ARCADIA, Calif. – Thursday is comeback day for Mythical Power and Game On Dude, stakes winners for trainer Bob Baffert in 2010.
Mythical Power won the Grade 3 Texas Mile at Lone Star Park last April, but lost his next four starts, including a second to Quality Road in the Grade 1 Woodward Stakes at Saratoga.
Thursday, Mythical Power starts in an optional claimer over seven furlongs, the day’s fourth race.
ARCADIA, Calif. – In the winter of 2003-04, Southern Image was California’s dominant older horse. Through the campaign, trainer Mike Machowsky mixed and matched historic races at Santa Anita, such as the Malibu Stakes and Santa Anita Handicap, with new races, notably the Sunshine Millions Classic, to guide Southern Image to a career-defining five-race winning streak.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – The Gulfstream Park turf course will play host to a pair of allowance races on Thursday. The best and easily most appealing of the pair goes as the fourth race, a five-furlong dash to be decided under second-level optional claiming conditions.
Deciding upon a favorite let alone picking the winner will be a chore for the best of handicappers, who are faced with a 10-horse field, a handful of whom have already had a race over the course this meet.
Trainer Steve Specht hauled Antares World and Lady Railrider to Santa Anita on Monday to run in Saturday’s Sunshine Millions Distaff, a $300,000 race at 1 1/16 miles. Both wound up preparations for the race last Thursday with one-mile drills at Golden Gate. The 4-year-old Antares World covered the mile in 1:44.20 and the 6-year-old Lady Railrider in 1:44.60.
Golden Gate Fields has carded a stakes-quality allowance sprint on Thursday. The six-furlong race is the first on the card and has a field of five that comprises the comebackers Shudacudawudya, Paul’s Hope and Summer Excess, as well as Restless Youth and Our Minesweeper.
ARCADIA, Calif. - Sunday’s $250,000 Santa Monica Stakes for female sprinters has a likely field of seven – Gilded Gem, Mother Ruth, Pica Slew, Pinkarella, Quisisana, Sweet August Moon, and Switch.
Two fillies and mares ran out of time to make the Grade 1 race over seven furlongs.
Trainer John Sadler said that Mona de Momma, the winner of the Grade 1 Humana Distaff Stakes at Churchill Downs in her last start on May 1, will not be ready.
“She’s one work short,” Sadler said.
ARCADIA, Calif. – Jockey Martin Garcia has spent the last few days jump-starting his career in Southern California. After missing more than two months of racing because of visa problems, Garcia, 26, resumes riding at Santa Anita on Thursday.
Garcia rides El Martillo in the seventh race on Thursday. He has one mount on Friday, Dixie Commander in the sixth race.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. – The complexion of Wednesday’s rescheduled $60,000 Mr. International Stakes for New York-breds at Aqueduct changed significantly from last Friday when it was originally to be run but wasn’t because of the weather-related cancellation of that day’s card.
Trainer Kiaran McLaughlin has kept a sizeable string in New York for the winter with some quality runners. One of those is the 3-year-old filly It’s Tricky, who heads a competitive field of first-level optional claimers in Wednesday’s third race going a mile and 70 yards.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. – The tweaked winter stakes schedule created an additional graded opportunity for sprinters in New York and trainer Todd Pletcher plans to take full advantage of it at least when it comes to Calibrachoa.
