Highly regarded 3-year-old Giant Oak missed three days of exercise this week, but his trainer, Chris Block, said the colt's apparently minor setback should not affect plans to start in the March 14 Louisiana Derby.
Giant Oak, a vastly troubled fifth in the Risen Star Stakes, his 3-year-old debut, suffered some sort of mouth injury last Sunday, the day after he worked five furlongs.
Delaware North Cos., the racetrack and casino operator, is updating its plans for a casino at Aqueduct racetrack in New York City but has still not finalized an agreement with the state on the casino's operation, officials for the company and Aqueduct said on Friday.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. - With inclement weather on the horizon for the weekend, the Kiaran McLaughlin stable moved up by one day key workouts for several of its horses with upcoming stakes engagements.
Among the workers on a relatively warm winter morning at Belmont Park were a pair of 3-year-olds for next Saturday's $250,000 Gotham Stakes, Mr. Fantasy and Axel Foley, the latter being a recent addition to the stable.
Turfway Park officials had to reverse their recently announced decision to conduct live racing on Monday because of an insufficient number of entries for a scheduled nine-race card.
Turfway, located in Florence, Ky., normally is dark on Mondays and Tuesdays but announced earlier this week that racing would be conducted March 2, 9, and 16 as a way to make up for six weather-related cancellations of full or partial programs since the 2009 winter-spring meet began Jan. 1.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. - Training hours proved rather uneventful here Friday morning. At least until a good-looking chestnut with a blaze face sizzled through a half-mile workout in 46.43 seconds shortly after 8 a.m. The work of the day belonged to Grade 1 winner Sky Diva, who shipped locally from Fair Grounds with a half-dozen other horses belonging to trainer Steve Klesaris earlier this month.
HOT SPRINGS, Ark. - Trainer Tim Ritchey would like to see Bon Jovi Girl develop into a candidate for the Kentucky Oaks. She won her 3-year-old debut Thursday at Oaklawn in impressive fashion, and is headed to the Grade 3, $100,000 Honeybee here March 15.
"I would think that would be her next start, and then hopefully the Fantasy," Ritchey said of the Grade 2, $250,000 race to be run at Oaklawn on April 5.
"We gave her a little freshener with the eye to come in here and try to run in the big 3-year-old stakes and go on, hopefully, to the Kentucky Oaks."
ARCADIA, Calif. - When Magnum ended an eight-race losing streak in the Grade 2 San Antonio Handicap on Feb. 8, the victory capped a remarkable and lengthy comeback.
The San Antonio was Magnum's first stakes win since the Grade 3 Lone Star Park Handicap in May 2006. Between the two wins, Magnum's racing career, and life, changed significantly. He was off for 17 months from October 2006 to March 2008 because of minor injuries, and was gelded last year because of oversized testicles that made it uncomfortable for him to race.
The Assiniboia Downs meeting, which opens on May 10, will offer 32 stakes races worth a total of $1,165,000. The track has trimmed the purses of several stakes and dropped another from the schedule.
The purse for the Aug. 3 Manitoba Lotteries Derby, the showpiece of the 65-day session, will be $75,000, a drop of $25,000 from recent years. The purses for five other open stakes have been reduced from $50,000 to $30,000.
"We had to chop a little bit," said Ray Miller, Assiniboia's racing secretary. "We're hurting in this economy like everybody else."
ARCADIA, Calif. - The $1 million Santa Anita Handicap on March 7 lost two potential starters Thursday when trainer Doug O'Neill said that Informed and Slew's Tiznow will be directed to other races.
Informed, second in the San Pasqual Handicap on Jan. 10 and fourth in the San Antonio Handicap on Feb. 8, will make his next start in the $1 million Godolphin Mile in Dubai on March 28. O'Neill said he was told that Informed had been invited on Thursday morning.