A pair of $100,000 stakes on Saturday will serve as co-highlights of the coming weekend at Gulfstream, with Diamond Oops the most noteworthy prospect expected to race.
As stakes action at Tampa Bay Downs takes a customary five-week break from mid-December to mid-January, the results from a couple of Florida-bred stakes at the Oldsmar track will linger.
Shivaree and Heiressall both shipped across the Florida peninsula from Gulfstream Park to post season-ending triumphs Saturday at Tampa in the Marion County and City of Ocala, respectively. Both got terrific trips from just off the pace in setting them up for what should be a productive 2021.
Sharing, the four-time stakes winner, will have her second trip to California in as many months for the Grade 1 American Oaks at Santa Anita on Dec. 26.
Sharing was fourth, beaten three-quarters of a length, in the Grade 1 Matriarch Stakes for fillies and mares at a mile on turf at Del Mar on Nov. 29. The $300,000 American Oaks is run at 1 1/4 miles on turf for 3-year-old fillies.
Sharing, owned by Eclipse Thoroughbred Partners and Gainesway Stable, is trained by Graham Motion, who is based in Maryland.
With the brilliant Gamine in the midst of a brief rest, trainer Bob Baffert is reverting to his deep roster for the Grade 1 La Brea Stakes for 3-year-old fillies at Santa Anita on Dec. 26.
Baffert said Sunday that he plans to have as many as four runners in the $300,000 race at seven furlongs – Golden Principal, Himiko, Merneith and Provocation.
Merneith, the winner of the Fort Springs Stakes for 3-year-old fillies at six furlongs at Keeneland on Nov. 7, worked five furlongs in 59.80 seconds at Santa Anita on Sunday, the quickest of 73 recorded works at the distance.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Jose Lezcano finished the Aqueduct fall meet with six consecutive multiple-win days to finish second to Kendrick Carmouche in the standings.
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Thursday, he got off to a terrific start at the Aqueduct winter meet, booting home four winners from six mounts. That gave him 17 winners from 51 mounts over seven cards.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Honor Way, winner of last Sunday’s Garland of Roses Stakes, will point to the $100,000 Interborough Stakes on Jan. 18, trainer Charlton Baker said.
Though Honor Way will be 7 in 2021, Baker said the mare is doing too well to stop on her right now.
“She came out of the race great, she’s doing good,” Baker said.
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OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Malibu Star’s maiden victory on Thursday at Aqueduct was good for trainer Kelly Breen on multiple counts.
First, the 3-year-old son of Giant’s Causeway won the one-mile race by a convincing 2 1/4 lengths and earned a 91 Beyer Speed Figure in his second start off a year layoff, portending good things to come. Second, when Malibu Star finished second in his previous start, he did so to the Breen-trained Full Impact, who came back to win his first-level allowance condition on Nov. 13.
Smooth Like Strait, a four-time stakes winner in the last 13 months, will have his final start of 2020 in the Grade 2 Mathis Brothers Mile for 3-year-olds on turf at Santa Anita on Dec. 26.
Trainer Michael McCarthy confirmed the plans after Smooth Like Strait worked a half-mile in 48 seconds at Santa Anita on Friday, the fastest of 58 works at the distance.
“I was very pleased with what I saw,” McCarthy said.
Hall of Fame jockey Mike Smith, who has not ridden since Nov. 29, said on Friday that he expects to emerge from a 14-day quarantine forced by a recent coronavirus positive in time to ride Petruchio in the Grade 2 Los Alamitos Futurity on Dec. 19.
Smith tested positive in advance of scheduled mounts at Los Alamitos last weekend, the initial days of the track’s current three-week Los Angeles County Fair meeting.
Smith said he hopes to be cleared to ride the $200,000 Los Alamitos Futurity. The quarantine period ends on Thursday, he said.
Indiana Grand in Shelbyville, Ind., will race next year on the weekly schedule it adopted this year to take advantage of lack of competition in the simulcast market during the coronavirus pandemic.
The track will run largely on a Monday-through-Thursday schedule, while also holding eight live race cards on Saturday, during a meet running from April 13 to Nov. 4, for a total of 120 live Thoroughbred and Quarter Horse racing dates. The schedule was approved by the Indiana Horse Racing Commission on Thursday.