OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Eight months after winning his career debut at Belmont Park, Took Charge makes his second start in a first-level allowance that goes as the opener on Sunday’s eight-race Aqueduct card.
Took Charge, a son of Take Charge Indy, won a five-furlong maiden race on June 14 at Belmont Park. While he beat only three horses, one was Three Technique, a horse who since has come back to win twice and who most recently was second in the Smarty Jones Stakes at Oaklawn Park.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Romero Maragh understands the value of making a good first impression.
In his first mount since moving his tack to Aqueduct from Gulfstream Park, Maragh won Thursday’s opener aboard 8-1 shot Anydayisherday. It was Maragh’s third victory overall since he returned from a near year layoff after undergoing surgery to fuse four thoracic vertebrae on Jan. 31, 2019.
Maragh, 19, returned to race-riding on Jan. 20 at Gulfstream Park. He went 0 for 31 before recording two wins on Feb. 12. He said he only made the decision to come to New York last week.
ARCADIA, Calif. – After being a complete no-show in the Pegasus World Cup last month, Higher Power has returned to Santa Anita and is back working, though trainer John Sadler is still unsure as to where he’ll turn up next.
Higher Power went five furlongs in 1:02.80 on Friday morning, his second drill since the Pegasus.
Sadler said Higher Power would be nominated to the Grade 1 Santa Anita Handicap on March 7, run at the same 1 1/4-mile distance as last fall’s Breeders’ Cup Classic, in which Higher Power was third behind Vino Rosso and McKinzie.
ARCADIA, Calif. – Eight Rings, winner of the Grade 1 American Pharoah last fall, has not been seen since he was a dull sixth of eight in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile on Nov. 1, but he worked Friday as though he’s coming back the right way.
In company with the older sprinter Ax Man, Eight Rings more than held his own when completing a five-furlong work in 1:00.20 under Joel Rosario.
ARCADIA, Calif. – Trainer Simon Callaghan is getting set to unleash some of the best runners in his barn, like Bellafina, Donna Veloce, and Great Power, all of whom moved over to Santa Anita for finishing touches following workouts Thursday at Los Alamitos.
Bellafina, who closed her 2019 campaign with second-place finishes in the Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Sprint and La Brea, went a half-mile in 49.60 seconds in her first work of 2020. Callaghan said her intended comeback spot is the Grade 1 Madison at Keeneland in April.
ARCADIA, Calif. – Bast, a three-time Grade 1 winner last year at age 2, has been retired with a soft-tissue injury in an ankle, according to trainer Bob Baffert.
“She had a spot on an ankle. It was a little inflamed. We thought it would go away,” Baffert said. “But there’s a little something going on. She’d need four months off, there’s no guarantee it would heal, and she’s going to miss the Kentucky Oaks, so we decided to retire her.”
The reality of the aging process among athletes is that Edgar Prado won’t ever return to the stature that carried him to a Hall of Fame induction. But the 52-year-old jockey can still continue to enjoy what he’s doing – and win some races while he’s at it.
Prado has been having something of a career revival at the Gulfstream championship meet, cracking the top 10 for the first time in years while drawing ever closer to passing the great Angel Cordero Jr. on the all-time wins list.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – A sensational card is shaping up for next Saturday at Gulfstream Park, where the Grade 2, $400,000 Fountain of Youth Stakes will take center stage among nine graded stakes.
Dennis’ Moment figures as a solid favorite when making his eagerly awaited 3-year-old debut in the 1 1/16-mile Fountain of Youth, which is worth 85 qualifying points (50-20-10-5) toward the May 2 Kentucky Derby. He’s one of a handful of confirmed starters for the race, while the connections of several more are seriously considering it, according to Gulfstream racing officials.
Trainer Brendan Walsh, who once worked in Dubai, won the $2.5 million United Arab Emirates Derby last spring with Plus Que Parfait, and Walsh would like to have another horse for this year’s Dubai World Cup undercard on March 28 at Meydan Racecourse. Whether he does or not is in the hands of the official handicapper in Dubai, who will determine the rating for Chaos Theory, who most recently finished a tough-luck second to Just Might in the Colonel Power Stakes on Feb. 15 at Fair Grounds.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. - The New York Racing Association has created a four-person Safety and Integrity Team dedicated to enhancing existing safety protocols at its three tracks, Aqueduct, Belmont Park, and Saratoga.
Tim Kelly and Juan Dominguez have been made safety stewards, joining Hugh Gallagher, who has been a safety steward here since 2014, and Jean Claude Jaramillo, who holds the title of NYRA’s Equine Investigator Specialist.
