Cool Bullet looked like a hot prospect in capturing the Hansel Stakes at Turfway Park last spring, but those hopes have been tempered in the interim. Now 4, Cool Bullet has won just once in six subsequent starts, including decisive defeats in his last four, all of which has led trainer Steve Margolis back to where they started.
“I sent him back there to try to get him back in the game,” Margolis said Thursday from his winter headquarters at Fair Grounds in New Orleans.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Trainer Rick Dutrow was looking forward to a huge weekend at Gulfstream Park with Amen Hallelujah the likely favorite in Saturday’s $200,000 Sunshine Millions Filly and Mare Sprint and Boys At Tosconova expected to be the public’s choice the following afternoon in the Grade 3 Holy Bull.
But with Boys At Tosconova now out of the Holy Bull, Dutrow will have to be satisfied with a big effort from Amen Hallelujah, who returns from almost an eight-month layoff in the six-furlong Sprint.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Dynaslew held her own with some of the best of her division in 2010. She will begin her 2011 campaign in a much easier spot when she meets a field restricted to just Florida- and California-breds in Saturday’s $300,000 Sunshine Millions Filly and Mare Turf at Gulfstream Park.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – The Sunshine Millions, the brainchild of MI Developments chairman and founder Frank Stronach, began in 2003 as a series of eight races restricted to Florida- and California-breds in late January at the Stronach-owned tracks of Gulfstream Park and Santa Anita. One of the original concepts of Sunshine Millions was to foster a rivalry between the breeding industries within the two states.
PORTLAND, Ore. – Portland Meadows will present its biggest race in nearly one-quarter of a century, the $80,000 Portland Meadows Oaks, on a special Saturday card.
The $80,000 purse makes the Oaks the richest race run at Portland Meadows since 1987, when Bill Shoemaker guided Present Value to victory in the $100,000 Coors Mile.
Eight 3-year-old fillies will compete in the one-mile race that is the first step in the Black-Eyed Susan $2.2 million bonus being offered at MI Development-owned racetracks.
PHOENIX – Saturday’s $25,000 Glendale Handicap at 1 1/16 miles on the grass at Turf Paradise comes chockfull of questions: Was Let’s Dream Again’s recent romp a sign she’s peaking? Can last year’s runner-up in this race and proven turf mare Table Mesa get back to her best? Can Snuggs and Kisses take the form that led her to an easy upset on dirt in the Kachina Handicap earlier this month to the turf, a surface on which she’s yet to hit the board in three prior tries?
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – An unidentified horse from the barn of trainer Jonathan Sheppard showing symptoms of possible neurological disease has prompted Gulfstream Park officials to quarantine one barn at the track and four others at its training facility at Palm Meadows on Thursday. Three of the barns at Palm Meadows contain horses trained by Todd Pletcher, including Kentucky Derby favorite Uncle Mo.
Another highly regarded 3-year-old nominated to but skipping the Holy Bull is Santiva, winner of the Grade 2 Kentucky Jockey Cup at Churchill Downs in his juvenile finale. Santiva is stabled at Palm Meadows this winter, where he’s just beginning to gear up for his 3-year-old season.
HOT SPRINGS, Ark. - The Oaklawn Park board of stewards has reinstated Florida-based trainer Marty Wolfson to good standing after suspending him last Sunday for failure to pay a $500 fine dating back to It’s a Bird’s disqualification from the 2009 Oaklawn Handicap. Payment of the fine was received from Wolfson on Wednesday, said Stan Bowker, the state steward at Oaklawn.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Trainer Rick Violette, who has an abundance of 3-year-old talent in his barn here this winter, had been considering both Leave of Absence and Rescind the Trade for Sunday’s Grade 3 Holy Bull. The decision became a moot point on Wednesday morning after Violette put Rescind the Trade on a van bound for snowy New York.
