OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Napoleon Solo, the Grade 1 Champagne Stakes winner who finished fifth in the Grade 2 Fountain of Youth at Gulfstream Park on Feb. 28, worked five furlongs from the starting gate in 59.65 seconds Thursday morning at the Palm Meadows training center in Florida.
The April 4 Wood Memorial at Aqueduct is among the races trainer Chad Summers and owner Al Gold are considering for Napoleon Solo.
Gulfstream Park in Hallandale Beach, Fla., plans to add six $100,000 stakes for Florida-bred horses to its schedule this spring and will add four stakes for Florida-bred 2-year-olds in the fall, according to Tom Cannell, the president of the Florida Horsemen’s Benevolent and Protective Association.
The Alcohol and Gaming Commission of Ontario has approved a 34-day meet for Fort Erie this year, which is significantly shorter than the border track’s traditional 40-day meet. Opening day is scheduled for May 31 and the meet runs through Oct. 20 on a mostly Monday-Tuesday schedule beginning in late June, following a series of Sunday cards.
James Culic, Fort Erie’s manager of marketing and corporate communications, said the plan is to run the same number of races as in the past while strategically making the best of a declining horse population.
Jumping the Gun has spent the better part of a month easing back into training at Delaware Park for Andy Simoff, most recently completing a four-furlong workout in 48.80 seconds last Saturday. If all continues to go well, Simoff said the filly will make her 3-year-old debut in the $150,000 Weber City Miss next month at Laurel Park.
“The Weber City Miss is two turns, so hopefully the weather and everything cooperates and we make that race,” Simoff said. “And then we'll see where we're at.”
Trainer Hugo Padilla said a five-furlong workout at Parx Racing on Wednesday would determine whether Red Zone Runner will point to the Grade 2 Wood Memorial on April 4. By the time the colt wrapped up the morning, there was no longer any doubt.
“He checked all the boxes,” Padilla said, a touch of excitement breaking through his level-headed report.
Vodka Vodka and Om N Joy, half-siblings who were second and third in Grade 1 races on March 7, have springtime stakes at Santa Anita on their schedules.
Trainer Aggie Ordonez said Om N Joy, a four-time stakes winner in 2025 who was third in the $300,000 Beholder Mile for fillies and mares on dirt on March 7 in her Grade 1 debut, is expected to start in the Grade 3 Santa Maria Stakes, a $100,000 race for fillies and mares at 1 1/16 miles on April 19.
Mrs. Astor, a six-time stakes winner in the last 16 months, will remain in training after finishing third by a length to Take A Breath in Sunday’s Grade 3 Santa Ana Stakes at Santa Anita.
Trainer Jonathan Thomas said on Wednesday that the Grade 1 Gamely Stakes at 1 1/8 miles on turf for fillies and mares at Santa Anita on May 25, is a goal, or the Grade 3 Bewitch Stakes, a $350,000 race at 1 1/2 miles for fillies and mares at Keeneland on April 24.
For more than a decade before going out on his own in 2017 to train, Rodolphe Brisset was a fixture on the backstretch at Belmont Park and Saratoga, exercising some of the best horses in the barn of Hall of Fame trainer Bill Mott.
Brisset, whose main base of operation has been Kentucky, wants to maintain a year-round presence in New York and plans to open a division beginning this spring. He said he plans to have 10 to 12 horses based at Belmont Park during the upcoming spring meet that begins April 2.
Buetane, fourth as the favorite with a troubled trip in last Saturday’s Virginia Derby at Colonial Downs, is now in New York with the possibility of running in the Grade 2 Wood Memorial at Aqueduct on April 4, “if he works well next week,” trainer Bob Baffert wrote in a text.
Martha Claussen has spent 29 years championing racing at Sam Houston Race Park since the track brought her on as publicity director in 1997. On Saturday, her efforts will be lauded during the Texas Champions Day card in Houston.
Claussen is being honored after the fourth race. It’s the first time in a long while she’s not actively promoting the program. Claussen stepped away from her duties this meet for two reasons.
