When Bob’s Sniper won a $16,000 claimer in the ninth race at Santa Anita last Saturday, his trainer, Val Brinkerhoff, was absent. He was at nearby Arcadia Methodist undergoing X-rays after a bizarre and frightening incident earlier that afternoon in which the multiple stakes winner Restrainedvengence reacted angrily to having blood drawn before a scheduled start in the Grade 3 Thunder Road Stakes.
The incident left Brinkerhoff with minor injuries.
Though New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced Wednesday that beginning Feb. 23 large sports venues such as arenas and stadiums in the state could begin hosting fans – up to 10 percent of the venue’s capacity and under strict COVID-19 protocols – it remains to be seen what that means for the New York Racing Association.
HOT SPRINGS, Ark. – Southern California-based jockey Joel Rosario, who is named to ride Dreamalildreamofu in the featured eighth race Friday at Oaklawn Park, had been all set to spend the holiday weekend in Arkansas.
But on Wednesday afternoon it was announced Oaklawn has canceled racing from Saturday through Monday due to a winter storm system in the forecast. As a result, Rosario will be staying home. His agent, Ron Anderson, said Rosario would be riding at Santa Anita through Monday before heading overseas to team with Knicks Go in the Saudi Cup on Feb. 20.
It’s fitting that Alejandro makes the first start of his 3-year-old season on Saturday at Fair Grounds.
Co-featured on the Risen Star program is the Grade 2 Rachel Alexandra Stakes, and Alejandro is carrying the genetic torch for the great Rachel Alexandra. He starts in race 4, a 1 1/6-mile maiden race for 3-year-olds.
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None of the trainer Todd Fincher’s 6,000-plus starters have raced at Fair Grounds. Fincher is a New Mexico horseman. His stomping grounds are Albuquerque, Ruidoso, Sunland, Zia. He breaks yearlings at a facility not far from Sunland, which sits along the Rio Grande outside El Paso. But Fincher has been given good reason to travel farther afield the last several months. The reason is a colt named Senor Buscador.
HOT SPRINGS, Ark. – Keepmeinmind, the Grade 2 Kentucky Jockey Club Stakes winner who had been entered in the Risen Star on Saturday at Fair Grounds, will remain home and run in the Grade 3, $750,000 Southwest Stakes at Oaklawn, trainer Robertino Diodoro said Wednesday.
The Southwest has been rescheduled from Monday to next Saturday, Feb. 20, because Oaklawn has canceled racing Saturday to Monday due to a forecast for frigid weather.
For now, Juan Hernandez and Umberto Rispoli are first and second in the jockey standings at Santa Anita. Through Sunday’s program, Hernandez had 26 wins, one more than Rispoli.
By the end of the month, the standings could look considerably different.
Hernandez is suspended Friday through Sunday for using his whip more than six times aboard Lady Noguez, who finished second in the second race on Jan. 31. Hernandez was cited for his fourth such offense in the last two months.
Top California jockey Flavien Prat has switched agents, leaving a longtime arrangement with Derek Lawson to begin working with Brad Pegram.
Prat, 28, confirmed the change in a brief conversation late Wednesday morning. Pegram is scheduled to begin working on behalf of Prat on Feb. 26.
As a result, Drayden Van Dyke will no longer be represented by Pegram, who also books mounts on behalf of Hall of Fame jockey Mike Smith. Agents in California can represent no more than two riders.
Moonlight d’Oro, the winner of the Grade 3 Las Virgenes Stakes for 3-year-old fillies at Santa Anita on Saturday, has been diagnosed with a bone chip in a knee that will require surgery and a three-month rest, trainer Richard Mandella said on Wednesday.
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