Saturday’s ontrack audience for the 11-race program featuring the Santa Anita Handicap is expected to surpass last year’s figure of 24,201, and track president George Haines said on Thursday that number could be significantly higher.
“I think we’ll be in the mid-20,000 or upper 20,000s,” Haines said. “But I’m naturally conservative. I’d like to see more. We’re looking good with the weather.”
ARCADIA, Calif. – Unzip Me’s near-perfect record on the hillside turf course at Santa Anita makes her a strong favorite in Saturday’s $75,000 Clocker’s Corner Handicap over about 6 1/2 furlongs.
Unzip Me has won 4 of 5 starts on the surface, and her last four races, including the Grade 3 Monrovia Stakes on Jan. 2. About the only thing that could get in the way of her extending that record is the outstanding form of Reba Is Tops, who was third in the Monrovia but rebounded to win two subsequent starts.
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OZONE PARK, N.Y. − Not that he probably needs it, but Calibrachoa will have a little help from one of his friends when he seeks his third straight stakes victory in Saturday’s Grade 3, $150,000 Tom Fool Handicap at Aqueduct.
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ARCADIA, Calif. – The emergence of Twirling Candy as top older horse in California this winter is no surprise to his trainer.
“I really believed we had a chance to have one of the premier horses this year,” John Sadler said. So far, so good.
OLDSMAR, Fla. – Drosselmeyer, winner of the 2010 Belmont Stakes, will make his long awaited 4-year-old debut here at Tampa Bay Downs on Saturday as the overwhelming favorite of a field of 11 older handicap runners in the $60,000 Challenger Stakes at 1 1/16 miles.
Luis Garcia will handle Drosselmeyer at 122 pounds under the allowance conditions of the Challenger.
Wholly ready or not, Willcox Inn is set to make his 2011 debut Saturday at Fair Grounds in the $60,000 Grindstone Stakes, a 7 1/2-furlong turf race restricted to 3-year-olds. Willcox Inn was one of nine horses entered in the Grindstone and will go to the post only if the race remains on turf, trainer Mike Stidham said.
Churchill Downs on Thursday released the early nominations list for the Grade 1, $1 million Kentucky Oaks on May 6, and virtually every 3-year-old filly of notable accomplishment in North America is on the roster of 117.
Awesome Feather, the undefeated divisional champion, heads a list that also includes such major winners as R Heat Lightning, Kathmanblu, Turbulent Descent, A Z Warrior, and Zazu. The 1 1/8-mile Oaks is one of six stakes set for the May 6 program, with total purses exceeding $2 million.
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HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Gulfstream Park’s racing secretary, Dan Bork, has rounded up the usual suspects and then some for Saturday’s $100,000 Honey Fox, which attracted a full field of 12 filly and mare turf specialists, including the first five finishers from the Grade 3 Marshua’s River early in the meet.
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OZONE PARK, N.Y. − Though no horse entered in Saturday’s $250,000 Gotham Stakes at Aqueduct is any more accomplished than his, trainer Graham Motion believes he will learn a lot more about Toby’s Corner when he runs against eight opponents in the Grade 3 stakes for 3-year-olds.
HOT SPRINGS, Ark. – The $60,000 Mountain Valley for 3-year-olds at six furlongs at Oaklawn Park on Saturday is expected to be a springboard to longer distances for undefeated stakes winners Glint and Smoke It Right. But that is not the case for Trubs, who has been there, done that.
“Right now, we’re going to keep him around one turn,” said Al Stall Jr., who trains Trubs for Claiborne Farm and Adele Dilschneider.
