Trainer Bill Mott is considering sending at least two horses to Oaklawn Park for stakes on April 18.
Golden Award, most recently second in the Royal Delta Stakes at Gulfstream Park, is being pointed to the Grade 1, $600,000 Apple Blossom Handicap, while Hidden Scroll, a 12 1/2-length winner of a first-level allowance on March 1, could join her for the Grade 3, $350,000 Count Fleet Sprint Handicap the same day.
Trainer John Servis was planning to send Mischevious Alex and Diamond King to Oaklawn Park this weekend for stakes races, but canceled those plans due to the restrictive quarantine rules put in place by The Stronach Group.
Horses that race at Oaklawn would have to serve a 14-day quarantine period at a farm in Florida before being able to return to Gulfstream Park or the Palm Meadows training center, both Stronach Group properties. Further, Servis said, any help he would send to Oaklawn would not be permitted to return Gulfstream or Palm Meadows at all.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – With the quality of the local horse population far superior to what it would normally be at this time of the season due to the coronavirus pandemic, the Gulfstream Park racing office will adjust accordingly starting with the second condition book that begins April 23.
The 2020 spring stakes schedule does not begin until May 2 with a pair of $75,000 stakes on the grass for 3-year-olds and 3-year-old fillies, the English Channel and Honey Ryder, and the $100,000 Big Drama for Florida-breds going seven furlongs.
Sunland Park’s ownership has donated $2 million to help New Mexico residents during the coronavirus pandemic, the track and New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham announced late Tuesday.
The donation is from the Stanley E. Fulton Family Foundation, endowed by the late Stan Fulton. The All Together NM Fund will oversee distribution of the donation to charities and food banks.
Sunland Park’s meet was closed due to the coronavirus pandemic, just a week before Sunland Derby Day in March.
HOT SPRINGS, Ark. – Mr. Money, a millionaire who won four straight graded stakes races last year, remains on course to launch his 4-year-old season Saturday in the $150,000 Oaklawn Mile, trainer Bret Calhoun said Tuesday.
The race will share a card with the $200,000 Oaklawn Stakes for 3-year-olds. Entries are to be drawn Wednesday.
Thousand Words, who suffered his first career loss when fourth in the San Felipe Stakes on March 7 at Santa Anita, will try to rebound with his first race outside California when he competes in the Oaklawn Stakes on Saturday at Oaklawn Park.
Trainer Bob Baffert on Tuesday said he had sent Thousand Words to the Oaklawn Stakes, which flip-flopped dates with the Arkansas Derby, now scheduled for May 2.
Joe Talamo will have the mount, Baffert said.
Churchill Downs has once again delayed the opening of its stable area at both its Louisville track and its nearby training center, the track announced Tuesday.
The stables areas are now scheduled to open April 28, but Kevin Flanery, the track’s president, cautioned that the scheduling remains a “fluid situation” due to widespread disruptions caused by the coronavirus outbreak.
Mylady Curlin, runner-up in the Grade 2 Azeri on March 14 at Oaklawn, has been retired, trainer Brad Cox said Monday. She has been sent to a farm in Lexington, Ky.
Cox said Mylady Curlin came out of a March 29 work with a physical setback and the decision was made to retire the mare, who has won four stakes races led by the Grade 2 Falls City Handicap last November at Churchill Downs.
Mia Mischief, winner of last year’s Grade 1 Humana Distaff at Churchill Downs, is scheduled to make her next start in the $125,000 Carousel at Oaklawn, trainer Steve Asmussen said Monday.
The Carousel, for fillies and mares at six furlongs, has been pushed back to April 25.
Mia Mischief won her 5-year-old debut March 20 in a local allowance. It was intended as her stepping-stone to this year’s Humana Distaff, said Asmussen, but that race is being rescheduled due to the coronavirus pandemic.
