The Kentucky Derby trail swings through New Mexico on Sunday, with Southern California shippers Slow Down Andy, Straight Up G, and Fowler Blue part of a field of eight points-seekers in the Grade 3, $500,000 Sunland Park Derby.
The 1 1/8-mile race will reward its first four finishers Kentucky Derby points on a scale of 50-20-10-5.
Hall of Fame jockey John Velazquez’s first winter at Santa Anita has been a success by any measure. He has won 29 races, including six stakes, and will ride at Santa Anita until he departs for Keeneland after the Santa Anita Derby program on April 9.
Velazquez has trips scheduled for mounts at Gulfstream Park on April 1, Oaklawn Park on April 2, and Keeneland on April 8, according to his agent, Ron Anderson.
After the Santa Anita Derby, Velazquez is likely to return to Santa Anita for major stakes, Anderson said.
The 7-year-old gelding Restrainedvengence, third in the Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile at Del Mar in November, will have his 2022 debut in the $75,000 John Shear Mile at Santa Anita on April 2.
A millionaire and eight-time stakes winner, Restrainedvengence has worked four times since mid-February. Saturday, Restrainedvengence worked five furlongs in 1:00.80 for trainer Val Brinkerhoff. Brinkerhoff said he timed him in 59.80 seconds.
With each of his three wins this year, Brickyard Ride has opened up more stakes options.
Brickyard Ride was a proven sprinter when he won his first start of the year, the California Cup Sprint at Santa Anita in January. In February, Brickyard Ride won his first start at a mile on dirt with no difficulty in the Tiznow Stakes for statebreds.
Sunday, Brickyard Ride won the Sensational Star Stakes for California-breds going 6 1/2 furlongs on the hillside turf course.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Jonathan Thomas isn’t perfect. Just look at his NCAA bracket.
“No good,” he said with a laugh.
Thomas was, however, perfect last weekend. His 26-horse stable based at Payson Park, some two hours north of Gulfstream Park, went 4 for 4, with three of them winning at Gulfstream (two Saturday, one Sunday) and the other on Saturday at Laurel Park in Maryland.
Trainer Richard Baltas has been fined $1,000 after one of his starters at Santa Anita on Jan. 21 was ruled ineligible to race after testing positive for the muscle relaxant methocarbamol in a workout on Jan. 3.
Lookin at Sweetie won a $20,000 claimer for maidens on Jan. 21, but should not have been allowed to start because of the positive test found after the workout. The test result was not conveyed to officials until after Lookin at Sweetie’s win, stewards said.
Slow Down Andy, the winner of the Grade 2 Los Alamitos Futurity in December, is part of a field of eight in the Grade 3 Sunland Park Derby in New Mexico on March 27.
Trainer Doug O’Neill said Sunday that the $500,000 Sunland Park Derby was chosen over the Grade 1 Blue Grass Stakes at Keeneland on April 9 to give Slow Down Andy a better chance for a first stakes win of 2022.
Slow Down Andy finished sixth of 10 in the Grade 2 Risen Star Stakes at Fair Grounds on Feb. 19 in his first start this year.
Green Light Go sped around the Belmont Park training track Sunday morning, working a half-mile in 46.42 seconds in preparation for a start in the Grade 1, $300,000 Carter Handicap at Aqueduct on April 9. It was the fastest of 81 works at the distance for the winner of the Feb. 26 Stymie Stakes.
The track has produced slow times throughout the winter, had some moisture in it from overnight rains, and played quite fast on the first morning of spring.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. - Though his concentration during the winter is down south in venues like Gulfstream Park and Fair Grounds as well as Kentucky’s Turfway Park, trainer Mike Maker has put together a solid winter season in New York.
After performing far off key last month in the King Cotton Stakes at Oaklawn Park, Nashville was back in tune Thursday at Fair Grounds, winning a high-level allowance race by 4 3/4 lengths. Nashville ran six furlongs in 1:08.62, the fastest Fair Grounds time at the distance in more than two years and got a strong 102 Beyer Speed Figure.
The fractions Nashville laid down Thursday, 21.89 and 44.43, were as fast as a horse can run over the Fair Grounds main track.
