OZONE PARK, N.Y. - Mischevious Alex, winner of the Grade 3 Gotham on March 7, will most likely make his next start in the Grade 2, $750,000 Wood Memorial here on April 4, trainer John Servis said Friday.
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OZONE PARK, N.Y. – For only the second time this winter trainer Linda Rice didn’t have a horse to run Friday at Aqueduct, but she echoed the sentiments of most New York horsemen who were appreciative of the chance to keep going during a difficult time.
Though the coronavirus pandemic shuttered most sports leagues, horse racing continued Friday at Aqueduct with a nine-race card.
ARCADIA, Calif. – Cistron, idle since winning last year’s Grade 1 Bing Crosby at Del Mar, heads the prospective field for the Grade 3, $100,000 San Simeon Stakes, which as of Friday had been twice-postponed.
Originally scheduled for Saturday, the San Simeon – a 5 1/2-furlong turf sprint – was pushed back a day owing to wet weather, then to March 21 when Santa Anita decided it best to run all of its races this weekend on dirt.
Cistron won the Bing Crosby on dirt, and he is stakes-placed five times on turf.
Apprentice jockey Kody Kellenberger fractured his collarbone, but two other jockeys who went down in the ninth race Thursday at Fair Grounds escaped serious injury.
Kellenberger was riding Floatie in the low-level dirt claiming race when his mount fell after crossing the finish line in second. Sarah Ann’s Pointe, ridden by Joel Dominguez, ran into her downed rival and also fell just past the wire.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Point of Honor will make her next start in either of a pair of Grade 1 races after getting a tightener under her belt last Saturday at Tampa Bay Downs.
Trainer George Weaver said Point of Honor will go next in the April 18 Apple Blossom at Oaklawn Park or wait for the May 1 La Troienne at Churchill Downs.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Tax, the 4-year-old Arch gelding best known for winning the Grade 2 Jim Dandy last July at Saratoga, could make his next start in the Charles Town Classic or the Oaklawn Handicap “depending on how the travel situation is by then,” trainer Danny Gargan said. Both are $1 million races to be run April 18.
Tax has had three breezes – the latest an easy half-mile in 50.60 seconds on Wednesday at Gargan’s winter base at the Palm Meadows training center – since finishing ninth as the 4-1 third choice in the Jan. 25 Pegasus World Cup.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Like everyone else, trainer Mark Hennig doesn’t know what impact the coronavirus outbreak will have on the immediate future of the racing industry or the status of this year’s Kentucky Derby. What he does know for certain is that he has a horse in Americanus who has earned himself a shot at an upcoming Derby prep, although he does not know just where that race will be.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – It won’t be long before Chad Brown starts sending horses north to Kentucky and New York following what has been a relatively slow start to his 2020.
“We always kind of back off the gas pedal in the winter,” said Brown, the four-time reigning Eclipse Award-winning trainer. “But we’ve been even less active at Gulfstream Park this winter than in prior years, which is partly by design but also because our 3-year-old crop has been slower than normal to come around.”
HOT SPRINGS, Ark. - Oaklawn Park will not allow spectators ontrack this weekend in the wake of the international coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, the track announced Thursday night. The policy will be in place for at least Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. The races, which include three stakes Saturday, will go on as scheduled.
