Minit to Stardom equaled her career-best Beyer Speed Figure – a 94 – with her powerful win in the $100,000 Louisiana Premier Night Matron on Saturday night at Delta Downs. The number matched the one she earned for her victory in the Grade 2 Honorable Miss last July at Saratoga.
Trainer Jose Camejo said Tuesday that plans are pending for Minit to Stardom, a daughter of Star Guitar who races for her breeder, Brittlyn Stables.
No Parole is poised to jump onto the Kentucky Derby trail after winning the first three starts of his career by a combined margin of 34 lengths. His latest score came Saturday night at Delta Downs, in the $100,000 Louisiana Premier Night Prince.
No Parole was making his two-turn debut and set a measured pace under jockey James Graham, responded when asked for run into the stretch, and was in hand late while getting the mile in 1:39.93. The score came off a pair of wins at six furlongs.
HOT SPRINGS, Ark. -- The depth of the stable in trainer Steve Asmussen's care at Oaklawn Park was on full display last Saturday.
Share the Upside put up the meet’s highest Beyer Speed Figure to date when he popped a 104 winning the $125,000 King Cotton. A few races prior, the Group 1-winning mare La Renoleta rolled by 9 3/4 lengths in her North American debut to improve her career record to 5 for 5.
The Grade 1, $1 million Haskell Invitational Stakes, the centerpiece of the Monmouth Park meet in New Jersey, will be held this year on July 18 as part of a card with five additional stakes, according to a stakes schedule released by the track on Tuesday.
The July 18 Haskell card will feature stakes races with total purses of $1.925 million. Two of the undercard stakes races, the Grade 3, $300,000 Monmouth Cup and Grade 3, $250,000 Molly Pitcher, have been given $100,000 purse bumps this year, according to the track.
HOT SPRINGS, Ark. -- Chase Tracker has put himself in the Grade 3, $750,000 Southwest Stakes on Monday at Oaklawn Park after a strong recent workout, trainer Todd Pletcher said Monday.
The Southwest carries qualifying points for the Kentucky Derby, with the first four finishers to earn points on a scale of 10-4-2-1. The race also anchors a card of three Grade 3 stakes, the others the $500,000 Razorback Handicap and the $200,000 Bayakoa.
NEW ORLEANS – Midnight Bisou worked five fulongs in 1:00.20 on Sunday, second fastest of 52 works at the distance that morning at Fair Grounds, and remains on track to start Feb. 29 in the $20 million Saudi Cup. The champion older female of 2019, she has been breezing steadily here in New Orleans since December, the only hiccup whatsoever in her Saudi Cup preparation a period of very wet weather that led to a 10-day gap between works.
Sunday, Midnight Bisou worked in company, starting off a few lengths behind her workmate and finishing a couple lengths in front.
NEW ORLEANS – Grant Forster is running Pirate’s Punch in the Mineshaft Stakes on Saturday at Fair Grounds, and out of curiosity he started poking around in stakes histories to see what sort of horses had won the Mineshaft. In fact, Mineshaft, the horse himself, won this race as a 4-year-old in 2003 when it was called the Whirlaway. Earlier in the Fair Grounds meet, Mineshaft, who’d begun his career in England, won a second-level dirt-route allowance race. Robby Albarado was his jockey.
NEW ORLEANS – It’s not like trainer Mike Stidham has trained dozens of world-class horses, but plenty of talented animals have passed through his barn during a long training career, perhaps none as talented as the 3-year-old filly Alms.
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NEW ORLEANS – The Fair Grounds track apron nearly was deserted for the first couple sets of horses Monday morning, but one trainer, Hall of Famer Steve Asmussen, was down on the fence with his stopwatch.
Among several Asmussen horses to work were his starters for important stakes here this Saturday – Finite, who runs in the Rachel Alexandra, and Silver State, who’s part of the first division of the Risen Star Stakes.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – The biggest name on the work tab around the local area Monday was Tiz the Law, who turned in his first breeze since his impressive triumph in the Grade 3 Holy Bull on Feb. 1 at Gulfstream. Tiz the Law’s connections confirmed they are pointing him to the $1 million Florida Derby here March 28 for his final Kentucky Derby prep.
