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.
Exaulted, the runner-up to Nadal in a maiden special weight sprint last month at Santa Anita, has been entered in the $100,000 Mine That Bird Derby on Sunday at Sunland Park. Mike Smith has been named to ride by trainer Peter Eurton.
The Mine That Bird Derby, at a mile and a sixteenth, is the final local prep for next month’s Grade 3, $700,000 Sunland Derby.
Exaulted earned a Beyer Figure of 90 for his debut effort against Nadal, who has since won the Grade 2 San Vicente at Santa Anita.
The $75,000 Houston Turf Stakes on Saturday night at Sam Houston Race Park had the potential to be a showdown between the two most recent Texas-bred horses of the year – Direct Dial and Mr Money Bags – but that will not happen after trainer Mike Neatherlin said Wednesday that Mr Money Bags will be scratched. The horse would have been favored off a recent Sam Houston stakes win for which he earned a Beyer Speed Figure of 100.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Max Player, the Grade 3 Withers Stakes winner and a member of Daily Racing Form’s Derby Watch, returned to the work tab Wednesday morning, breezing five furlongs in 1:03.75 over the Belmont Park training track.
Max Player, a son of Honor Code trained by Linda Rice for owner George Hall, is pointing to the Grade 2, $750,000 Wood Memorial on April 4.
