ARCADIA, Calif. – The initial list of races for Sidney’s Candy at Santa Anita this winter did not include a start in Saturday’s $150,000 San Fernando Stakes.
The first goal, the Grade 3 Sir Beaufort Stakes on Dec. 26, went as planned with a victory by 7 1/4 lengths. The next idea mentioned was the Grade 1 Frank Kilroe Mile on turf March 5. The colt quickly indicated to trainer John Sadler that he wanted to do much more after the Sir Beaufort.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Four of trainer Todd Pletcher’s meet-leading 14 victories at Aqueduct have come in stakes. Pletcher has a 40-percent chance to add to his totals when he sends out Heart Butte and Alma d’Oro in Saturday’s $65,000 Evening Attire Stakes at 1 1/16 miles over the inner track.
OLDSMAR, Fla. – They call it the Skyway Festival, this two-race series Saturday at Tampa Bay Downs. Twin $75,000 stakes, the Pasco and Gasparilla, purport to serve as bridges to more important races later in this meet, although it remains to be seen what degree of impact either will carry toward those longer and richer events.
The Las Vegas-based casino company that has reached an agreement to buy River Downs in Cincinnati has named Kevin Kaufman the general manager of the racetrack, according to a letter from the president of the company, Pinnacle Entertainment, to its employees.
The current general manager of River Downs is Jack Hanessian, who did not immediately return phone calls on Thursday.
HOT SPRINGS, Ark. - With the Oaklawn Park racing surface failing to thaw out fast enough following a Sunday snowstorm, track officials have called off Friday’s nine-race opening-day card. Oaklawn is expected to race on Saturday.
It is the fourth time Oaklawn has been forced to cancel an opening-day program. The track lost openers in 2003, 1997, and 1979.
Oaklawn has been unable to open its racing surface for training since the storm due to freezing temperatures. Officials were hoping to train on the track Thursday afternoon, but temperatures stalled in the 20s.
Sweet Goodbye hasn’t raced since finishing fourth as the 2-5 favorite in the Ohio Valley Handicap last May at Mountaineer Racetrack. But based on her fondness for Laurel Park’s main track and her ability to fire fresh, the 6-year-old Sweet Goodbye looks dangeorus in Saturday’s $75,000 What a Summer Stakes.
The six-furlong What a Summer, the first stakes of the Maryland racing season, drew a field of nine fillies and mares.
PHOENIX – You don’t normally equate surging form with an 8-year-old gelding and a 7-year-old gelding. But Saturday’s $35,000 Cotton Fitzsimmons Handicap at Turf Paradise will provide a clash of two rejuvenated veterans, the 8-year-old Carnera and 7-year-old Green Secret. Those two lead a full field of 12 in the mile grass event, named for the former NBA head coach and executive who was a fixture in the Phoenix track’s Turf Club for many years before his death in 2004.
HOT SPRINGS, Ark. – Freezing temperatures are threatening Oaklawn Park’s opening day program on Friday, but officials are proceeding with plans to start the meet as scheduled and hope to be able to train over the surface Thursday afternoon.
If a decision is made to cancel the Friday card, it will be made early Thursday afternoon, said David Longinotti, the assistant general manager for racing at Oaklawn.
“As things stand right now, we plan to do everything we can to race tomorrow,” Longinotti said.
A hard freeze Wednesday night forced Fair Grounds to cancel its racing program Thursday. Morning training was scrapped and track maintenance crews worked to ready the frozen main track for racing in the afternoon, but a section of the surface would not thaw, necessitating the cancellation, which was the first this season.
