HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. - Host, the Chilean-bred champion who was being pointed to the UAE Derby on March 27 in Dubai, will miss that race due to a bad blood test, trainer Todd Pletcher said Friday.
"We pulled some blood on him and got those results back this afternoon, and I'm not satisfied with him," Pletcher said Friday. "I don't feel like it's the best thing for the horse to ship."
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. - Bobby Frankel has won graded stakes with the last four horses he has sent to Gulfstream Park. Owner Joe Allen is 5 for 5 at this meet, with three graded stakes victories. Allen's trainer, Kiaran McLaughlin, is winning at a 52-percent clip this winter.
So it will be the immovable object versus the irresistible force when the Frankel-trained in Sunday's Grade 2, $200,000 Rampart Handicap at Gulfstream Park.
Twenty four hours after sending out the two top choices in the $1 million Florida Derby at Gulfstream Park, trainers Rick Violette and Todd Pletcher will come 200 miles north to do it all over again in Sunday's $250,000 .
Violette brings the lightly raced but promising Swingforthefences to Tampa, while Pletcher counters with his already stakes-proven Limehouse. They will top a field of eight 3-year-olds that also includes Mustanfar, Kaufy Mate, Zakocity, Very Formal M.D., Tap Dancer, and Misguided Left.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. - Smok'n Frolic and Passing Shot are both coming off poor efforts in the Grade 3 Sabin at Gulfstream Park, but they are standouts in Sunday's $100,000-added Next Move Handicap at Aqueduct.
Seven fillies and mares were entered in the Grade 3 Next Move. Green Jeans, Stake, Our Tune, U K Trick, and Virgin Voyage will have their work cut out for them when they face graded winners Smok'n Frolic and Passing Shot in the 1 1/8-mile race.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. - War's Prospect, who won last year's New Jersey Futurity at The Meadowlands, will step up in class when he runs in next Saturday's $200,000 Gotham Stakes at Aqueduct.
In his last start, War's Prospect, a New Jersey-bred trained by Bill Anderson, won a second-level allowance race by 2 3/4 lengths at Aqueduct on Feb. 22. A fifth-place finish in the Fred "Cappy" Capossela Stakes on Jan. 19 preceded that effort.
Anderson said War's Prospect had an excuse in the Capossela.
NEW ORLEANS - Haven't we already seen this race? Seven horses were entered Friday in Sunday's $125,000 Pelleteri Breeders' Cup Handicap, and all but one ran three weeks ago in the Taylor's Special Handicap.
The top six finishers from the Taylor's Special are back for the Pelleteri, joined by the apparently overmatched invader . Out of My Way, upset winner of the Taylor's Special, had been scheduled to pass the Pelleteri, but his connections in the end found the spot too attractive to miss.
NEW ORLEANS - Fire Slam returned to the racetrack Friday, jogging two miles in his first exercise since a fifth-place finish Sunday in the Louisiana Derby. Gradually, Fire Slam is coming back around after a taxing race last weekend, and trainer David Carroll is beginning to plot Fire Slam's next move.
The likely spot, Carroll said Friday, is the Grade 2 Lexington Stakes on April 17 at Keeneland. Also under consideration is the April 3 Illinois Derby at Hawthorne, but that race is at nine furlongs, and Carroll would prefer to keep Fire Slam at 1 1/16 miles right now.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. - Sunday's $100,000 Hillsborough Stakes at Tampa Bay Downs is virtually a rematch of the Endeavour Stakes, decided over this same course five weeks earlier.
Eight of the 12 starters in the 1 1/8-mile Hillsborough come out of the Endeavour, including Madeira Mist, Something Ventured, and Coney Kitty, who finished within three-quarters of a length of one another in the roughly run contest.
HOT SPRINGS, Ark. - Pie N Burger signaled his intent to run a big race in Sunday's Grade 3, $100,000 Razorback Handicap a week ago, when he turned in a powerful five-furlong work at Oaklawn Park.
He went the distance in 1:00.20 last Sunday, covering his final three furlongs in a little more than 34 seconds. Pie N Burger galloped out six furlongs in 1:12.60.