ARCADIA, Calif. – Starting the rapidly improving Kilograeme over 1 1/16 miles for the first time in Saturday’s $250,000 Santa Anita Oaks against a highly talented field is not a concern, trainer Mike Mitchell insists.
“If I’ve got an edge, I know my filly wants to run all day,” Mitchell said. “I’ve thought that from the beginning.”
Corey Lanerie has picked up the mount on Twinspired, who will be one of the favorites Saturday night for the $100,000 John Battaglia Memorial Stakes at Turfway Park in Florence, Ky.
Trainer Mike Maker confirmed Wednesday that Lanerie, who rides primarily in Kentucky and winters in his native Louisiana, will be in from Fair Grounds to ride Twinspired in the 1 1/16-mile Battaglia. Twinspired has remained at Turfway since easily winning the Feb. 5 WEBN Stakes and figures to vie for favoritism with two shippers, Positive Response from northern California and Blue Laser from Florida.
ARCADIA, Calif. – There was enough optimism about Sugarinthemorning’s campaign as a 2-year-old last year to start her in the Grade 1 Darley Debutante at Del Mar, a race in which she finished sixth.
She later won an allowance race at Hollywood Park but was unplaced in two more starts before trainer Ron McAnally decided she needed a winter break. The vacation ends Friday, when Sugarinthemorning makes her turf debut in an optional claimer for 3-year-old fillies over about 6 1/2 furlongs on the hillside turf course, the first race at Santa Anita.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – The $100,000 Timely Writer Handicap, the race trainer Todd Pletcher has earmarked for Eclipse Award winner Uncle Mo’s 3-year-old debut, has closed with 36 nominations. The one-mile Timely Writer will be run March 12.
Uncle Mo is one of 13 horses that Pletcher nominated for the Timely Writer. Pletcher’s other nominees include Travelin Man, runner-up in Saturday’s Grade 2 Hutcheson, and Stay Thirsty, who is expected to run Saturday in the Gotham at Aqueduct.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Mucho Macho Man, winner of the Grade 2 Risen Star, will return to Fair Grounds to have his final Kentucky Derby prep in the Grade 2 Louisiana Derby on March 26.
Trainer Kathy Ritvo said she met with principal owner Dean Reeves on Tuesday, at which point the pair decided to bring Mucho Macho Man back to New Orleans rather than keep him here for the $1 million Florida Derby the following weekend.
Mucho Macho Man is owned in partnership by Reeves and the Dream Team Racing Stable.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Gulfstream Park is raising purses by 10 percent effective with Saturday’s program. In addition, Gulfstream will pay $1,000 to every starter in every race other than stakes races on the April 3 Florida Derby day program.
“We started the year with purses increased 15 percent over last winter and now have added an additional 10 per cent,” said Gulfstream Park’s vice president of racing, Tim Ritvo. “So the new increase now puts us up 25 percent for the year.”
HOT SPRINGS, Ark. - Uncle Brent, a 3-year-old who ran the fastest six furlongs of the Oaklawn Park meet last Saturday, has been sold and is now in the care of trainer Lynn Whiting, said Eric Reed, who trained Uncle Brent for the partnership of West wind Farms and his assistant, Brent Taylor.
Reed said that Oaklawn Park owner Charles Cella purchased the horse privately. Uncle Brent moved to Writing’s stable at Oaklawn on Wednesday.
KENTUCKY DERBY NEWS: Track all the 3-year-olds on the Triple Crown trail
The $100,000 Ohio Derby at Thistledown in suburban Cleveland will be held this year on June 4, the track announced on Wednesday as part of its full stakes schedule.
The Ohio Derby is the only open stakes on the 17-stakes schedule. The remainder are restricted to Ohio-registered or Ohio-accredited horses, and many serve as preps for the track’s Oct. 15 “Best of Ohio” card that features five stakes for Ohio-breds.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla.- Trainer Kiaran McLaughlin confirmed Wednesday morning that Crossbow has suffered a small chip in his ankle and will be sidelined indefinitely.
Crossbow, who was scratched Saturday morning from the Grade 2 Hutcheson at Gulfstream Park, is in Lexington, Ky., where he will undergo surgery to remove the chip.
