Richard Mandella said.
Crown of Thorns finished fourth in his final race, the Grade 2 Oak Tree Mile on turf at Santa Anita last Saturday. A 6-year-old horse by Repent, Crown of Thorns won 3 of 13 starts and $821,693 in a career that spanned five racing seasons.
Miss Lederhosen was closing fast in her last start and should benefit from the bit of added ground she picks up Friday night in the $50,000 E.L. Gaylord at Remington Park.
“I think it will help her,” said Steve Asmussen, who trains Miss Lederhosen for Littlebrother Farm.
After an absence of three months recuperating from a fractured left wrist that required two surgeries, Rosie Napravnik is ready to resume riding.
Napravnik, 23, is named on five mounts on Saturday’s card at Delaware Park, including three of the four $75,000 stakes for Delaware-bred and Delaware-certified horses.
She has not ridden in a race since July 7, when the 5-year-old mare Nasseb broke down during a five-furlong turf race at Delaware. Napravnik went down in a spill and fractured the same wrist she broke during a riding accident in January 2007 at Laurel Park.
LEXINGTON, Ky. – Belmont Park race-caller Tom Durkin excitedly called Winter Memories “a gray bullet” and “a gray blur” as the standout filly passed all seven of her opponents in the final furlong to win her most recent start, the Grade 1 Garden City.
Fred Hart was left wondering whether he had made a horrible mistake when he impulsively raised his hand at the last second before bidding closed on a filly at the 2007 Fasig-Tipton Eastern Fall yearling sale in Timonium, Md.
Only a few minutes after he paid $9,000 for a daughter of Storm Boot, a veterinarian approached Hart and told him that if he had asked for an expert opinion beforehand, the vet would have strongly advised against bidding on the filly because she was “toes out,” a confirmation flaw that makes many horses susceptible to injury.
