Tuesdays are the quietest workout day of the week at Fair Grounds, but a couple names of note appeared on the Tuesday tab this week.
Bouquet Booth went an easy half-mile in 50.40 seconds, her first workout since she won the Delta Princess on Nov. 20.
“We just gave her a little break, and that’s worked out well,” trainer Steve Margolis said.
MIAMI – When trainer Steve Standridge and owner-breeder Bill Terrill made the decision to ship their Delta Jackpot winner Gourmet Dinner across country from his home base at Calder Race Course here to Hollywood Park for last Saturday’s CashCall Futurity, they didn’t expect the bumps in the road they would encounter prior to and during the running of the final Grade 1 race for 2-year-olds in 2010.
The 2-year-old filly Alexandra Rylee made amends for her lone career, when she finished fourth as the 3-5 favorite five weeks ago, by cruising to a 4 1/2-length score in Tuesday’s $75,000 Brandywine Stakes at Parx Racing.
Ridden by Frankie Pennington for trainer Butch Reid, Alexandra Rylee ($6.20) dueled up front with Doing Great through fractions of 22.51 and 45.35 seconds in the six-furlong overnight stakes. Alexandra Rylee put away her rival entering the stretch and drew clear to easily outfinish Coax Liberty, the 3-5 favorite.
Skyline Lover, a stakes winner in each of his last two starts, will try to make it three in a row while stretching out in distance and coming back on short rest in Friday’s $20,000 Crystal River Stakes for Quarter Horses at Hialeah Park.
The Crystal River, which will be contested on a straightaway at the infrequently-run distance of 660 yards, goes as race 7 on an eight-race Christmas Eve card that begins at 2:05 p.m. Eastern. Hialeah and Parx Racing are the only two racetracks in the United States to offer live racing on the day before Christmas.
Endymion and Free Country, both of whom have dropped drastically in class since running in graded stakes as 3-year-olds of 2009, will attempt to regain a little bit of their former glory in Friday’s Gift of the Magi, one of two holiday-themed starter allowances with rich purses on the Chrismas Eve card at Parx Racing.
Nothing went as predicted in December for Quarter Horse trainer Adan Farias.
He began the month expecting a win from defending champion Freaky in the $750,000 Champion of Champions at Los Alamitos on Dec. 11, and hoped that One Quick First Down could hit the board in the Los Alamitos Two Million on Dec. 10 and Harems Last Dash would do the same in the $202,500 Southern California Derby last Saturday.
Santa Anita’s new racing surface has sustained more than nine inches of rain from Friday through dawn on Tuesday, leading to the cancellation of main track training on Tuesday for the third time in four days.
With further rain expected through Wednesday, the rain total from a series of Pacific storms is likely to reach 11 or 12 inches, according to track superintendent Richard Tedesco, who closely monitors the weather.
Perennial champions Russell Baze and Jerry Hollendorfer earned titles at the Golden Gate Fields fall meeting, which ended on Sunday.
Baze won his 39th riding championship at the track with 79 victories during the 42-day meet, including four on the final day. Chad Schvaneveldt finished second with 34 victories and Leslie Mawing third with 32.
Hollendorfer won his 37th training title with 39 winners, defeating Billy Morey, who had 30 victories to finish second, and third-place Steve Sherman, who had 26 wins.
Temple City, a California-based Grade 3 winner and runner-up in the Grade 1 Hollywood Turf Cup in his most recent start Nov. 13, has been retired from racing, trainer Carla Gaines said Monday. A 5-year-old by Dynaformer, Temple City will enter stallion duty at Spendthrift Farm in Kentucky next spring.
Big Drama was among the first horses to breeze over the freshly renovated track on Monday at Calder, going an easy half-mile in 48.48 while completing his final quarter in 23.61 under exercise rider Madeline Sciametta, the wife of Todd Pletcher assistant Anthony Sciametta. Big Drama pulled up five furlongs in 1:00.91.
“He was just galloping,” trainer David Fawkes enthused. “It was a nice breeze. I was very, very happy.”
