OZONE PARK, N.Y – Uncle Mo could face as many as 10 opponents in Saturday’s $1 million Wood Memorial at Aqueduct and as far as the champion 2-year-old’s connections are concerned, the more the merrier.
“I want to get him around more horses,’’ owner Mike Repole said earlier this week. “In the Derby there’s going to be 20 horses. I’d like to see him get an outside post and not see him on the lead, but be able to rate and relax.’’
HOT SPRINGS, Ark. – The annual stakes bonanza known as the Racing Festival of the South will open on Saturday with the running of the Grade 2, $350,000 Oaklawn Handicap.
It is the first of nine stakes to be run over the final six dates of the meet, with purses for the races totaling $2.7 million. The festival features five graded stakes, including the lone Grade 1 races in the region, the $500,000 Apple Blossom Handicap on April 15 and the $1 million Arkansas Derby on April 16.
LEXINGTON, Ky. – Keeneland won’t waste any time showing off the caliber of horses that will compete during the 15-day spring meet that begins Friday: A Breeders’ Cup winner, Pluck, is among the 10 3-year-olds entered in the opening-day feature, the Grade 3 Transylvania Stakes.
Clarke Lane, second in an allowance race over a mile on Sunday at Santa Anita, could start in the $750,000 Blue Grass Stakes at Keeneland on April 16, trainer Simon Callaghan said on Tuesday.
“It’s just a thought, but we could supplement to the Blue Grass,” Callaghan said of the Grade 1 race over 1 1/8 miles. “He’s a real tough horse and he’s not lost any weight from the race. It’s something to look at. It’s back quick but it is that time of year with 3-year-old colts.”
Maclean’s Music, who won his debut by 7 1/4 lengths in a six-furlong maiden race last month, earning a Beyer Speed Figure of 114, will make his next start at the Churchill Downs spring-summer meeting, assistant trainer Scott Blasi said.
Monday, Maclean’s Music worked five furlongs in 1:02.40, his second workout since the March 19 race. The Asmussen stable is expected to stay in California until the conclusion of the Santa Anita meeting on April 17 and move most of the runners to Kentucky.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. - Todd Pletcher wasn’t the only Gulfstream Park-based horsemen to win five races on Saturday. Wesley Ward also turned the trick the same afternoon - at Woodbine. Four of those five winners were ridden by apprentice John Delgado.
HOT SPRINGS, Ark. – Slew the Man and And Music Came will be making key surface changes Thursday for the ninth race at Oaklawn Park. Both horses will be getting back to dirt for the optional $50,000 claiming race at a mile, Slew the Man by way of the Tapeta surface at Golden Gate and And Music Came off a turf start at Sam Houston Race Park.
They are part of a nine-horse field for that one-mile race that is also open to allowance runners who have not won twice since Aug. 15.
ARCADIA, Calif. – Six races into his career, Silver Medallion will make his first start on a dirt surface in Saturday’s $1 million Santa Anita Derby.
Last weekend’s allowance race that came up as tough as a stakes turned out to be an almost perfect prep for the April 30 Grade 3 San Francisco Mile at Golden Gate Fields. The one-mile turf race had eight entrants – four locals and four from Southern California.
Hudson Landing won the race over the stakes winner Posse Power, with graded winner Awesome Gem in third.
“We’re surprised the race came up so tough,” said stakes coordinator David Jerkins. “It was a very competitive field.”
