It was a New Year’s weekend to remember for Arkansas-based owner Frank Fletcher.
A day after his Frank’s Rockette won the Grade 3 Sugar Swirl on Dec. 31 at Gulfstream Park, he was at his home track of Oaklawn to watch Victory Formation capture the first Kentucky Derby points race of the year, the $250,000 Smarty Jones. Fletcher races the undefeated Victory Formation with Spendthrift Farm.
Turfway Park officially divides its roughly four months of racing into two meets – the holiday meet, which ran from Nov. 29 through Dec. 31, and the winter/spring meet, getting underway now. The holiday meet ended with jockey Gerardo Corrales, trainer Paulo Lobo, and owner Larry Best’s OXO Equine winning their respective meet titles.
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ARCADIA, Calif. - Pizza Bianca, the two-time stakes winner and third-place finisher in the Grade 1 Matriarch Stakes at Del Mar last month, will remain in training in 2023, trainer Christophe Clement said over the weekend.
Pizza Bianca finished sixth, beaten 2 1/2 lengths, in the Grade 1 American Oaks at 1 1/4 miles on Dec. 26 at Santa Anita, after a troubled trip through the stretch.
“I thought she ran okay,” Clement said. “It was not a very lucky trip. She ran a good race in the Matriarch and she was placed in a Grade 1.”
In his first mounts in Kentucky since September 2021, Kent Desormeaux rode three horses on New Year’s Day at Turfway Park. All three were for trainer Wesley Ward. Desormeaux won two maiden special weight events and finished second in the Holiday Cheer aboard Outadore after a troubled start.
Desormeaux has battled substance-abuse issues throughout his career. He has won three editions of the Kentucky Derby and three Eclipse Awards, and is a member of the Racing Hall of Fame.
Williamson Racing’s homebred Visitant turned 7 on New Year’s Day, and he celebrated with a four-length victory as the favorite in the $125,000 Holiday Cheer Stakes at Turfway Park, where he has been consistently successful.
Visitant, a Ghostzapper horse trained by Bill Morey, earned a Beyer Speed Figure of 102, matching the number he earned in an allowance-optional claiming victory on Dec. 16 at Turfway, his first start in more than eight months. Those two wins have moved his record at Turfway to 10-8-1-1, with four stakes wins.
ARCADIA, Calif. – Fashionably Fast has run his last race.
A six-time stakes winner against California-breds, Fashionably Fast was sent to co-owner and breeder John Harris’s farm in Coalinga, Calif., last week to begin his retirement, trainer Dean Pederson said Monday.
Fashionably Fast won 10 of 33 starts and earned $807,143 in a five-year career from 2018-22.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. – General Banker will be stepping up in class though he’ll be running for 70 percent less purse money when he starts in Saturday’s $150,000 Jerome Stakes for 3-year-olds at Aqueduct.
General Banker is coming off a monster 8 1/2-length victory in the $500,000 Great White Way division of the New York Stallion Stakes on Dec. 17. That seven-furlong race was restricted to progeny of stallions based in New York. The Jerome will be General Banker’s ninth start, the first outside of restricted company.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Saturday’s Harlan’s Holiday Stakes did indeed serve its purpose as a prep for the $3 million Pegasus World Cup Invitational, with the top four finishers all potential candidates for Gulfstream Park’s marquee event on Jan. 28.
Skippylongstocking won the Grade 3 Harlan’s Holiday by two widening lengths over a game Pioneer of Medina, with Simplification finishing third and O’Connor fourth as the 6-5 favorite. Skippylongstocking earned a career-best 106 Beyer Speed Figure for his performance in his 3-year-old finale.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. - An upset in Sunday’s final race triggered a late pick-5 carryover of $189,194 into Thursday’s Aqueduct card.
There are only eight races Thursday, so the late pick-5, a 50-cent minimum wager, will start on race 4 (2:16 p.m. Eastern).
