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.
Clairiere was a good 2-year-old, finishing second in the Grade 2 Golden Rod, just her second career start.
She was much better last year at age 3, finishing fourth in the Kentucky Oaks, second in the Alabama, winning the Grade 1 Cotillion, and capping a long season with a close fourth in the Breeders’ Cup Distaff.
From the look of her 2022 debut Wednesday at Fair Grounds, Clairiere is going to be even better at age 4.
From December 2020 through January 2022, the reformed maiden claimer Two Emmys had gone 2-5-1 from nine starts. He’d finished second to multiple Grade 1 winner Colonel Liam in the 2021 Muniz Memorial, the most important grass race at Fair Grounds, and won the Grade 1 Mr. D stakes over Domestic Spending last summer at Arlington.
So, it was wholly uncharacteristic when Two Emmys checked in 10th, beaten seven lengths, on Feb. 19 in the Fair Grounds Stakes.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. – It’s already been a good winter for David Lyon’s Blue Lion Thoroughbreds, having won two stakes with the promising 3-year-old colt Morello. That outfit will seek another stakes victory Saturday with Monshun in the $100,000 Cicada Stakes for 3-year-old fillies.
Monshun, a daughter of Unified, was a debut winner last Aug. 18 at Saratoga, but was sidelined due to a chip in an ankle that needed to be surgically removed. Trainer Ray Handal was hoping to bring Monshun back in an allowance race, but it didn’t fill.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. – There are signs of spring popping up everywhere. From the start of daylight saving time to the thermometer surpassing the 60-degree mark on Wednesday to the first turf race showing up in the condition book, albeit not until April 7.
Another sign of spring is activity at the Christophe Clement barn on the Belmont Park backstretch. Clement, himself still in Florida, said he has 12 horses in New York, three of which are in action on Friday’s Aqueduct card.
Two surprising names – one a horse, the other a jockey – showed up in the Fair Grounds entries for Saturday.
Bound for Nowhere, one of the best turf sprinters in North America since 2018, is set to make his 8-year-old debut in a high-end allowance race, carded for about 5 1/2 furlongs on grass, with an $80,000 claiming option. Bound for Nowhere was shipped to Fair Grounds earlier this week from his winter base at Turfway Park, and if Saturday’s races stay on grass, John Velazquez will fly to New Orleans from Southern California to ride him.
