HOT SPRINGS, Ark.- Satans Quick Chick ran down the entire $75,000 Pippin Stakes field through the stretch on Saturday to indicate her intent to be a player in the deep filly and mare ranks this meet at Oaklawn Park.
“Our long-term goal will be the Apple Blossom,” winning trainer Eric Reed said of the Grade 1, $500,000 race here April 15.
Satans Quick Chick won by three-quarters of a length over She’s All In, while it was another length back in third to Stage Magic.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. - Kathmanblu asserted her class through the stretch, outfinishing Excited by 1 1/4 lengths to register a popular victory in Saturday’s $100,000 Sweetest Chant at Gulfstream Park. What was even more encouraging for trainer Ken McPeek was jockey Julien Leparoux’s comment after the race.
“She can do better than that!”
NEW ORLEANS - About this time last year, the Gran Estreno wave seemed to have crested. Claimed for $20,000 late in the spring of 2009, Gran Estreno earned a rich payday later that summer winning the Grade 3 Washington Park Handicap, and he held his form admirably for months. But by last March, Gran Estreno could be found finishing a distant ninth while racing for a $62,500 claiming tag in a Fair Grounds turf race.
Potosina has always shown flashes of talent, winning an overnight turf stakes in New York in just her third career start and earning a trip to the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf. Lately, however, all Potosina has done is run into bad luck, getting eliminated at the start in each of her two most recent races.
In a small field of just five fillies and mares Saturday at Laurel Park, the 4-year-old Potosina avoided traffic trouble and roared from last to capture the $56,250 Nellie Morse Stakes.
Jockey Martin Garcia has resolved his immigration issues, is back in Southern California, and will resume riding on Thursday, his agent, Jim Pegram, said Saturday morning.
Garcia has not ridden since shortly after the Breeders’ Cup. According to Pegram, Garcia had a work visa that required him to return to his native Mexico, then reapply to work in the United States. That process took more than two months.
NEW ORLEANS – Trainer Steve Asmussen isn’t giving up on the 3-year-old colt Great Mills as a route horse, but as well as Great Mills ran winning a turf-sprint maiden race here Dec. 23, Asmussen saw no reason to pass up the featured sixth race on Monday at Fair Grounds.
The Monday feature is another grass sprint, an entry-level allowance for 3-year-olds that drew just six entries. One of them, Dos Lunas, is a filly tackling boys.
NEW ORLEANS – The second-to-last-place finishers in the Kentucky Derby the last two years, Awesome Act and Friesan Fire, have joined trainer Steve Asmussen’s stable in New Orleans after starting serious training for a 2011 debut at the Ocala, Fla.., division of Vinery Stables.
Both horses worked a moderate half-mile here Tuesday, Awesome Act in 50.80 seconds, Friesean Fire in 50.20.
“Just an easy half first time over the track,” said Asmussen.
With four wins to his credit since he belatedly began his racing career last July, the 5-year-old Tup Take’ Please holds a distinct advantage over his seven rivals in Tuesday night’s featured eighth race at Charles Town.
