ARCADIA, Calif. - Carlsbad, a winner of seven of 10 career starts and more than $435,000, suffered a fatal injury galloping out at the conclusion of a seven-furlong workout shortly after 9 a.m. Saturday at Santa Anita.
Trainer Jeff Mullins said Carlsbad suffered an open fracture of her right ankle on the clubhouse turn after completing her workout, which was timed in 1:26.80. The 3-year-old Arizona-bred filly was bred and owned by Dennis Weir.
Turf Paradise will offer night-time simulcasting beginning Saturday, Dec. 26.
"With the closing of Phoenix Greyhound Park, the opportunity was there for us to introduce nighttime simulcasting as a way to boost purses for our horsemen," said Eugene Joyce, the track's president and general manager. "Turf Paradise and select OTBs will be offering full cards from nighttime tracks, seven nights a week."
Fair Grounds will add a super high five wager to the final race of the day beginning Dec. 26, replacing the superfecta on that race. If no one correctly picks the first five finishers in order on the same ticket, there will be a carryover to the final race of the next racing day.
Trainer Steve DiMauro said his father - former trainer Steve DiMauro Sr. - used to tell him stories about occasional flooding in the Gulfstream Park barn area.
"He used to tell me it got so bad at times that he'd seen tack boxes floating down the roads between the barns," the young DiMauro said Friday. "Up until this morning, I thought he was joking."
Supreme Summit, unraced since a second in the Damascus Stakes at Santa Anita on Nov. 7, is one of trainer Doug O'Neill's two hopes for the $300,000 Malibu Stakes at Santa Anita on Saturday's opening-day program.
The layoff does not concern O'Neill.
"I think he's a horse that thrives with more time between races," he said. "He's an honest horse."
After 10 stakes races this weekend, the Fair Grounds season takes a breather, with only one stakes scheduled for next weekend.
The $60,000 Buddy Diliberto Memorial Handicap, scheduled for 1 1/16 miles on the turf, has several nice horses listed as probable starters.
They include Demarcation, the winner of the Grade 3 Ack Ack at Churchill, and local standout Get Rich Quick, who had two wins and a second place from three starts last year over the local turf course.
Jockey Robby Albarado has not fully recovered from a back injury he sustained during the post parade in the seventh race last Saturday.
Thrown from his mount, Albarado injured his lower back. He walked off from the incident, but is still too sore to ride, according to the track's racing stewards. He is expected back after the Christmas holiday.
A seven-time winner of the riding title at Fair Grounds, Albarado has 6 wins from 23 starts at the current meet. Albarado arrived at the end of November after finishing up the meet at Churchill.
After losing two days of her morning jogs this week after the track was washed away by heavy rains last weekend, Rachel Alexandra was settling back into her morning routine on Friday, jogging against traffic on the outer edges of the Fair Grounds oval.
For just the second time, Rachel Alexandra took a second lap around the track, and her trainer, Steve Asmussen indicated that he planned to let her start galloping in the near future.
Weather forecasts calling for up to 15 inches of snow in central Maryland caused the Maryland Jockey Club to cancel the final day of live racing for 2009 at Laurel Park.
In addition to calling off Saturday's card, officials said that both Laurel and Pimlico would be closed for simulcasting.
The National Weather Service has issued a winter storm warning for Maryland and its neighboring states from Friday evening until late Saturday night, with predictions of 10 to 15 inches of snow in Anne Arundel County.
INGLEWOOD, Calif. - Hall of Fame trainer Bill Mott will have a stable of approximately 12 horses in Southern California beginning next month, including an undetermined number from Khalid Abdullah's Juddmonte Farms.
Mott said on Friday that he will decide which horses will be sent to California after Christmas. The stable will be based at Santa Anita.
"We've just got a couple of horses for the stakes and we're trying to get it together," Mott said. "I'll pick up a few of the Juddmonte horses after Christmas."
