HOT SPRINGS, Ark. - Acoma indicated her intent to be a player in the filly and mare handicap division this year with a powerful five-length win over Bear Now in the Grade 3, $150,000 Azeri Handicap at Oaklawn Park on Sunday. The race was the first start of the year for Acoma, a 4-year-old who covered the mile and a sixteenth in a sharp 1:42.55.
"Today, she really impressed me," said Julien Leparoux, who rode Acoma for trainer David Carroll. "She did it like a very good filly."
HOT SPRINGS, Ark. - Proud Spell, the champion 3-year-old filly of 2008, will make her first start of the year Thursday at Oaklawn Park in a $75,000 optional claiming race open to fillies and mares with third-level allowance conditions or who have not won since Dec. 12, 2008.
Proud Spell last raced in September, finishing second in the Grade 2 Cotillion at Philadelphia Park. Her biggest wins last year came in the Kentucky Oaks and the Grade 1 Alabama. She has won 7 of 12 career starts and $2,123,610 for her owner and breeder, Brereton Jones.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. - After originally leaning toward waiting for the Blue Grass for Theregoesjojo's final Kentucky Derby prep, trainer Ken McPeek has now decided to remain at Gulfstream Park and point his promising 3-year-old to the $750,000 Florida Derby on March 28.
Theregoesjojo rallied to finish second behind Quality Road when making his stakes debut in the one-mile Fountain of Youth on Feb. 28. Theregoesjojo had defeated Quality Road when the pair met in a seven-furlong allowance race earlier in the meet.
HOT SPRINGS, Ark. - Old Fashioned, the early favorite for the Kentucky Derby, tuned up for next weekend's Grade 2, $300,000 Rebel by working five furlongs in a bullet 59 seconds Sunday morning at his Oaklawn Park base. Also on the track was Rachel Alexandra, a leading candidate for the Kentucky Oaks, who breezed in preparation for a start in the Grade 2, $400,000 Fair Grounds Oaks.
ARCADIA, Calif. - Not all of trainer Bobby Frankel's fillies and mares have perfect noses.
An hour after the Frankel-trained Stardom Bound won Saturday's Grade 1 Santa Anita Oaks by a nose, the heavily favored Ventura, the stable's leading older female, lost the Grade 1 Frank Kilroe Mile against males by a similar margin.
Gio Ponti ($12.80) rallied from ninth in a field of 10 under jockey Ramon Dominguez to just catch Ventura in the $300,000 race.
ARCADIA, Calif. - Stardom Bound, the nation's top 3-year-old filly, kept her win streak intact on Saturday, but her desperate nose win over a moderate group in the Grade 1, $300,000 Santa Anita Oaks left her connections soberly realistic about what could come next.
Before the race, the Grade 1, $750,000 Santa Anita Derby on April 4, against males, was considered a strong possibility. Now . . .
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. - I Lost My Choo continued to stake her claim as the ultimate horse for the Gulfstream Park turf course when she rallied to a two-length triumph over the 50-1 Rustic Flame in Saturday's $100,000 Honey Fox Stakes. The victory was the fourth in as many starts for the New York-bred I Lost My Choo over Gulfstream's infield strip.
TAMPA, Fla. Favored Fierce Wind came back late to outfinish a game Fearless Vision and post a neck victory in the $65,000 Challenger Stakes at Tampa Bay Downs on Saturday.
Under a strong ride by Daniel Centeno, Fierce Wind bid outside on the second turn after being parked wide by Fearless Vision. Fierce Wind continued to do battle with that one through a long drive before surging in deep stretch to get up in the shadow of the wire.
