HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Every winner of a Triple Crown event of recent vintage has left the racetrack – except for Sir Winston, the hard knocker set to face Knicks Go and Life Is Good in the $3 million Pegasus World Cup.
“He’s still in there trying,” said Mark Casse, who trains 6-year-old Sir Winston for owner-breeder Tracy Farmer.
Tarabi, second to sure champion Echo Zulu in the Grade 1 Spinaway and third behind Echo Zulu and Juju’s Map in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies, has been sent to Kentucky from Fair Grounds and is out of training for 30 days.
Tarabi posted her first workout since the Breeders’ Cup when she went a half-mile here Jan. 9, but trainer Cherie DeVaux didn’t like the way Tarabi came out of the work and shipped her to Kentucky for a full veterinary examination. Tarabi’s issue is only minor, DeVaux said, but the setback puts her off the Kentucky Oaks trail.
Flavien Prat has had so many afternoons with three or more wins at Santa Anita this month that it is easy for observers to expect such success.
“That won’t happen,” Prat said last weekend. “But I wish.”
The winter-spring season began on Dec. 26, and through Monday Prat was the dominant rider of the meeting with 29 wins, well clear of closest pursuers John Velazquez with 18 and Juan Hernandez with 13.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. - Aqueduct’s eight-race Friday card was canceled due to extreme cold, according to the New York Racing Association.
It is the third cancellation of the winter meet.
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Oaklawn Park in Hot Springs, Ark., has canceled Friday’s card due to freezing temperatures, according to a text notice from the racing department. There also will be no training on Friday.
Oaklawn also announced through a text notice that first post for Saturday’s card will be moved a half-hour later to 1 p.m. Central. The track hopes to resume training at 10 a.m. on Saturday.
Oaklawn expects both training and racing to return to normal hours on Sunday.
The track delayed training hours twice on Thursday.
Topped by the Grade 1 Carter Handicap and Grade 2 Wood Memorial, Aqueduct will offer 13 stakes worth $2.7 million at its 15-day spring meet, which runs from March 31 through April 24. The schedule virtually mirrors that of the 2021 spring season.
Jose Ortiz will be moving his tack to Gulfstream Park following this weekend, his agent, Jim Riccio Jr., said Thursday.
Through the first 18 days of racing this winter at Aqueduct, Ortiz has ridden 13 winners from 73 mounts. He rode last week in Saudi Arabia, booting home two winners and was back at Aqueduct on Thursday. He will ride at Aqueduct through Sunday and begin riding at Gulfstream on Wednesday.
“No major reason,” Riccio said when asked why the change in plans. “We feel like we can ride more there.”
ARCADIA, Calif. – Brickyard Ride came out of his front-running comeback victory in the six-furlong California Cup Sprint at Santa Anita in top shape, he went back to the track on Wednesday, and will stretch out in distance for his next start.
Trainer Craig Lewis plans to start Brickyard Ride in either the $100,000 Tiznow Stakes, a two-turn mile for Cal-breds on Feb. 21, or the Grade 2 San Carlos Stakes, a seven-furlong sprint on March 5.
NEW ORLEANS – Chess Chief, winner of the 2021 New Orleans Classic, will be scratched from the Louisiana Stakes on Saturday in favor of a start in the Pegasus World Cup on Jan. 29 at Gulfstream, trainer Dallas Stewart said Wednesday.
“Just the chance to run for a purse like that,” Stewart said of the choice to go to Florida. “We can always come back for the New Orleans Classic again.”
Chess Chief, a 6-year-old son of Into Mischief, has five wins, all at Fair Grounds.
