HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. - The Gulfstream Park stewards announced Wednesday that jockey Paco Lopez has been suspended 14 racing days for “careless riding” aboard In Due Time during Saturday’s Fountain of Youth Stakes. In Due Time finished second behind Simplification in the Grade 2 race.
The stewards said they’ve also placed Lopez on probation through the remainder of the Championship Meet, which ends on April 3.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Imprimis competed in both the 2019 and 2020 editions of the Breeders’ Cup Turf Sprint, and will try to make it again at the age of 8. Imprimis is likely to make his 2022 debut a week from Saturday in the $100,000 Silks Run here, said trainer Joe Orseno.
Imprimis underwent a second throat surgery after closing out his 2021 campaign with a 10th-place finish in the Grade 3 Turf Sprint at Kentucky Downs on Sept. 11. Imprimis has nine wins in 21 career starts with earnings in excess of $883,000.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. – On March 9, 2019 trainer Ben Colebrook ran a 20-1 shot named Knicks Go in the Grade 3 Gotham Stakes at Aqueduct. He finished seventh of eight.
On Wednesday – March 9, 2022 – Colebrook entered just his second horse at Aqueduct since then when he put Club Car in Saturday’s $100,000 Correction Stakes. She won’t be 20-1, nor will she likely be sent to another trainer and become Horse of the Year a la Knicks Go.
OLDSMAR, Fla. – Helium has not exactly distinguished himself as a standout since upsetting the 2021 Tampa Bay Derby at 15-1, although the 4-year-old son of Ironicus might have a new outlook after being gelded since his latest start. He’s had three recent works at trainer Mark Casse’s training center in Ocala, including a half-mile breeze Wednesday in 48.20 seconds.
“We’re probably looking at an allowance race at Keeneland next month,” Casse said.
OLDSMAR, Fla. – Oh, great. Local forecasters are calling for a 100 percent chance of rain for the biggest day of the Tampa Bay Downs meet Saturday, although the prospect of a sloppy track sure didn’t keep horsemen from flooding the entry box for the Tampa Bay Derby.
A capacity field of 12 3-year-olds was entered here Wednesday for the Tampa Bay Derby, the only points qualifier toward the May 7 Kentucky Derby scheduled for this weekend or next.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Umberto Rispoli is embracing the challenge that awaits him when he moves his tack from Southern California to New York next month.
“If you want to be one of the best, you have to compete with the best,” Rispoli said Tuesday in a telephone interview.
The purses of 21 of 39 stakes at the Del Mar summer meeting have been increased this year as the track continues to recover from prize money reductions forced by the pandemic in recent years.
The stakes program will be worth a record $8.275 million, compared to $7.45 million in 2021. The track offered $5.25 million in stakes purses in the pandemic-ravaged 2020 summer meeting.
Strong handle in 2021 has allowed for an increase in stakes purses.
HOT SPRINGS, Ark. – On any given Saturday, the 31-year-old Staton Flurry can be found parking cars across the street from Oaklawn Park.
But this Saturday Flurry will be in the track’s paddock, standing alongside one of the top mares in the country. He’s a co-owner of Shedaresthedevil, an Eclipse Award finalist in 2021 who will launch her 5-year-old season in the Grade 2, $350,000 Azeri.
The 1 1/16-mile stakes drew nine fillies and mares, including champion Ce Ce, recent Houston Ladies’ Classic winner Pauline’s Pearl, and Remington Park Oaks winner Lady Mystify.
Eight new names are among the 23 individual betting interests in the fourth of five pools in the 2022 Kentucky Derby Future Wager, which opens Friday along with the Kentucky Oaks Future Wager.
Both pools open Friday at noon Eastern, with closing time for Pool 4 set for Sunday at 6 p.m. and the Oaks pool closing 30 minutes later.
The 20-cent Golden pick six paid $1,889 on Monday at Golden Gate Fields on a day with a mandatory payout and a seven-figure pool of new money.
The bet began with a carryover of $147,144 from Sunday. Bettors added $1,366,651 to the wager that is paid out entirely when there is a single ticket or on programs with a mandatory payout.
