ARCADIA, Calif. – Quisisana returns from a 10-month layoff in Friday’s $75,000 Kalookan Queen Handicap at Santa Anita and conditions are ideal for the 6-year-old mare.
The race is run over 6 1/2 furlongs, and Quisisana is unbeaten in six starts over six and 6 1/2 furlongs on main tracks in her 11-race career. All six of those victories came on a synthetic surface, and Friday’s race is run on Santa Anita’s new sand-and-clay track. But the new surface does not concern trainer Mike Puype.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Is eight enough? That will be the story Thursday if Who’s the Cowboy, who kicked off a magnificent seven straight winners for Chris Englehart last Thursday, comes back and wins again as the trainer’s only starter Wednesday.
Should Who’s the Cowboy prevail, that would give Englehart eight straight wins on the NYRA circuit, a feat accomplished four times during a stretch from 1973-83, but not since then.
When Machen whistled home a 5 1/2-length debut winner in Sunday’s ninth race at Fair Grounds, it put an exclamation point on a strongly declarative statement that trainer Neil Howard has made early in the 2010-2011 Fair Grounds meet. Neil Howard is back in business!
ALBANY, Calif. – Trainer Duane Offield was confident about two things going into last Saturday’s California Oaks.
He was sure Lilacs and Lace would appreciate the 1 1/16-mile distance and that by taking her blinkers off she’d conserve a little energy early.
He was right on both counts.
There was one thing he wasn’t quite as confident about: beating the Jerry Hollendorfer-trained Cathy’s Crunches, who had won all three of her starts at Golden Gate Fields, each in a stakes.
Siente El Trueno will break from post 7 in the featured eighth race Thursday at Fair Grounds, a cautionary tale named Walking the Beach standing in the gate just to his left.
Walking the Beach came into the 2009-2010 Fair Grounds meet regarded as a potential Louisiana Derby player after winning his career debut in impressive fashion at Churchill Downs. Walking the Beach has never run back to that first race, losing all seven of his subsequent starts while never finishing better than third.
ARCADIA, Calif. – Turbulent Descent, the unbeaten winner of three races, is scheduled to have her first workout in four weeks at Hollywood Park on Thursday, trainer Mike Puype said.
The expected half-mile workout will be Turbulent Descent’s first major exercise since she won the Grade 1 Hollywood Starlet. Owned by a partnership, Turbulent Descent is being pointed to the $250,000 Las Virgenes Stakes over a mile for 3-year-old fillies on Feb. 5.
Puype said that the recent wet weather in Southern California has interrupted Turbulent Descent’s training to an extent.
ARCADIA, Calif. – Last year, when Spring Style was mired in a five-race losing streak, trainer Ben Cecil contemplated starting the turf mare in a claiming race.
“At one point, I thought of running her for $80,000,” he said. “I’m glad I didn’t do that.”
Spring Style’s value is well above $80,000 after her upset win over the heavily favored Harmonious in Saturday’s Grade 2 Robert Frankel Stakes. The win has left Cecil planning a break for the 6-year-old mare before the $150,000 Santa Ana Handicap on March 19 or the $150,000 Santa Barbara Handicap on April 16.
ARCADIA, Calif. – When trainer Bob Baffert realized that Saturday’s $150,000 San Pasqual Stakes at Santa Anita may have only four starters, he had a quick opinion of the chances of his starter, Spurrier.
“I might be in trouble,” he said.
Spurrier, a 5-year-old horse, races from off the pace, and there may not be much speed for him to pursue in the Grade 2 San Pasqual Stakes, which is run over 1 1/16 miles.
ARCADIA, Calif. – Sporting Art is a horse that likes to take his time, at least between races.
Trainer Mike Mitchell is convinced the gelding performs best after a rest, which makes his appearance in an optional claimer at 1 1/8 miles on turf at Santa Anita on Thursday an exciting opportunity.
“The timing is perfect,” Mitchell said.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. - Trainer Bill Mott said he is cautiously optimistic of making the Feb. 26 Fountain of Youth Stakes at Gulfstream with To Honor and Serve, one of the top early contenders for the 137th Kentucky Derby. To Honor and Serve, an odds-on winner of both the Grade 2 Nashua and Grade 2 Remsen, “has been jogging and galloping every day since the middle of December,” said Mott.
