ARCADIA, Calif. - Thor's Echo, who emerged as the front-runner for the Eclipse Award as champion sprinter by virtue of his victories in the Breeders' Cup Sprint and De Francis Dash in November, has been sold to the Maktoum family of Dubai, according to Pablo Suarez, who owned Thor's Echo along with Royce Jaime.
The deal had been in the works for a month, since Thor's Echo won the De Francis Dash on Nov. 25 at Laurel Park. But it was finalized on Thursday, Suarez said.
OLDSMAR Fla. - When trainer Kirk Ziadie gave Rgirldoesn'tbluff a six-week break last June, she had raced respectably in her last four starts but hadn't won. Rgirldoesn'tbluff was ready to take things to a whole new level when she returned to action at the end of July, and has finished first in four of her five outings since.
On Saturday, fans will have to decide if Rgirldoesn'tbluff can carry her strong late season form over to her 4-year-old campaign when she tops a field of 10 fillies and mares entered in the $60,000, six-furlong Minaret Stakes at Tampa Bay Downs.
PHOENIX - Florida Keys has emerged as the top horse at Turf Paradise on the strength of consecutive stakes wins here this meet, one on the turf and one on dirt, but the water gets a lot deeper Saturday when he faces a number of tough shippers in the $75,000 Cotton Fitzsimmons Handicap.
The mile turf race, named for the former Phoenix Suns coach, executive, and racing enthusiast, lured a field of nine and heads a stakes tripleheader with the $50,000 Glendale Handicap and the $45,000 Swift Stakes.
ARCADIA, Calif. - Preachinatthebar likes to race near the lead. Declan's Moon is coming out of two fast sprint races. Cheroot won his last start leading from start to finish. Spellbinder's last win came on the front end. And Buckland Manor prefers to press the pace. With all that potential speed in the Grade 2, $150,000 San Pasqual Handicap on Saturday at Santa Anita, the biggest beneficiary might be the horse who is in last place early on in the field of seven.
NEW ORLEANS - Trainer Dallas Stewart is pointing Clock Stopper for the $100,000 Colonel Power Stakes, one of five stakes races scheduled on the Road to the Derby Kickoff Day card on Jan. 13. The 7-year-old Gilded Time gelding, winner of $779,524 lifetime, was off 19 months with a bowed-tendon injury before his return to the races at Churchill Downs in November. He made an aggressive move after a poor start in that race before tiring to finish last, but Stewart was not alarmed by the result.
ALBANY, Calif. - Saturday's $50,000-added Muir Woods appears to be a match race between multiple stakes winners Victorina and Bai and Bai.
Victorina has won four stakes, including the Grade 3 Azalea Breeders' Cup Stakes at Calder last summer. Bai and Bai has three stakes victories, including the California Cup Juvenile Fillies.
Each will have her regular rider aboard, Russell Baze on Victorina and Roberto Gonzalez on Bai and Bai.
None of the other four runners in the 1 1/16-mile race for fillies and mares has a stakes win.
Two fillies who earned nearly identical Beyer Speed Figures while winning their most recent races, one in a restricted stakes at Penn National and the other against first-level allowance runners in her first start in Maryland, are the prime contenders in Saturday's $90,000 Marshua Stakes at Laurel Park.
The 5 1/2-furlong race for 3-year-old fillies drew a field of seven.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. - Apprentice Jermaine Bridgmohan suffered a broken collarbone, broken right hand and two broken ribs in a frightening spill during the running of the fifth race on Wednesday's opening day program at Gulfstream Park.
Bridgmohan, the leading rider at the recently concluded Tropical at Calder meet, fell after his mount Toms Mulligan appeared to clip heels in traffic while near the lead going into the first turn of the 1 1/8-mile grass race. Toms Mulligan escaped the incident without injury.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. - For trainer Vickie Foley, the 88-day meet at Gulfstream Park started in perfect fashion Wednesday. Foley sent out Donnie's Madam to win the first race of the meet, leading to smiles all around for Foley, her staff, and jockey Edgar Prado.
"We'd all said at the barn how nice it'd be to win the first race of the meet," said Foley. "This filly hadn't panned out so far for us, so we dropped her into this spot, and it happened to be the first race. It all worked out just great."