OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Wicked Trick’s hopes of extending his winning streak to seven in an allowance race are gone with the wind, so it looks like he will step into stakes company in next Saturday’s $125,000 Stymie Stakes at Aqueduct.
Wicked Trick was entered in a third-level allowance race for Thursday, but that card was canceled due to high winds. Though the race was put up as an extra for Sunday’s program, it did not draw enough entries to be carded.
ARCADIA, Calif. – Storm the Court, the champion 2-year-old male of 2019 who was fourth in the Grade 2 San Vicente Stakes on Feb. 9, is likely to start in the Grade 2 San Felipe Stakes on March 7 at Santa Anita.
Trainer Peter Eurton and the partnership that owns the colt had considered races such as the Rebel Stakes on March 14 at Oaklawn Park, but Eurton said Friday that the $400,000 San Felipe Stakes at 1 1/16 miles has appeal.
BOYNTON BEACH, Fla. – Diamond Oops likely would have been one of the top choices in the Gulfstream Park Mile on Feb. 29, but was not entered in the race after acting “a bit dull” earlier in the week, trainer Patrick Biancone said.
“We took blood on him and it came back a little off,” Biancone said. “He will get a couple of weeks off.”
Diamond Oops most recently was fourth in the Pegasus World Cup. Last year, he won the Smile Sprint Stakes and was second in a pair of Grade 1 races, the Alfred Vanderbilt and the Shadwell Turf Mile.
BOYNTON BEACH, Fla. – Spa City, winner of a highly rated maiden race on Feb. 8 at Gulfstream Park, is heading to stakes competition next, with the Tampa Bay Derby on March 7 his target. He had his final work for that race Friday morning here at the Palm Meadows training center, when he went five furlongs in 1:00.85 under exercise rider Rob Massey.
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HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Sharing, winner of the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf last fall, could make her 3-year-old debut in May while prepping for a possible start at Royal Ascot, trainer Graham Motion said this week.
Motion said Sharing could return to action either in the Edgewood on the May 1 Kentucky Oaks undercard at Churchill Downs or the Hilltop Stakes on May 15 during Preakness week at Pimlico.
“I might be able to bring her back at Keeneland, but more likely one of those later races,” he said.
ARCADIA, Calif. - Santa Anita is launching a cash bonus for the final four months of its current winter-spring meeting designed to keep horses that have raced at the track since late December from leaving for other circuits.
This is the second cash incentive program announced within a week designed to improve field size.
LEXINGTON, Ky. - Keeneland and Churchill Downs will require veterinarians to sign off on the racing soundness of horses prior to workouts and races beginning with the meets the two tracks will stage this year, the tracks announced on Thursday.
ARCADIA, Calif. – United, second in the Breeders’ Cup Turf at Santa Anita in November, and Tizamagician, fourth in the Grade 3 Robert B. Lewis Stakes on Feb. 1, are on schedule for stakes on the Dubai World Cup program in the United Arab Emirates on March 28, trainer Richard Mandella said on Thursday.
United worked six furlongs in 1:12.60 at Santa Anita on Thursday, his second workout since his first career stakes win in the Grade 2 San Marcos Stakes at 1 1/4 miles on turf on Feb. 1.
“He seems better than ever,” Mandella said.
ARCADIA, Calif. – The new Golden Hour Double that links the final races at Santa Anita and Golden Gate Fields in a $5 daily double starts on Saturday with two competitive fields.
The bet, which will be held each racing day, has a reduced takeout of 15 percent, down from 20 percent for a typical daily double, and a pool guaranteed to reach $50,000 by The Stronach Group, the parent company of both tracks.
