Talk about a tough read. The 3-year-old filly Inglorious showed nothing but spark in her two starts last year at 2, winning a sprint stakes race in her career debut, and easily capturing a route stakes in her second career start. But both races came over Woodbine’s Polytrack surface, and both were restricted to Ontario-breds, and on Saturday at Fair Grounds, Inglorious starts for the first time in an open race while making her first-ever start on dirt.
Gourmet Dinner, who has already earned his way into the Kentucky Derby field by virtue of his victory in the $1 million Delta Downs Jackpot, worked four furlongs in 47.61 seconds here Wednesday morning in his last serious prep for the Fountain of Youth. With regular rider Sebastian Madrid aboard, Gourmet Dinner posted splits of 12.05 and 24.18, completing his final quarter-mile in 23.43.
NEW ORLEANS – Decisive Moment took the slow track from Miami to New Orleans, but his trainer, Juan Arias, plans a speedier journey for the horse and jockey Kerwin Clark in the Risen Star Stakes on Saturday at Fair Grounds.
“He’s going to go out there and gun him, and if they want to go that way with us, welcome,” said Arias.
That’s the front-running style Decisive Moment employed winning the $250,000 Jean Laffitte Stakes on Jan. 14 at Delta, and Arias sees no reason to alter tactics in the Risen Star.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Nominations are out for the four stakes races to be decided here on the weekend of Feb. 26, and the two most important names on those lists are not even in the most important race of that weekend, the Grade 2 Fountain of Youth.
Tidal Pool will return to the overnight ranks for Friday’s ninth race at Oaklawn Park, an optional $50,000 claimer for fillies and mares at a mile. She had last raced in the $75,000 Pippin at Oaklawn on Jan. 22, and finished fourth in the stakes that served as her first start since November.
Tidal Pool was the third-place finisher in last year’s Kentucky Oaks. Terry Thompson has the mount for trainer D. Wayne Lukas.
Trainer Mike Hushion said that Nicole H, winner of the Garland of Roses and Interborough Stakes, is getting a little freshening. She might be brought back for the Grade 2, $150,000 Distaff Handicap, a seven-furlong race run over Aqueduct's main track on April 16.
Hushion trains Nicole H for the Gem Inc. Stable headed by John Waken, who also owns Harissa, who was entered for Saturday’s Grade 2 Barbara Fritchie Handicap at Laurel Park.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Gulfstream Park and the Florida Horsemen’s Benevolent and Protective Association have reached an agreement on a purse contract that will run from March 1 through December of 2012.
The 2011 meet opened on Jan. 5 with a contract that was to expire on Feb. 28. The temporary agreement existed while the track and horsemen ironed out some details on several issues that prevented them from signing a more permanent contract before the current session opened.
Though Sweet Goodbye will have a home-court advantage over a quartet of New York shippers, her connections will be relying simply on her talent when she seeks a repeat victory in Saturday’s Grade 2, $150,000 Barbara Fritchie Handicap at Laurel Park.
“Her being her is more of an advantage than the racetrack,’’ trainer Christopher Grove said Wednesday.
Blind Luck, second as the beaten favorite in the Grade 2 La Canada Stakes last Sunday and in the El Encino Stakes last month, will attempt to rebound from those losses in the $300,000 Santa Margarita Invitational Stakes over 1 1/8 miles on March 12, trainer Jerry Hollendorfer said on Wednesday.
“I think that’s a race we would take a good look at,” Hollendorfer said. “We’ll see if we can have things go our way.”
ARCADIA, Calif. - Saturday’s $150,000 San Luis Obispo Handicap at Santa Anita has drawn a large field of 13, but the layout of the race may not be known until raceday.
The field is scheduled to start on the hillside turf course, cross over the main track and complete more than a circuit of the main turf oval. But Santa Anita’s director of racing, Mike Harlow, said expected wet weather could lead the race to start on the oval portion of the turf course. There is a chance it could be transferred to the main track if there is too much rain.
