Mr. Commons, third in the Santa Anita Derby on April 9, may start in the Preakness Stakes at Pimlico on May 21, trainer John Shirreffs said.
Mr. Commons does not have sufficient graded stakes earnings to secure a berth in the Kentucky Derby field on May 7 at this point, leaving Shirreffs to point for the second leg of the Triple Crown.
“There are a lot of options for a promising 3-year-olds,” Shirreffs said. He described the Preakness as “possible.”
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Tar Heel Mom, a mainstay atop the filly and mare sprint division here at Gulfstream Park for the last two winters, will find the competition a lot less imposing when she closes out another successful Florida campaign as the horse to beat in Sunday’s $75,000 Harmony Lodge overnight stakes.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Pants On Fire worked five furlongs in a blistering 58.60 seconds at Palm Meadows shortly after the renovation break on Friday, his first work since upsetting the Grade 2 Louisiana Derby on March 26.
With exercise rider Juan Pizarro aboard, Pants On Fire completed his final quarter in 24 seconds before galloping out six furlongs in 1:13.80, according to track clocker Bryan Walls.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. – In an effort to stimulate this circuit’s 2-year-old program, the New York Racing Association announced that purses for all juvenile maiden races at the upcoming Belmont Park spring/summer meet will be worth $60,000. Belmont opens on April 29.
That represents a $10,000 increase in open company maiden races and a $20,000 boost to New York-maiden races. NYRA ran its first 2-year-old race of the year on Friday at Aqueduct and the purse of that race – won by the Maryland-based Distinctly Donovan – was $42,000.
ARCADIA, Calif. – Haimish Hy ended his 2010 season with a win at the highest level, the Grade 1 Hollywood Derby last November. So far this year, he has not continued that level of success, losing his first three starts.
A start in a Grade 1 may be in Haimish Hy’s future this spring or summer, but he can reach another career milestone in Sunday’s $150,000 San Juan Capistrano Handicap at Santa Anita. The historic race is run over about 1 3/4 miles on turf, the longest graded stakes in California and one that carries considerable prestige on the circuit.
Hollywood Park will introduce a 50-cent pick five with a 14 percent takeout on Thursday’s opening day of the track’s spring-summer meeting.
The new bet will be conducted daily, starting with the first race, and will feature a carryover provision in the event there are no winning tickets. The $2 pick six will continue to be offered on the final six races of each program. There will be 50 cent pick four bets on the second through fifth races and the final four races.
LEXINGTON, Ky. – On trainer intent alone, Turbulent Descent would seem to have an edge on her former California colleague and fellow Grade 1 winner, Tell a Kelly, when the Beaumont Stakes is run Sunday at Keeneland.
Mike Puype has been eyeing the Grade 2, $150,000 Beaumont for the recently active Turbulent Descent ever since he decided the 1 1/8-mile Kentucky Oaks is beyond her scope. In the meantime, Chad Brown is just getting to know Tell a Kelly and is calling the Beaumont “a good starting point” for the filly to return from a layoff of more than four months.
Black Hills is a five-time stakes winner who has won some of the most important races in New Mexico. But he will find himself in an unusual spot on Sunday when he tries to recapture his best form against six others in the $100,000 Sunland Park Handicap.
The 1 1/8-mile race for 3-year-olds and up is one of two stakes on the program. The Grade 1, $100,000 West Texas Futurity is for Quarter Horses.
Even in a stagnant racing climate in Texas, fans came out in force for Thursday night’s opener at Lone Star Park in Grand Prairie, with 8,624 in attendance, the track’s largest opening-night crowd since 2007.
It was very much a blue-collar night of racing, with modest fields of reasonably hard-knocking horses, which was immediately punctuated in the meet’s kickoff race, the $50,000 Premiere Stakes for Texas-breds, when front-running Lydia’s Last Step – a horse claimed for $25,000 Feb. 26 – registered a slight upset over favored Coyote Legend.
ARCADIA, Calif. – Santa Anita and the City of Hope Cancer Center in nearby Duarte, Calif., are hosting a unique fund-raiser after the final race on Sunday, allowing fans to walk down the stretch of the racetrack to benefit cancer research.
In the event, titled “On Track to Beat Cancer,” a $10 donation allows race fans the experience to walk the final furlong of the racetrack and to have photos taken in the starting gate, which will be positioned at the eighth pole.
