Star Guitar bounced back into form winning the Dec. 11 Louisiana Champions Day Classic at Fair Grounds, a race after a surprising fourth-place finish at his typical odds-on favoritism. Now, the king of the Louisiana-breds returns to the scene of that November loss, Delta Downs, for the $200,000 Premier Night Championship.
Banjammer missed winning the six-furlong Turfway Prevue by an inch or two, but the colt will have an extra quarter-mile to make up for that tough defeat when he returns Saturday night to Turfway as one of the favorites for the $50,000 WEBN Stakes.
“He galloped out so strong after that race, I think he’ll love going a mile Saturday,” said Eric Reed, who trains the homebred Candy Ride colt for Ken and Resia Ayres. “Obviously, distance is a major question for us, but I think it’ll favor us.”
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HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – The King and the Queen of the handicap division, Blame and Zenyatta, are gone. On Saturday, trainer Nick Zito is hoping a couple of horses owned by a prince and a sheikh will prove worthy of taking over their throne.
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ARCADIA, Calif. – The perfect record that Turbulent Descent amassed in three starts in 2010 will be at risk when she makes her 3-year-old debut in Saturday’s $250,000 Las Virgenes Stakes at Santa Anita.
Well, technically, it will be at risk, though trainer Mike Puype perceives little danger of Turbulent Descent not extending her unbeaten streak in the Grade 1 Las Virgenes Stakes, run over a mile for fillies.
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ARCADIA, Calif. – Before his disappointing race in the Goodwood Stakes last fall, it appeared that Twirling Candy was headed to the Breeders’ Cup, with either the Dirt Mile or the Classic a viable option. But his camp regrouped after that setback, setting their goals farther down the road.
Full Moon Blues and Red’s Round Table, a pair of Laurel Park-based fillies whose most noteworthy achievements have come out of town, will return to their Maryland roots when they meet for the first time in Saturday’s $75,000 Marshua Stakes at seven furlongs.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Trainer Gary Contessa doesn’t feel the same kind of pressure entering this year’s Whirlaway Stakes as he did last year.
A year ago, Contessa watched in horror as his 1-4 favorite Eightyfiveinafifty bore out entering the first turn of the 1 1/16-mile race, unseated jockey Jorge Chavez, crashed through two fences, and ran loose through the Aqueduct barn area. Save for a few nasty cuts, Eightyfiveinafifty was generally okay and would eventually go on to win the Grade 3 Bay Shore Stakes.
HOT SPRINGS, Ark. – J W Blue has emerged as the newest candidate for the 3-year-old stakes program at Oaklawn Park after closing from last to win a 1 1/16-mile allowance on Saturday.
“We sent J W Blue to Oaklawn in hope that he was a 3-year-old of quality enough to make it on the Derby trail,” said Tony Dutrow, who trains the horse. “So, we’re hoping he’s on his way.”
Dutrow said J W Blue is now targeting one of two local preps for the Arkansas Derby, either the Grade 3, $250,000 Southwest on Feb. 21, or the Grade 2, $300,000 Rebel on March 19.
Oaklawn Park in Hot Springs, Ark., has canceled Friday’s nine-race card due to a frozen racing surface. The decision comes a day after the track called off Thursday’s program. They are the third and fourth cancellations of the meet that opened Jan. 15.
More than three inches of rain fell in Hot Springs on Tuesday and subsequent freezing temperatures have kept the track from being open for training on both Wednesday and Thursday. It was in the high teens in the early morning hours Thursday in Hot Springs, and it is not expected to get above freezing until Friday.
