Breeders’ Cup Turf Sprint winner Chamberlain Bridge probably would have been favored to win the $1 million Al Quoz Sprint on the March 26 Dubai World Cup card, but trainer Bret Calhoun said that the Dubai race, long considered a goal for Chamberlain Bridge, had been called off.
“He is not going to Dubai,” Calhoun said Monday. “Mainly, it’s just because of shipping arrangements.”
Sam Houston Race Park in Houston, which ran a consolidated Thoroughbred meet for the first time this winter, handled an average of $1,240,156 a day on its races from all sources. The 26-date meet concluded Monday.
Sam Houston raced 62 days last meet, and handled an average $1,264,263 a day on its races from all sources. During the recent meet, offtrack patrons bet an average $1,134,875 a day on races from Sam Houston, while another $105,281 a card was bet ontrack.
Patrick Valenzuela is the first to admit the balance is out of whack. Of his 39 wins at the winter-spring meeting through Sunday, only three have come in stakes.
The 39 wins are enough to give Valenzuela, 48, a secure position in third place in the standings behind Rafael Bejarano and Joel Rosario, who are tied with 63 wins and have won 12 and nine stakes, respectively, at the meeting.
ARCADIA, Calif. – Injuries have kept Lucky Primo on the sidelines more than once in his career, and forced owner-trainer Joshua Litt to take a highly cautious approach to his 2011 campaign. Friday at Santa Anita, Lucky Primo returns from a layoff of more than eight months in an optional claimer over a mile on the main track, a race that Litt considers to be a prep.
“He’ll need a race, for sure,” Litt said. “We’ll probably take him back and make one run. I’d like to get him on grass sometime.”
OZONE PARK, N.Y. – The true migration of horses to New York from south Florida is still several weeks away, but one Sunshine State shipper has made Saturday’s $65,000 Kings Point Stakes for New York-breds a bit more interesting.
Yawanna Twist, who was beaten less than two lengths when fourth to Lookin At Lucky in the 2010 Preakness Stakes, heads a field of six entered for the Kings Point, run at 1 1/8 miles over Aqueduct’s inner track. The Kings Point is one of six races restricted to New York-breds run on Saturday’s 10-race card.
HOT SPRINGS, Ark. – The fillies that Southern California-based owner John Waken has shipped east to run on dirt have excelled. Harissa picked up her first graded stakes win last month in the Barbara Fritchie at Laurel, while Nicole H became a stakes winner this winter at Aqueduct.
The latest Waken filly to make the move is Honey Bunch, who heads an entry-level allowance sprint for fillies and mares on Friday at Oaklawn Park. She had raced on synthetic surfaces up to last month, when she shipped to Arkansas and ran third in the $60,000 Spring Fever.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – As expected, reigning juvenile champion and current Kentucky Derby favorite Uncle Mo will kick off his 3-year-old campaign going one mile Saturday in Gulfstream Park’s $100,000 Timely Writer.
Setsuko, second by a nose in a roughly-run Santa Anita Handicap last Saturday, has emerged from the race without injury and is being considered for the $1 million Charles Town Classic in West Virginia on April 16, trainer Richard Mandella said.
There was concern after the Big Cap about Setsuko’s left foreleg, which showed swelling. Mandella said the 4-year-old Setsuko suffered a cut that responded well to antibiotic treatments.
“We were afraid he might have cracked a splint bone,” Mandella said.
HOT SPRINGS, Ark. – With Gulfstream Park-based Salty Strike arriving at Oaklawn Park over the weekend and Rigoletta touching down in Arkansas late Wednesday morning from Southern California, the Grade 3, $125,000 Honeybee will have coast-to-coast representation Saturday.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Ava K. and Midnight Visit both have won their first two starts impressively and will now test each other when they meet in Friday’s $60,000 Proud Puppy Stakes for New York-bred 3-year-old fillies at Aqueduct.
The Proud Puppy, a mile-and-70-yard race which also drew stakes winner Queen’s Harbor and three others, will be the first race around two turns for Ava K. and Midnight Visit.
