Trainer Nick Zito remains delighted with the way Fly Down has trained since shipping to south Florida shortly after his third-place finish in the Breeders’ Cup Classic. On Thursday, Fly Down continued preparations for his 2011 debut by working a half-mile in 48.60 at Palm Meadows.
HOT SPRINGS, Ark. – The $50,000 Dixie Belle will be Oaklawn Park’s opening-day feature by default. The track was to launch its meet Friday, but Mother Nature interfered with those plans and the season is expected to instead begin Saturday.
Maybe it’s fitting. The Dixie Belle has often served as the first stakes of the Oaklawn meet, but it was bumped this year in favor of the $75,000 Fifth Season. That race for older horses will now be run Sunday, so it will be the 3-year-old fillies who ring in Oaklawn 2011.
Low-end claiming horses make their way to Turfway Park quite often in the middle of winter. So, too, do maidens of all varieties.
But graded stakes winners, not so much – making the presence of Grade 2 Beaumont winner War Kill – who heads a field of 10 in the $50,000 Wishing Well on Saturday - very much a welcome break from the norm.
War Kill, a 5-year-old War Chant mare owned by Dixiana Stables Inc., is there for one principal reason. The conditions, sprinting six furlongs on the track’s Polytrack surface, suit her perfectly.
ARCADIA, Calif. – Comma to the Top, who has emerged as the leading 3-year-old in California in the last two months, is likely to make his next start in the $200,000 El Camino Real Derby at Golden Gate Fields on Feb. 12.
Trainer Peter Miller said Thursday that the El Camino Real Derby over 1 1/8 miles on Golden Gate’s synthetic Tapeta Footings surface is preferred to the $250,000 Robert Lewis Stakes over 1 1/8 miles on a dirt track at Santa Anita the same day.
“At this point, we’re leaning toward Golden Gate,” Miller said. “We know he likes that track.”
OZONE PARK, N.Y. − Usually, the winter in New York is a time for an apprentice jockey to shine. This winter, it has been journeyman Junior Alvarado who has stood out in his first stint riding on the New York Racing Association circuit.
Alvarado, the 2009 leading rider at Arlington Park, moved his tack to New York in late fall. After going 0 for 5 at Belmont, Alvarado went 7 for 47 during the Aqueduct fall meet. But his star has risen this winter, when he has ridden 14 winners from 111 mounts, placing him third in the inner track standings.
Ransomsgoodfriday will get a stiff class test when she makes her first start against winners Saturday in the $120,000 La Senora at Sunland Park, but she has several things working in her favor.
Ransomsgoodfriday owns the best career Beyer Speed Figure in the field of 12. She earned a 71 for her wire-to-wire, maiden-special-weight win at Sunland on Dec. 28, when she went six furlongs in 1:10.40. With more natural speed than most of her rivals, she might have a chance to steal away in the La Senora, a six-furlong race for 3-year-old fillies bred in New Mexico.
The Ohio State Racing Commission on Thursday approved the sale of River Downs in Cincinnati to a Las Vegas-based casino company, Pinnacle Entertainment, according to Ohio racing officials.
Pinnacle, which owns casino properties in Indiana, Louisiana, Missouri, and Nevada, reached an agreement to buy the track late last year for $45 million from its private ownership group, contingent on the approval of Ohio regulators. The company is hoping to install slot machines at the track, along with the owners of Ohio’s other struggling harness and Thoroughbred tracks.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Dancinginherdreams isn’t among the finalists for an Eclipse Award in the 2-year-old filly division at Monday night’s ceremonies to be held just down the road from Gulfstream Park on Miami Beach. But her name is surely near or even at the top on many experts’ lists of 3-year-old filly prospects coming into the 2011 campaign.
