OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Though he sees the field becoming tougher and tougher every time he reads about it, trainer David Duggan said he is still planning to run Grade 3 Toboggan Stakes winner Drafted in the Grade 1, $300,000 Carter Handicap here on April 9.
“Every time I look, there’s a nice horse showing up,” Duggan said. “We’re going to roll the dice and see how it goes. If it works, great. If it doesn’t, we’ll dust ourselves off and go back to the real world.”
OZONE PARK, N.Y. – On paper and on the track, things have gone pretty well for Early Voting since his victory in the Grade 3 Withers Stakes six weeks ago.
Two horses Early Voting defeated in the Withers – Un Ojo and Grantham – have come back to run career-best races in their next starts, with Un Ojo winning the Grade 2 Rebel at Oaklawn Park. Those factors recently led to Early Voting’s Beyer Speed Figure being elevated from 78 to 87.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Trainer John Terranova is weighing a graded stakes opportunity for Bank Sting after the New York-bred won the $150,000 Heavenly Prize Invitational on March 6, her third consecutive stakes victory.
Terranova said Bank Sting, who is 7 for 9 overall, would be nominated to the Grade 3,$150,000 Distaff on April 9. If he feels that race is too close back or the race is coming up too strong, he could wait for the Grade 2, $200,000 Ruffian going a mile at Belmont Park on May 8.
Racing for 2-year-olds will begin as early as April 15 at Santa Anita, with races scheduled almost on a daily basis through the end of the meeting on June 19.
The first races will be for California-breds, with open-company races scheduled for the weekend of April 30-May 1. There is no racing at Santa Anita on the weekend of April 22-24 to allow for a springtime break.
Smooth Like Strait, one of the nation’s top turf milers of 2021, is nearing a springtime return.
Unraced since a second in the Breeders’ Cup Mile at Del Mar last November, Smooth Like Strait worked a half-mile in 49.40 seconds at Santa Anita on Friday, his fourth workout this year.
Trainer Michael McCarthy, who clocked Smooth Like Strait in 49.20 seconds, said several races are options for his return, including the Grade 1 Maker’s Mark Mile at Keeneland on April 15 and the Grade 3 San Francisco Mile at Golden Gate Fields on April 30.
The everyday presence of jockey Flavien Prat at Santa Anita is nearing an end.
Prat, the runaway leading jockey, is riding at Santa Anita this weekend, but is likely to ride only one more day at the track, on April 3, before relocating to the East Coast next month.
Prat is traveling to Dubai next week where he is booked to ride Hot Rod Charlie in the Dubai World Cup, Dr. Schivel in the Golden Shaheen Stakes, and Pinehurst in the United Arab Emirates Derby.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Jose Ortiz began this week at Gulfstream with more wins in two days than most jockeys net in an entire week. Ortiz booted home four winners on an eight-race Wednesday card and three more on a nine-race Thursday program as he continues to ride in peak form.
Ortiz, 28, was a very late arrival to the meet after initially intending to stay home in New York with his family to ride throughout the winter at Aqueduct. The four-month championship meet began Dec. 3, and he didn’t start riding here until Jan. 26.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – There had to be a reason Imprimis was missing from the Silks Run entries this Saturday at Gulfstream Park.
“Yes, we’d been pointing Imprimis to the Silks Run for a while,” said Joe Orseno, the trainer of 8-year-old Imprimis, one of the top turf sprinters on the continent the last few years. “Unfortunately, a little something came up and we had to miss it.”
It’s a rare horse that can win a maiden race, a first-level allowance, and a second-level allowance in consecutive starts. The 5-year-old gelding Surveillance has done so at the Fair Grounds meet while changing surfaces and distances, and after losing nine times in a row to start his career.
Michelle Lovell, who trains, co-bred, and co-owns the 6-year-old gelding Just Might, flirted with a trip to Dubai for the $1.5 million Al Quoz Sprint on March 26 at Meydan Racecourse. In the end, Just Might stayed stateside, and in this case, discretion might have been the better part of valor. The Al Quoz, a six-furlong, straight-course turf race, is coming up very strong this year, with a field much deeper than the one American-based Extravagant Kid beat in the 2021 Al Quoz.
