ARCADIA, Calif. – Trainer Sean McCarthy recently reopened a stable at Santa Anita after spending four months as an assistant to Michael McCarthy in Southern California.
Sean McCarthy disbanded his stable prior to the Del Mar summer meeting to join Michael McCarthy’s staff. The two trainers are not related.
ARCADIA, Calif. – Storm the Court, the winner of the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile at Santa Anita in November and a finalist for the Eclipse Award as the outstanding 2-year-old male of 2019, is up to five furlongs in workouts for his 2020 debut later this winter.
Sunday at Santa Anita, Storm the Court worked five furlongs in 1:01.60 under jockey Flavien Prat. Storm the Court has had three workouts since the upset win in the BC Juvenile at 45-1 on Nov. 1, including two half-mile workouts in the final 10 days of December.
ARCADIA, Calif. – Veteran jockey Iggy Puglisi was being evaluated at Arcadia Methodist Hospital, across the street from Santa Anita, late Saturday after complaining of shoulder soreness following a spill preceding race 6 on Saturday, according to Darrell Haire, the Western Regional Manager of the Jockeys' Guild.
Lou Goldfine, who ran a successful training operation in Chicago, Florida, and Kentucky that lasted from 1964 through 2000, died this week in California at 99.
His passing was reported Friday by his son and former assistant, Chicago-based trainer Mickey Goldfine.
The New York Racing Association handled $2,108,126,369 at its three racetracks in 2019, basically flat compared to business in 2018, according to figures released Friday afternoon by the organization.
The 2019 figure, achieved over 217 race days, was off by 0.2 percent compared to the $2,113,408,494 handled over 219 days in 2018. There were 2,000 races run between Aqueduct, Belmont, and Saratoga in 2019, 38 fewer than were run at those tracks in 2018.
On-track handle on NYRA’s races in 2019 was $310,053,754, a 5.2 percent decrease from the 2018 total of $326,893,963.
Fair Grounds canceled its nine-race program Friday because of inclement weather that produced potentially dangerous conditions.
Early scratches had been announced for an off-turf, sloppy track card when the decision was made to abandon racing. Thursday’s racing was conducted over a sloppy, sealed track.
Fair Grounds has no plans to make up the lost card but will add Friday’s lost races to upcoming programs a race or two at a time.
ARCADIA, Calif. – Classy Ruler will have her first start around two turns in a maiden special weight at a mile in Sunday’s fourth race. The distance should suit the filly, who trainer John Shirreffs has rated as a leading prospect.
Classy Ruler was second in her debut in a maiden special weight race at six furlongs at Del Mar on Nov. 30. She closed from fifth of eight to finish 1 1/2 lengths behind Golden Principal, who starts in Sunday’s Grade 2 Santa Ynez Stakes for 3-year-old fillies at seven furlongs.
ARCADIA, Calif. – Hours after he rides Broke Away Grey in Sunday’s eighth and final race at Santa Anita, Joe Talamo will be on an overnight flight, bound for a morning arrival in Arkansas. Monday morning, Tyler Baze is following the same route.
Chances are the two jockeys will bump into each at Oaklawn Park in Hot Springs, Ark., during morning workouts on Tuesday, eager to be seen around the stables in advance of that track’s opening day on Jan. 24. Baze and Talamo announced late last year that they plan to relocate to the Midwest, with plans to ride in Kentucky later this year.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Shotski, who won the Grade 2 Remsen here on Dec. 7, is “90 percent” certain to run in the Grade 3, $250,000 Withers Stakes here on Feb. 1, trainer Jeremiah O’Dwyer said Friday.
O’Dwyer said Shotski would also be nominated to the Grade 3, $200,000 Lecomte Stakes at Fair Grounds on Jan. 18, but “the Withers is highest on the list.”
“Don’t have to ship as far,” O’Dwyer said. “He’s been training at Laurel. We can take advantage of a course and distance we know he likes. Why not?”
OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Joe Lee, who has worked as Kiaran McLaughlin’s Belmont Park-based assistant for the last five years, will open up a public stable.
Lee, 57, will be getting a few horses who previously raced under McLaughlin’s name, including Spice Road, Holland Park, Flush, Spring Drama, Cairo Queen, and Larceny. It is likely, though not definite, that the New York-bred Pauseforthecause will stay with Lee following her run in Saturday’s La Verdad Stakes.
