The unbeaten Dash Attack was in good order Sunday following his clear win in the $250,000 Smarty Jones at Oaklawn Park and will target the track’s Grade 3, $750,000 Southwest, trainer Ken McPeek said.
The Southwest, at 1 1/16 miles, will be run Jan. 29.
Dash Attack has won both of his starts, and both have come at Oaklawn. He accounted for a maiden special weight at a mile on opening weekend, then came back and picked up 10 points for the Kentucky Derby in the Smarty Jones.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. - Jockeys Jorge Vargas Jr. and Jalon Samuel both tested positive for COVID-19 and will be off their mounts at Aqueduct this weekend, according to a release from the New York Racing Association.
Vargas, who was not named to ride at Aqueduct Friday, was scheduled to ride five horses Saturday, including Hagler in the $150,000 Jerome Stakes. He was named on two horses Sunday. Samuel was taken off his one mount Friday and his other mount scratched. Samuel had two mounts Saturday and one Sunday.
Santa Anita is adding $50,000 to the pool of the 50-cent late pick five on Sunday, officials announced on Friday.
In a statement, the track said the bonus money to the pool is an expression of gratitude toward racing fans for support through opening week of the winter-spring meeting, which was disrupted by poor weather.
There was no turf racing on the Dec. 26 program because of rain in the preceding days. Rain after lunch on Monday led to the transfer of turf races to the main track midway through the program.
When jockey Luis Cardenas was injured in a spill at Saratoga in July, it was presumed he would miss only a couple of weeks. Six months later and Cardenas has still not returned to the saddle, but he is progressing.
Cardenas, who suffered more serious head trauma than initially reported, said he is scheduled to meet with a neurologist in the third week in January. At that consultation, he is hoping to get cleared to begin getting on horses again with the goal of returning to race-riding in February.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Happy Medium is arguably the fastest horse on the grounds in New York, but his connections are in no hurry to plot out the gelding’s next race.
On Dec. 18, Happy Medium recorded his third consecutive blowout victory, taking a second-level allowance by seven lengths. He ran 6 1/2 furlongs in 1:15.88 and earned a 103 Beyer Speed Figure, equaling the figure earned for his 9 1/4-length maiden win on Sept. 30 at Belmont Park.
ARCADIA, Calif. – The graded stakes classifications of two stakes run at Santa Anita on Dec. 26 – the American Oaks for 3-year-old fillies and Mathis Brothers Mile for 3-year-olds – have been restored to their original status by an oversight committee after the races were switched from turf to dirt because of inclement weather.
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ARCADIA, Calif. – Flightline, the brilliant and undefeated 3-year-old sprinter, was jogged at Santa Anita on Friday, his first day of racetrack exercise following a win by 11 1/2 lengths in his stakes debut in the Grade 1 Malibu Stakes at seven furlongs on Dec. 26.
Trained by John Sadler, Flightline is unbeaten in three starts by a combined 37 1/2 lengths. Sadler said earlier this week that Flightline will be raced sparingly in 2022 and does not have an immediate race goal. The colt had his debut at Santa Anita last April.
The end of 2021 treated trainer Neil Pessin pretty well. Happy American came within an inch of winning his first stakes in the Dec. 27 Tenacious, and a day later Audrey’s Time was much the best in the Spanky Broussard Memorial. And on Jan. 4, Pessin will welcome stable star Bell’s the One back into his Fair Grounds barn.
Kentucky Oaks hopeful Dream Lith is scheduled to arrive at Fair Grounds on Monday, according to her trainer, Robertino Diodoro.
She was freshened in Kentucky following her win in the Grade 2 Golden Rod on Nov. 27 at Churchill Downs. Dream Lith had been scheduled to join Diodoro’s barn at Oaklawn but is now headed to Fair Grounds as the trainer is setting up a small division in New Orleans.
Dream Lith could return to the races at either Fair Grounds or Oaklawn.
The global pandemic year of 2020 made a lot of people take stock of their position in the world. It happened for the jockey Reylu Gutierrez, but not just because of COVID-19.
Gutierrez was part of the tough Saratoga jockey colony during the 2020 racing season and came out of the meet with one winner from 84 mounts. A native of upstate New York, Gutierrez went home to Rochester and hung his tack at Finger Lakes, where his father, Luis, is a veteran trainer.
