After finishing second in the San Felipe and third in the Santa Anita Handicap on Saturday, trainer John Shirreffs will re-load for this Saturday’s major stakes race at Santa Anita, when he sends out Hard Not to Love in the Grade 1, $400,000 Beholder Mile for older females.
Hard Not to Love will stretch out around two turns for the first time in the Beholder Mile following victories in the Grade 1 La Brea and Grade 2 Santa Monica this meet, both at seven furlongs.
ARCADIA, Calif. – Saturday ended a lot better than it started for trainer John Sadler. In the morning, he had to scratch morning-line favorite Gift Box from the Santa Anita Handicap. “I was down here,” Sadler said Sunday morning at Santa Anita, holding the palm of his hand just above the ground. “On the floor.”
But Sadler still won the Santa Anita Handicap with second-stringer Combatant, and also added the San Carlos with the sprinter Flagstaff, giving him two stakes victories on the biggest card of the meet to date.
ARCADIA, Calif. – Authentic and Honor A. P., the one-two finishers in the San Felipe Stakes on Saturday at Santa Anita, both emerged from the race well and are scheduled to meet again in the Grade 1 Santa Anita Derby on April 4, their trainers said Sunday morning here at Santa Anita.
The Santa Anita Derby, which has a purse of $1 million, will be their final prep before the Kentucky Derby on May 2 at Churchill Downs.
OLDSMAR, Fla. – Fourteen of the last 20 winners of the Tampa Bay Derby have run back in the Kentucky Derby. Destin in 2016 was the only one of them not to have a race in between, and he finished sixth behind Nyquist prior to losing a tight photo in the Belmont Stakes.
Trainer Juan Carlos Avila, a relative newcomer to the American racing scene, will be looking to do even better when King Guillermo goes eight weeks without a race. The Uncle Mo colt will train into the May 2 Kentucky Derby at Churchill Downs after posting a runaway victory Saturday at Tampa Bay Downs.
ARCADIA, Calif. – Fashionably Fast, the winner of four consecutive stakes for California-breds since October, is scheduled to have his graded stakes debut in the Grade 3 Kona Gold Stakes on April 19.
“I think he deserves a shot,” trainer Dean Pederson said.
Fashionably Fast won the Tiznow Stakes at a mile on March 1 in his most recent start. Owned by the partnership of John Harris, Per Antonsen, and John Nicoletti, Fashionably Fast has won his last six starts, a span that includes two wins in optional claimers last summer.
Mind Control has given his connections some memorable performances, including two Grade 1 victories at Saratoga, but he may have never been more impressive than he was winning Saturday’s Grade 3, $200,000 Tom Fool Handicap at Aqueduct.
After stumbling at the break and falling seven lengths off the pace after a half-mile, Mind Control came with a furious late rally under Junior Alvarado to win the Tom Fool by 1 1/4 lengths over a seemingly home-free Happy Farm.
There was an armed robbery Saturday night at Aqueduct Racetrack, where two masked gunmen held up mutuel department employees, stealing an undisclosed amount of money.
According to the New York Post, the robbery occurred at approximately 10 p.m., four hours after the last of 10 races was run at Aqueduct on the Gotham Day card.
Mischevious Alex came out of his victory in Saturday’s Grade 3 Gotham Stakes at Aqueduct in good order and all options are open for him including potentially training up to the Kentucky Derby on May 2, trainer John Servis said Sunday morning.
The original plan called for Alms to race Saturday in the Grade 3 Florida Oaks at Tampa. Instead, she worked a half-mile in 48.60 seconds on Friday at Fair Grounds.
The motivation for the change in plans is twofold. Alms, who looks at this moment like one of the top few 3-year-old turf fillies in North America after winning her first four starts, already has two Grade 3 wins, so rather than ship from New Orleans to Tampa to race at that level again, trainer Mike Stidham and owner Godolphin are pointing Alms to the Grade 2 Appalachian Stakes on April 5 at Keeneland.
ARCADIA, Calif. – Jack Weinstein, a horse owner for 40 years who won the Clocker’s Corner Stakes at Santa Anita on Jan. 26 with the homebred Lil Milo, died Wednesday after complications from a recent operation, according to family friends and trainer Alfredo Marquez.
Weinstein was 75 and lived in Anaheim Hills, Calif. A native of Pennsylvania, Weinstein was a retired doctor who had a general practice in Southern California.
