HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Todd Pletcher wasn’t throwing around “g’day mate” and other Australian slang Wednesday morning, but maybe it’s because he didn’t spend all that much time in the Land Down Under.
“It was a short stay and long flights,” Pletcher said. “But it was a good time.”
Pletcher left for Australia the evening of Jan. 7 and was back on Florida soil Sunday night. Pletcher mixed a bit of pleasure on the country’s Gold Coast with his horse business.
NEW ORLEANS – Where a right eye should flicker, Finnick the Fierce sports an empty socket.
The horse with one eye drew post 1 for the 14-horse Lecomte Stakes, to be run Saturday at Fair Grounds.
Finnick the Fierce would merit spilled ink, downloaded bytes, even with full vision. He was bought for a relative song by a Kentucky veterinarian, Arnaldo Monge. The man who broke him as a yearling, Rey Hernandez, liked him well enough to acquire a half-interest from Monge and trains him. Hernandez, 39, hails from Guatemala. Ever heard of a Guatemalan racetracker?
Mocito Rojo, who won five consecutive stakes at five different racetracks in 2019, will soon make his Oaklawn Park debut. Trainer Shane Wilson said Tuesday that Mocito Rojo is on deck for the track’s $100,000 Fifth Season on Jan. 25.
The race, at a mile, is for 4-year-olds and up. It will share a card this year with the $100,000 Pippin. Entries are Monday.
NEW ORLEANS – Serengeti Empress is built something along the lines of a gazelle. She’s fleet, works hard during morning exercise, and does not take a lot of training to get ready to race.
Case in point: Following Serengeti Empress’s second workout here Jan. 12 after a post-Breeders’ Cup break, trainer Tom Amoss proclaimed the filly “fit and ready.” She is so ready that Amoss said Serengeti Empress will make her 4-year-old debut in the $300,000 Houston Ladies Classic on Jan. 26 at Sam Houston.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Over the last two years, Mind Control and Joevia have been a source of excitement and agita for trainer Gregg Sacco. Mind Control won Grade 1 stakes in 2018 and 2019 but had troubled trips in a pair of other stakes. Joevia, though less accomplished than Mind Control, came within 1 3/4 lengths of upsetting the 2019 Belmont Stakes.
What 2020 has in store for the two 4-year-olds will begin to reveal itself this week when in a span of 24 hours both horses return to the races at Aqueduct.
NEW ORLEANS – Three-year-old filly Beautiful Trauma, who got a 92 Beyer Speed Figure for a 16-length victory in a mile and 70-yard first-level allowance race Dec. 21 at Fair Grounds, has undergone surgery to remove a bone chip in her knee, trainer Tom Amoss said. Beautiful Trauma, if all goes well, will be aimed toward a late-spring and summer campaign.
Making her first start around two turns here last month, Beautiful Trauma went to the front and drew steadily clear to post one of the two most impressive performance this meet from a horse in her class.
NEW ORLEANS – Last January at Fair Grounds, trainer Bret Calhoun had two colts he hoped could turn out to be serious players in the 2019 3-year-old dirt-route division. By My Standards was one of them, and he wound up winning the Louisiana Derby. Mr. Money was the other, and he won four straight Grade 3 races before finishing second in the Grade 1 Pennsylvania Derby.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – One older horse not quite ready for a race like the Pegasus World Cup but who figures to be heard from in the handicap division as the year progresses is Endorsed. The 4-year-old son of Medaglia d’Oro made a triumphant return here Saturday by rallying to a two-length victory over a very strong field of optional-claiming rivals while making his first start since a fourth-place finish nearly five months earlier in the Travers.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – While Omaha Beach has been getting most of the attention in the weeks leading up to the $3 million Pegasus World Cup, the horse who handed him his only setback over the last year has been preparing in relative anonymity for the rematch on Jan. 25.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Worker’s compensation insurance rates for New York-based trainers have declined significantly over the last two years and could decrease further with the implementation of a new high-deductible plan, according to a release put out over the weekend by the New York Thoroughbred Horsemen’s Association.
