ARCADIA, Calif. - Barraza gave Hall of Fame jockey Kent Desormeaux his first stakes win of the Santa Anita winter-spring meeting with an easy victory in Saturday’s $77,900 Clockers' Corner Stakes for turf sprinters.
Desormeaux, 51, will be after a much bigger prize next Saturday when he rides at Gulfstream Park for the first time since 2014 on Stilleto Boy in the Grade 1 Pegasus World Cup.
Jockey Mychel Sanchez, who has won more than 100 races a year since 2017, was suspended by Pennsylvania regulators on Thursday for 60 days for violating a rule that prohibits jockeys from betting on any horses but their own mounts in a race, according to racing regulators.
Although officials for the Pennsylvania Bureau of Thoroughbred Horse Racing did not respond to phone calls on Friday, the executive director of the Maryland Racing Commission said on Friday that Sanchez had been removed from his three mounts on Friday at Laurel Park due to the ruling.
Super Stock, the winner of last year’s Arkansas Derby at Oaklawn, is on pace to launch his 4-year-old season Feb. 12 in the Grade 3, $600,000 Razorback, said trainer Steve Asmussen.
The Razorback will be run over 1 1/16 miles. Super Stock won the Zia Park Derby at the distance in November.
The earner of $1.1 million races for Erv Woolsey and Asmussen’s parents, Keith and Marilyn Asmussen.
“He’s been more than a gift,” said Steve Asmussen.
The Sunland Park-based apprentice jockey Erick Medellin is scheduled to join the Oaklawn Park riding colony in early February, according to his agent, Dominic Rivera. Bill Castle will have Medellin’s book at Oaklawn, said Rivera.
Medellin is the 20-year-old son of jockey Alejandro Medellin. The older Medellin is a winner of more than 1,500 races with mount earnings in excess of $30 million, according to records from Daily Racing Form.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. – When the $100,000 Interborough Stakes didn’t have enough entries to be run Jan. 15, it left the connections of Glass Ceiling and Aunt Kat searching for an alternate spot. They found one in a multi-conditioned allowance going seven furlongs Sunday at Aqueduct. The purse is $88,000.
Glass Ceiling is coming off a victory under Dylan Davis in the Garland of Roses Stakes at Aqueduct on Dec. 11. That was race at six furlongs. Trainer Charlton Baker likes her at this seven-furlong distance.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Hagler, fifth in the one-mile Jerome Stakes on New Year’s Day, will shorten up to seven furlongs and get blinkers for the $100,000 Jimmy Winkfield on Jan. 30, trainer Rudy Rodriguez said Friday.
Prior to his Jerome defeat, Hagler won an allowance race going seven furlongs at Aqueduct. Rodriguez felt that Hagler didn’t pay full attention in the Jerome.
Summer in Saratoga would have been no worse than second choice Jan. 22 at Fair Grounds in the $100,000 Marie Krantz Memorial, but trainer Joe Sharp on Friday said the mare was being withdrawn from the race to take her chance next weekend in the $500,000 Pegasus World Cup Filly and Mare Turf.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Owner John Grossi and trainer Robert Falcone Jr. don’t typically get to run in races with seven-figure purses. So, when they received a call from Gulfstream Park officials inviting them to run Empty Tomb in next Saturday’s $3 million Pegasus World Cup, they couldn’t resist the temptation.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Every winner of a Triple Crown event of recent vintage has left the racetrack – except for Sir Winston, the hard knocker set to face Knicks Go and Life Is Good in the $3 million Pegasus World Cup.
“He’s still in there trying,” said Mark Casse, who trains 6-year-old Sir Winston for owner-breeder Tracy Farmer.
Tarabi, second to sure champion Echo Zulu in the Grade 1 Spinaway and third behind Echo Zulu and Juju’s Map in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies, has been sent to Kentucky from Fair Grounds and is out of training for 30 days.
Tarabi posted her first workout since the Breeders’ Cup when she went a half-mile here Jan. 9, but trainer Cherie DeVaux didn’t like the way Tarabi came out of the work and shipped her to Kentucky for a full veterinary examination. Tarabi’s issue is only minor, DeVaux said, but the setback puts her off the Kentucky Oaks trail.
