Trainer Jeremiah Englehart on Monday began serving a seven-day suspension for an overage of the therapeutic medication prednisolone, a corticosteroid that is a Class 4 drug, the second-lowest on the classification system used by the Association of Racing Commissioners International.
Englehart was also fined $500. Englehart said he waived his right of appeal, which reduced the suspension from 10 days. Englehart currently has horses based in New York and Florida.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Drain the Clock, among the likely favorites for Saturday’s Grade 3 Gulfstream Park Sprint, looked sharp breezing four furlongs in company in a handy 47.41 seconds here Monday, completing his final quarter in 23.75 before galloping out five furlongs in 1:00.33.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Stablemates Life Is Good and Colonel Liam were the two stars here on Pegasus World Cup Day, and they will be given the opportunity for a much bigger payday on the world stage at Meydan in Dubai on March 26. Life Is Good makes his next start in the $12 million Dubai World Cup, and Colonel Liam runs in the $5 million Dubai World Cup Turf, trainer Todd Pletcher confirmed on Monday.
You wouldn’t know from the entry list Saturday at Fair Grounds that trainer Todd Pletcher doesn’t have a string stabled at the track.
Pletcher has seven entrants on the 13-race Risen Star card, all of them shipping from his Palm Beach Downs base in South Florida.
“We had opportunities for some stakes and saw the chance to run some other horses,” said Pletcher, whose large contingent arrives early Thursday in New Orleans.
Pletcher doesn’t make a habit of overmatching his horses, yet none of his Fair Grounds entrants look like surefire win threats.
The 3-year-old colt Smile Happy hasn’t started since late November, but since Jan. 22 his form, impressive enough already, has shined even brighter.
Call Me Midnight, seventh in the Kentucky Jockey Club Stakes on Nov. 27, won the Lecomte Stakes on Jan. 22 at Fair Grounds. On Feb. 5, White Abarrio, third in the Kentucky Jockey Club, won the Holy Bull Stakes by more than four lengths. And Feb. 12, Classic Causeway produced an excellent performance winning the Sam Davis Stakes, his first start since a second-place Kentucky Jockey Club finish.
OLDSMAR, Fla. – Hall of Fame jockey Javier Castellano did not receive a suspension from the Tampa stewards following a review of a Friday race in which his mount, Cyberviking, was disqualified from first to second for interfering with an opponent to his inside while under a right-handed whip.
OLDSMAR, Fla. – There’s perhaps a minor concern exiting the Sam F. Davis Stakes, but overall, the sky seems the limit for Classic Causeway as his 3-year-old season unfolds.
On the lead from the start Saturday in the Grade 3 Davis at Tampa Bay Downs, Classic Causeway was a dominant 3 3/4-length winner under Irad Ortiz Jr. in an effort that simultaneously validated the considerable potential the colt flashed at 2 while making him one of the early favorites for the May 7 Kentucky Derby.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Drain the Clock, winner of the Grade 1 Woody Stephens in June, heads the prospective lineup of older horses for the Grade 3, $125,000 Gulfstream Park Sprint on Saturday. Entries are to be drawn Wednesday.
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HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Herman Wilensky has been training for more than 20 years in his native South Florida. It took a four-hour trip across the state for Wilensky to experience the kind of unique thrill he got Saturday when he saddled the 5-year-old mares Drop a Hint and My Destiny to finish one-two in the $50,000 Minaret Stakes on the big Sam F. Davis card at Tampa Bay Downs.
“The only thing that could’ve been better was a dead heat,” an elated Wilensky, 58, said Monday when back at his Gulfstream Park base. “But yes, everything worked out really well.”
