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.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – If trainer David Fawkes opts to keep Breeders’ Cup Sprint winner Big Drama home in south Florida to launch his 2011 campaign in the Grade 3 Mr. Prospector at Gulfstream Park rather than ship cross-country for the Sunshine Millions Sprint, it’s possible Apriority may take his stablemate’s spot on the flight to the West Coast later this month.
But before doing any California dreaming, Apriority needs to have a prep race. That opportunity comes here in Thursday’s $55,000 main event to be decided at one mile under second-level optional claiming conditions.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Drosselmeyer, unraced since winning the Belmont Stakes last June, has had two easy three-furlong breezes at Payson Park and could make his return to racing within a couple of months, said trainer Bill Mott.
Drosselmeyer has recovered from an ankle injury that led Mott to announce in early July that the colt was being withdrawn from consideration for the Travers Stakes and would miss the last half of 2010.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Dry Martini turned 8 last week but there are still signs of life in the old boy.
Dry Martini, runner-up to Quality Road in last year’s Donn Handicap, was winless in 2010 but closed out the year on a good note by rallying from far back to finish third in an overnight stakes at Aqueduct on Nov. 20. Trainer Barclay Tagg will now point Dry Martini, who has earned over $1.3 million in his career, for the Sunshine Millions Classic here Jan. 29.
Monzon, one-length winner of the Count Fleet Stakes here at Aqueduct on Saturday, will most likely make his next start in the Grade 3, $225,000 Sam F. Davis Stakes at Tampa Bay Downs on Feb. 12, trainer Ignacio Correas IV said Monday.
Corras said the Sam Davis is a better alternative than the $100,000 Whirlaway Stakes here on Feb. 5 because it is a graded race and earnings in graded stakes races are needed to qualify for the Kentucky Derby.
