Comma to the Top, the winner of the Grade 1 CashCall Futurity on Dec. 18 and two other stakes at the Hollywood Park fall meeting, worked six furlongs in 1:13.60 on Wednesday at Hollywood Park.
Miller said Comma to the Top remains on schedule for the $200,000 El Camino Real Derby at Golden Gate Fields on Feb. 12.
“We’re leaning toward that race,” Miller said. “We’ll start to tighten the screws a little bit next week.”
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OZONE PARK, N.Y. – The stakes races run here this winter have been a bit on the boring side. Short fields have been dominated by heavy favorites or second choices. On paper, at least, Saturday’s Grade 3, $100,000 Toboggan Stakes scheduled for six furlongs over Aqueduct’s inner track has some appeal.
HOT SPRINGS, Ark. – She’s All In will have to outrun Grade 1-placed runners Tidal Pool and Satans Quick Chick to win her fourth straight race in the $75,000 Pippin at Oaklawn Park on Saturday.
In all, a field of seven fillies and mares were entered in the 1 1/16-mile stakes. The race is one of three local preps for the Grade 1, $500,000 Apple Blossom at Oaklawn on April 15.
NEW ORLEANS – The Beyer Speed Figures tell the tale of the Silverbulletday Stakes for 3-year-old fillies. There are eight fillies in the race, and six have earned a top Beyer between 73 and 77. Want to talk class handicapping? Two entrants have beaten only maidens, but three of the Silverbulletday octet are entry-level allowance winners. Seans Silverdancer won a stakes, but it was an Illinois-bred futurity. Bouquet Booth won a Grade 3 but beat moderate opposition at Delta Downs. Neither holds a clear advantage.
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Kathmanblu will be the heavy favorite to win the Sweetest Chant, even though her best race to date has come on dirt, her 8 1/2-length victory in Churchill Downs’ Golden Rod on Nov. 27. And even though she may be better on dirt than turf, McPeek said it is unlikely that Kathmanblu will start if the weather forces management to move the Sweetest Chant to the main track.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Todd Pletcher is already a force in virtually every category, but owner Mike Repole is looking to expand the five-time Eclipse Award winner’s horizons by turning him into a claiming trainer.
In the last two months, Repole and Pletcher have claimed three horses, including Calibrachoa, who in his first start off the claim won the $65,000 Gravesend Stakes and is the horse to beat in Saturday’s Grade 3, $100,000 Toboggan Stakes at Aqueduct. In the last two weeks, Repole and Pletcher claimed Have You Ever and Writingonthewall for a combined $85,000.
OLDSMAR, Fla. – Rafe, who came charging from last to post an eye-catching win in his career debut, will try winners for the first time Saturday at Tampa Bay Downs when he tops a field of eight 3-year-olds in the ninth race, a first-level optional $75,000 claimer at a mile on turf.
Chief of Affairs, Gold Coyote, and Goosey Moose will all launch comebacks Saturday night during the Texas Champions Day program at Sam Houston Race Park. The trio will meet in the $50,000 Spirit of Texas, which is one of seven restricted stakes worth a cumulative $400,000.
Texas Champions Day is the richest card of the Sam Houston meet that opened Friday. Others set to make an appearance on the program include Taptam, who will face males in the $100,000 Star of Texas, and Aces N Kings, who cuts back to one turn for the $50,000 Groovy.
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NEW ORLEANS – No one is calling the 3-year-old colt Justin Phillip bipolar, schizophrenic, or anything like that. “Quirky” was the word his trainer, Steve Asmussen, chose to describe him.
“Ninety percent of the time he’s fine,” Asmussen said Thursday morning at Fair Grounds. “The other 10 percent, you just don’t know.”
