HOT SPRINGS, Ark. -- The depth of the stable in trainer Steve Asmussen's care at Oaklawn Park was on full display last Saturday.
Share the Upside put up the meet’s highest Beyer Speed Figure to date when he popped a 104 winning the $125,000 King Cotton. A few races prior, the Group 1-winning mare La Renoleta rolled by 9 3/4 lengths in her North American debut to improve her career record to 5 for 5.
The Grade 1, $1 million Haskell Invitational Stakes, the centerpiece of the Monmouth Park meet in New Jersey, will be held this year on July 18 as part of a card with five additional stakes, according to a stakes schedule released by the track on Tuesday.
The July 18 Haskell card will feature stakes races with total purses of $1.925 million. Two of the undercard stakes races, the Grade 3, $300,000 Monmouth Cup and Grade 3, $250,000 Molly Pitcher, have been given $100,000 purse bumps this year, according to the track.
HOT SPRINGS, Ark. -- Chase Tracker has put himself in the Grade 3, $750,000 Southwest Stakes on Monday at Oaklawn Park after a strong recent workout, trainer Todd Pletcher said Monday.
The Southwest carries qualifying points for the Kentucky Derby, with the first four finishers to earn points on a scale of 10-4-2-1. The race also anchors a card of three Grade 3 stakes, the others the $500,000 Razorback Handicap and the $200,000 Bayakoa.
NEW ORLEANS – Midnight Bisou worked five fulongs in 1:00.20 on Sunday, second fastest of 52 works at the distance that morning at Fair Grounds, and remains on track to start Feb. 29 in the $20 million Saudi Cup. The champion older female of 2019, she has been breezing steadily here in New Orleans since December, the only hiccup whatsoever in her Saudi Cup preparation a period of very wet weather that led to a 10-day gap between works.
Sunday, Midnight Bisou worked in company, starting off a few lengths behind her workmate and finishing a couple lengths in front.
NEW ORLEANS – Grant Forster is running Pirate’s Punch in the Mineshaft Stakes on Saturday at Fair Grounds, and out of curiosity he started poking around in stakes histories to see what sort of horses had won the Mineshaft. In fact, Mineshaft, the horse himself, won this race as a 4-year-old in 2003 when it was called the Whirlaway. Earlier in the Fair Grounds meet, Mineshaft, who’d begun his career in England, won a second-level dirt-route allowance race. Robby Albarado was his jockey.
NEW ORLEANS – It’s not like trainer Mike Stidham has trained dozens of world-class horses, but plenty of talented animals have passed through his barn during a long training career, perhaps none as talented as the 3-year-old filly Alms.
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NEW ORLEANS – The Fair Grounds track apron nearly was deserted for the first couple sets of horses Monday morning, but one trainer, Hall of Famer Steve Asmussen, was down on the fence with his stopwatch.
Among several Asmussen horses to work were his starters for important stakes here this Saturday – Finite, who runs in the Rachel Alexandra, and Silver State, who’s part of the first division of the Risen Star Stakes.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – The biggest name on the work tab around the local area Monday was Tiz the Law, who turned in his first breeze since his impressive triumph in the Grade 3 Holy Bull on Feb. 1 at Gulfstream. Tiz the Law’s connections confirmed they are pointing him to the $1 million Florida Derby here March 28 for his final Kentucky Derby prep.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Chance It continued his preparations for the Grade 2 Fountain of Youth on Feb. 29 by working five furlongs in 59.56 seconds on Sunday and galloping out six furlongs in 1:12.79 with jockey Tyler Gaffalione aboard. The work was the third for Chance It since his victory over As Seen On Tv in the one-mile Mucho Macho Man on Jan. 4.
:: Fountain of Youth Day 2020: News, analysis, picks, past performances, and more
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Fresh off his second consecutive Eclipse Award-winning season, jockey Irad Ortiz Jr. is certainly giving every indication he’s not about to take his foot off the gas pedal in quest of a third consecutive title in 2020.
Ortiz went on a memorable roll late last week, winning 13 races over a three-day span beginning Friday and culminating with six victories on Sunday’s program, including five of the six legs of the Rainbow 6 sequence.
