Though Mailata was the 5-2 morning-line favorite in Tuesday’s $75,000 Future Stars Stakes at Parx Racing, his connections also entered him in Saturday’s $150,000 Jerome Stakes at Aqueduct.
Trainer Butch Reid said a decision on where Mailata would run would likely be made sometime Monday, but he sounded as though he preferred the Jerome.
“I like the spot, outside post in a five-horse field going a mile. Seems perfect for me,” Reid said.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Doc Sullivan won his third stakes race of the year and stated a case to be New York-bred champion older dirt male with his victory in the Alex M. Robb Stakes last Friday at Aqueduct.
But that may not have been the most exciting thing to happen for trainer John Ortiz and owner TriStar Farm last week.
A Florida state representative has introduced a bill that would allow Gulfstream Park in Hallandale Beach to cease live racing in 2030 while continuing to operate its casino.
Rep. Adam Anderson, a real-estate developer who spearheaded a similar legislative effort earlier this year that ultimately failed, filed the bill Tuesday, giving notice to the state’s racing industry that a decoupling battle will once again be staged in the state legislature in 2026.
In June, apprentice Yedsit Hazlewood’s burgeoning career was put on hold when he and a fellow jockey were involved in a late-night car accident driving back from New York. The 17-year-old rider underwent surgery on his wrist and missed two months. It was a profound wake-up call.
“The accident helped me to be able to understand and be more mature about this,” Hazlewood said through a translator. “To get an opportunity like this, you will never get it again and you don’t want to waste it.”
Two days later than scheduled, Santa Anita begins its winter-spring meeting on Sunday with an 11-race program that includes 29 stakes winners.
The number of stakes winners could grow by late Sunday afternoon, considering there are six stakes spread across the program, which starts at 11 a.m. Pacific.
ARCADIA, Calif. – The high-class 2-year-old Mr. A. P., runner-up in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile, is already off the Kentucky Derby trail.
“He had a little setback,” trainer Vladimir Cerin said Saturday at Santa Anita. “I’m hoping he’ll be ready at the end of the March, which makes everything difficult.”
The setback makes it virtually impossible for Mr. A.P. to make the Kentucky Derby, which is unfortunate because Mr. A. P. stamped himself one of the country’s leading 2-year-olds by finishing second to undefeated Ted Noffey in the BC Juvenile.
Rudy Campas, a fixture among California jockeys for 30 years, died on Wednesday after an illness, his friends said.
Campas, who resided in Rubidoux, Calif., near Riverside, was 85.
Born in Vernon, Texas, Campas had a varied career, and was well known for his success at the Los Angeles County Fair in Pomona. He won 144 races at the bullring track and was among the 10 all-time leading riders at the venue when it closed in 2013.
Santa Anita postponed entries for the Dec. 26 opening-day program from Friday to Sunday to better assess an unsettled forecast in Southern California in coming days.
Widespread rain is forecast from Tuesday to Thursday next week. In a text message released midday Friday, the track’s racing office said entries were delayed “to allow for additional time to evaluate the weather forecast.”
Santa Anita was scheduled to take entries on Friday for the Dec. 26 program, which includes six graded stakes and is typically the track’s best attended program of the year.
Roll On Big Joe, who swept in from Kentucky to win the $150,000 Ring the Bell Stakes over opening weekend at Oaklawn, will be back, according to trainer Bob Hess Jr. The horse, who last weekend had been cross-entered in the Holiday Cheer on the synthetic surface at Turfway Park, won his fourth stakes of the year in the Ring the Bell.
Many consider the riding colony assembled for the Oaklawn Park meet that opened last weekend one of the deepest in recent memory. The lineup of more than 40 jockeys includes such prominent names as Luis Saez, Joel Rosario, Rafael Bejarano, Ricardo Santana Jr., and Jaime Torres.
Heading into the second week of the meet, Ramon Vazquez and Cristian Torres sat atop the local standings with five wins each, while Francisco Arrieta is hot on their heels with four wins. The men have all been dominant players the last several years at Oaklawn.
