Turf Paradise in Phoenix, Arizona, canceled its fourth consecutive live racing day on Tuesday as the area continues to reel from excessive rainfall from two separate storm systems.
All four cards, stretching back to last Wednesday, have been canceled due to track conditions. The Phoenix area received torrential rains early last week, and after a brief break near the end of the week, when Turf Paradise was dark, the rain returned.
The Louisiana Racing Commission and Evangeline Downs in Opelousas are scheduled to conduct separate investigations into a Saturday night incident in which an ambulance was driven toward an oncoming field of Quarter Horses competing in a hook race over 870 yards.
There were no known injuries to jockeys or horses in the race, which stewards declared a no contest as a result of the ambulance being out of position, it was announced. The eighth race was an allowance.
Ricardo Santana Jr., an eight-time leading rider at Oaklawn Park, will return to the Hot Springs, Ark., track for the upcoming winter meet, agent P.J. Campo said Monday.
Santana, who moved his tack to New York last May following Oaklawn, will start riding at Oaklawn when that track opens Dec. 12. With the exception of Dec. 20, when he’ll be at Remington Park, Santana will ride at Oaklawn through Jan. 4. When Oaklawn closes for three weeks in January, Santana plans to ride at Aqueduct before returning to Oaklawn when it resumes its winter season on Jan. 30.
There is a carryover of $350,907 in the jackpot pick six on Wednesday’s card, which begins the final five-day stand at Churchill Downs for this meet. The nominal feature on the card is a $127,000 sprint allowance for fillies and mares who have never won a race other-than or who have never won twice.
DEL MAR, Calif. – The recent turf stakes winners Conducted and Gold Phoenix will miss stakes opportunities at Del Mar and Los Alamitos in the coming days and weeks in favor of races at the Santa Anita winter-spring meeting.
Conducted won the $201,500 Thoroughbred Aftercare Alliance Stakes at a mile on turf on Oct. 31 at Del Mar and is likely to have his next start in the $100,000 Eddie Logan Stakes at a mile on turf for 2-year-olds on Dec. 28 at Santa Anita.
Giocoso has found his best stride in 3-year-old turf stakes this summer and fall and scored his second graded stakes win in this division on Saturday evening at Churchill Downs. But trainer Keith Desormeaux hopes to show the strapping colt’s versatility in the coming year, with new goals to reach for.
“We’d like to get a graded stakes on dirt – that’s the next goal,” Desormeaux said post-race, after Giocoso edged Chapman’s Peak to win the Grade 3 Commonwealth Turf on Saturday.
Trainer Michael Campbell is at Tampa Bay Downs again this winter. His stable’s star, Patriot Spirit, will join him there later this winter.
Patriot Spirit won the Grade 3 Vosburgh at Aqueduct to earn an automatic berth into the Breeders’ Cup Sprint, where he finished 13th in the 14-horse field. Campbell said Patriot Spirit’s trips from Kentucky to Del Mar and in the Breeders’ Cup were difficult, and the horse is getting a few months off in Kentucky. Following a physical examination, all checked out well with Patriot Spirit, Campbell said.
Ted Noffey, the undefeated winner of the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile, has been made the 6-1 individual favorite in the Kentucky Derby Future Wager pool opening on Thursday.
Ted Noffey, who is the likely 2-year-old champion, is one of 39 individual horses being offered in the pool, which will close on Sunday. The final entry, “all others foaled in 2023,” is the 9-5 favorite.
Assael Espinoza, a leading rider in Northern California in recent years, has relocated to Oaklawn Park in Arkansas in advance of the track’s lucrative winter-spring meeting that opens on Dec. 12.
Espinoza has not ridden in California since Oct. 5. He said earlier this week that he spent much of October visiting family in Mexico before working horses earlier this month at Churchill Downs. Espinoza had one mount at Churchill on Nov. 15 before moving to Hot Springs, Ark., to prepare for the Oaklawn meeting.
