OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Calibrachoa, going first time off a claim by Repole Stable and Todd Pletcher, ran down pacesetting entrymate Driven by Success in deep stretch to win Saturday’s 52nd running of the $65,000 Gravesend Stakes.
Claimed out of a win for $40,000 on Nov. 18, Calibrachoa ($5) earned back $39,000 in one fell swoop after rallying wide under David Cohen to catch Driven by Success and edge clear late by a length and a half.
Concealed Identity ended a long stakes drought for trainer Eddie Gaudet when he emerged from a three-way stretch battle to upset the Maryland Juvenile Championship, the closing-day feature at Laurel Park.
Gaudet, 80, who won this stakes 23 years ago with Trap Line, had gone 0 for 10 in stakes since taking the Blue Hen at Delaware Park in October 2007.
Concealed Identity ($17.40), the third choice in a field of five Maryland-bred 2-year-old colts and geldings, was making his first start since finishing fifth going a mile on Oct. 29.
There has been no onslaught of winners from the Fair Grounds barn of Steve Asmussen so far this meet, and given the recent alterations in the Asmussen operation – more focus on California, less on Louisiana this winter – that might not change during the 2010-2011 season. But Heavenly Chorus’s victory in the first race Saturday gave Team Asmussen two victories from their last five starters in New Orleans, and handicappers would do well to keep an ear to the ground, listening for rumblings of an Asmussen breakout.
MIAMI – Seven of this year’s 14 Breeders’ Cup winners will be stabled throughout the south Florida area this winter. One of them, Eldaafer, was on the work tab for the first time since shipping to Gulfstream Park earlier this month when breezing an easy half-mile in 51.60 seconds with trainer Diane Alvarado aboard on Friday.
Eminent Tale and Royal Currier, both coming off front-running stakes victories in New York, will face Fort Hughes, a wire-to-wire winner of a fast maiden race in his lone start, in one of two $75,000 stakes for 2-year-olds on Tuesday’s card at Parx Racing.
ARCADIA, Calif. – Wet weather kept Santa Anita’s main track closed for training Saturday and prevented Champagne d’Oro from a workout in advance of the $250,000 La Brea Stakes for 3-year-old fillies on opening day of the meet, Dec. 26.
Initially, trainer Eric Guillot was frustrated at the disruption, but after thinking through the situation, he decided that Champagne d’Oro may not need that much exercise to be ready for the Grade 1 race over seven furlongs.
Familiar foes Ready or Not and Philly Bound, both of whom have shown a distinct fondness for the main track at Penn National Race Course, will clash for the fifth time this season in Monday night’s featured fifth race, a one-mile event open to second-level allowance runners and $25,000 claimers.
The rivalry between the two geldings began in October 2009, when Ready or Not romped by 6 1/2 lengths over a sloppy track in a third-level optional $20,000 claimer, posting a career-best 96 Beyer Speed Figure. Philly Bound was third, a neck behind runner-up Phil the Brit.
Turfway Park was forced to cancel the last five of 12 races Friday night when a transformer blew shortly after the start of the seventh race, leaving half the racing surface in the dark.
Although that race was run without incident and the local electric company responded to the problem, a new fuse also blew, after which management deemed it advisable to cancel following a delay of more than an hour.
Imported simulcasting and other activities in the grandstand continued without interruption.
Taptam, a multiple stakes winner who was second to Zenyatta in the Grade 1 Apple Blossom last April at Oaklawn, is being pointed to the Texas Champions Day card at Sam Houston on Jan. 22, trainer Bret Calhoun said.
“We’re probably going to run her against the boys in the Star of Texas,” Calhoun said of the $100,000 race restricted to 4-year-olds and up bred in Texas.
The 1 1/16-mile stakes is the lone dirt route on Texas Champions Day.
Time is running short for jockey Garrett Gomez’s quest to secure the national earnings title for the fifth consecutive year.
Through Thursday, Gomez’s mounts had earned $16,687,669 this year, leaving him in third place and $504,601 behind leader Ramon Dominguez. Gomez trailed runner-up John Velazquez by a mere $30,179.
