ARCADIA, Calif. - Santa Anita’s main track closed for training at 8:30 on Thursday morning, 90 minutes earlier than usual, because of draining issues just past the finish line. Track superintendent Richard Tedesco and his crew began working on the track at 9 a.m. in order to have it ready for the day’s races, which are scheduled to begin at 1 p.m. Pacific.
 

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Final Mesa proved much the best following a five-month layoff Wednesday when dominating the opening-day feature of the 2011 Gulfstream Park meet, the Grade 3, $100,000 Old Hat Stakes.

“She’s a really special filly,” owner-trainer Wesley Ward said afterward.

Trainer Chris Englehart’s streak of success at Aqueduct was snapped Wednesday when Who’s the Cowboy finished second, beaten a length by Poppa’s Pick in the fifth race.

Englehart had won with his last seven consecutive starters at Aqueduct, a streak that coincidentally began with Who’s the Cowboy winning the first race last Thursday when Englehart won three races. Englehart won single races Friday and Saturday before winning with two more runners Sunday.

OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Mike Hushion may be ailing these days, but his stable is doing just fine.

Hushion, who had to spend the holidays in the hospital after suffering a ruptured and infected appendix, won two stakes in a four-day period with horses that, up until last summer, were based in Southern California. On Saturday, Nicole H won the $65,000 Interborough Stakes at Aqueduct. On Tuesday, Harissa won the $75,000 Sleigh Ride Stakes at Parx Racing by 4 3/4 lengths.

May One is a $5,000 claim turned golden. The winner of three of four starts since being haltered in August, she is one of the top contenders Friday in a $40,000 optional claiming race for fillies and mares that tops the card at Fair Grounds.

The turf race will be run at about a mile and a sixteenth has a purse of $51,000. It is the richest offering on a program that also includes a first-level allowance sprint for fillies and mares. First post is 12:40 p.m. Central.

Dreamsrunwild, who lost all chance in the Grade 3, $1 million Delta Downs Jackpot when carried to the outside rail in an incident on the final turn, will likely make his next start in the Grade  3, $100,000 Lecomte at Fair Grounds, said his trainer, Steve Duke.

The mile and 40-yard Lecomte will be run Jan. 22 and is the first local prep for the Louisiana Derby.

Dreamsrunwild was racing behind Aces N Kings in the Nov. 20 Jackpot when that horse lost his rider, Calvin Borel, and darted out in a move that carried Dreamsrunwild well wide in the mile and a sixteenth race.

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Three-year-olds are always the focus of attention during the Gulfstream Park winter season, and the first major action in the division will come in Friday’s eighth, a one-mile, entry-level allowance test that drew a field of 10.

ARCADIA, Calif. - Second last time out in the CashCall Futurity, J P’s Gusto worked an easy half-mile in 48.80 seconds on Wednesday at Santa Anita.

“A nice work,” trainer David Hofmans said. “I’m just waiting for something next month. I haven’t decided which race yet.”

ARCADIA, Calif. - Three horses and their riders went down in a collision during training hours at Santa Anita on Wednesday morning, but, remarkably, none of the horses or their riders were injured in the ugly-looking incident.

The accident happened around 7:20 a.m. when an unraced filly trained by Richard Mandella who had been schooling at the gate at the six-furlong pole bolted into the path of a pair of horses trained by David Hofmans. The pair had just completed a workout and were galloping out around the clubhouse turn.

ARCADIA, Calif. – With that oversized furry hat he wears on cold mornings, like Wednesday, trainer Julio Canani is the center of attention. He’ll occupy the same spot in Friday’s seventh race at Santa Anita, whether he runs both Blue Chagall and Ryehill Dreamer, or holds out Ryehill Dreamer for his first start on dirt in the Grade 2, $150,000 San Pasqual Stakes on Saturday.