ARCADIA, Calif. – Santa Anita began adding sand to its main track last weekend, a procedure that was scheduled to conclude on Tuesday and one designed to replace material lost during severe rainstorms in the last month, track president George Haines said.
The track sustained 15 inches of rain in late December and early January. No rain has fallen since Jan. 3.
ARCADIA, Calif. - Call it the Bourbon Bay slam.
Monday, Bourbon Bay won his fourth turf stakes in the last year at Santa Anita in the $150,000 San Marcos Stakes over 1 1/4 miles on turf. In 2010, Bourbon Bay won three consecutive Grade 2 stakes from February to April – the San Luis Obispo, San Luis Rey and San Juan Capistrano handicaps.
The Grade 2 San Marcos on Monday was Bourbon Bay’s second race since the San Juan Capistrano last April, suggesting that the 5-year-old gelding is back in peak form.
In all of 2010, Laysh Laysh Laysh raced just four times. But he has already run three times in the new year and seems to be flourishing with all the activity.
Racing for the third time in nine days, the 6-year-old Laysh Laysh Laysh rallied from next-to-last to capture Monday’s $50,750 Native Dancer Stakes at Laurel Park.
Prior to shipping to Maryland, Laysh Laysh Laysh finished a close second in an optional claimer and came back last Thursday to win for a $60,000 tag, both at Aqueduct.
HOT SPRINGS, Ark. - Caleb’s Posse faced the distance question heading into the $100,000 Smarty Jones at Oaklawn Park on Monday and he answered it emphatically when he burst through the fog to win the one-mile race by 2 3/4 lengths over Dreaminofthewin. It was another five lengths back in third to Bluegrass Bull.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Using a sharp break from the gate that was lacking in his loss to Royal Currier at Parx Racing last month, Fort Hughes rolled to an eye-catching 4 3/4-length victory in Monday’s $65,000 Jimmy Winkfield Stakes at Aqueduct.
Royal Currier, who defeated Fort Hughes by a head in the Southampton Stakes on Dec. 21, chased Fort Hughes all the way around the track but had to settle for second, 2 3/4 lengths ahead of Rift. Bravo Romeo, Running Tap, and Bambi Bound completed the order of finish. Fort Hughes paid $4.80.
NEW ORLEANS – The post position draw for the Grade 3, $100,000 Lecomte, the anchor to Fair Grounds’s first big stakes day of the season on Saturday, did not take long. Only five horses were entered in the Lecomte, the first of three graded stakes races for 3-year-olds to be run at this meet.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. - After taking the weekend stakes with Heart Butte and Quiet Giant, trainer Todd Pletcher’s stable will seek some more stakes success with Driven by Success in Friday’s $60,000 Mr. International Stakes for New York-breds and Calibrachoa in Saturday’s Grade 3, $100,000 Toboggan.
OZONE PARK, N.Y – Trainer Richard Dutrow Jr. already has a solid group of 3-year-olds stabled at Gulfstream Park. Another one will soon be on the way.
Flashpoint, on the basis of a scintillating 6 1/4-length debut victory at Aqueduct on Saturday, will soon be headed to south Florida, where he will be pointed to the Grade 2, $150,000 Hutcheson Stakes at seven furlongs on Feb. 26.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. - A field of eight is shaping up for the $500,000 Sunshine Millions Classic, the richest of the three Sunshine Millions races to be run here on Jan. 29. The others are the $300,000 Filly and Mare Turf and the $200,000 Filly and Mare Sprint.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Business is booming at Gulfstream Park. Through the first two weeks of the meet, ontrack handle is up 26 percent, all-sources handle is up 21 percent, and attendance is up more than 50 percent over corresponding figures from a year ago. Sunday alone showed a whopping 75 percent increase in all-sources handle over the same date in 2010, when rain forced the races to be taken off the turf.
