OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Topped by the $1.5 million Belmont Stakes, there will be 59 stakes worth $16.95 million offered at the 2022 Belmont Park spring-summer meet, a schedule that virtually mirrors the 2021 schedule.
The 44-day Belmont meet runs from April 28 through July 10.
Hall of Fame jockey Kent Desormeaux, who was arrested on Jan. 28 on charges of domestic abuse and battery in Louisiana, received a continuance of a hearing before Santa Anita stewards on Thursday for a complaint issued by California Horse Racing Board investigators regarding alcohol use at an RV park on Del Mar property last November.
Roger Licht, an attorney representing Desormeaux, requested the continuance. A new hearing date has not been set.
Last fall, Friar’s Road was pre-entered in the Breeders’ Cup Turf at Santa Anita, but failed to draw into the field.
The same race is a goal this fall, at Keeneland in November, which looks like a very suitable race considering Friar’s Road’s 2022 debut win in the Grade 2 San Marcos Stakes at Santa Anita on Jan. 30.
Friar’s Road won the 1 1/4-mile San Marcos Stakes by 4 1/4 lengths as the 11-10 favorite, stalking the pace before drawing clear for his first stakes win.
“He ran to his training,” trainer Michael McCarthy said Friday.
Soothsay, the winner of two graded stakes for 3-year-old fillies in 2021, is in advanced training for a scheduled start in the Grade 1 Beholder Mile at Santa Anita on March 5.
Soothsay has not raced since winning the Grade 3 Indiana Oaks at 1 1/16 miles at Indiana Grand last July. An autumn campaign was canceled after Soothsay was diagnosed with a splint bone injury while under consideration for the Grade 1 Cotillon Stakes at Parx Racing in September.
Thursday at Santa Anita, Soothsay worked five furlongs in 1:00.20, the fastest of 26 works at the distance.
Oviatt Class, third in the Grade 3 Sham Stakes at Santa Anita on Jan. 1, has been sidelined with an injury that will keep him out of the major races for 3-year-olds in coming months.
“He hurt his hock coming out of the Sham,” trainer Keith Desormeaux said Thursday. “He’ll be out for four months and that takes us out of the Triple Crown. We’ll have a nice horse for the fall.”
Breeders’ Cup Sprint winner Aloha West’s winter break in Kentucky has ended, and the 5-year-old horse currently is tack-walking with trainer Wayne Catalano at Fair Grounds.
“We just got a little weight on him, but we can get that off easy. He looks really good, and we’re happy to have him back in the barn,” said Catalano, who was headed to the Chicago area this weekend for the impending birth of a granddaughter.
In early January, trainer Robertino Diodoro elected to move 3-year-old filly Dream Lith from Oaklawn to Fair Grounds, concerned that wintry weather in Arkansas could interrupt Dream Lith’s preparation for her 2022 debut.
“The way her schedule is, we didn’t have any room for missed training, so we had to make this call,” Diodoro said.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – With four weeks between major stakes days at Gulfstream – the Holy Bull, which was to be run here Saturday, and the Fountain of Youth on March 5 – the highlights next weekend are a pair of five-furlong turf stakes for older horses.
The Grade 3, $100,000 Gulfstream Turf Sprint and the $100,000 Ladies’ Turf Sprint are the Saturday highlights.
Carotari and Diamond Oops look like the top contenders in the Turf Sprint, while Miss J McKay enters the Ladies’ Sprint in peak form.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – This is the first winter Jeff Hiles has spent in Florida, and he’s trying to make the most of it. Hiles, 42, began training on his own in November 2018 after lengthy stints under Kenny McPeek and his father, Rick Hiles.
“I looked up and saw Sam Houston is canceled, Turfway is canceled,” said Hiles, a former Marine who previously spent the wintertime in Kentucky, Arkansas, and other chillier climates. “We’re here enjoying the sunshine and 80 degrees.”
