DEL MAR, Calif. – Santa Anita will race sparingly, if at all, in inclement conditions during its winter-spring meeting that begins on Dec. 26, and will not run claiming races for values of less than $10,000, according to terms announced at Thursday’s California Horse Racing Board meeting.
The racing board approved Santa Anita’s racing license by a 5-0 vote, contingent on several restrictions different from past seasons.
MIAMI – Bodexpress earned himself a ticket back into graded stakes company, this time not as a maiden but as a track-record holder, after burying a solid field of allowance rivals in Wednesday’s main event at Gulfstream Park West.
DEL MAR, Calif. – Greg Ferraro, a former racetrack practicing veterinarian who more recently headed the veterinary teaching hospital at University of California-Davis, was elected chairman of the California Horse Racing Board on Thursday.
In brief introductory remarks as chairman, Ferraro said his initial goal as chairman will be to enact policies to eliminate the use of medications in horses. Ferraro assumes the role of chairman in a year in which California racing has undergone international scrutiny as a result of equine fatalities in racing and training.
Maximum Security went through a standard Jason Servis workout Wednesday at Belmont Park, officially going a half-mile in 52.01 seconds.
By now, Servis’s idiosyncratic workout regimens have become well known. He breezes his horses slower and less frequently than nearly any trainer in North America. Wednesday’s drill, Maximum Security’s first since Nov. 10, fit right into the mold. Servis called the exercise an “open gallop” and said he timed Maximum Security going one mile in 1:57 and change and 1 1/8 miles in 2:10 and change.
MIAMI – Trainer Bob Hess Jr. will combine both quantity and quality when he sends out Cause for Pardon and Face of Victory against six rivals in Friday’s $45,000 main event at Gulfstream Park West. The one-mile turf test is for 3-year-olds and up.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – The highlight of a 10-race Friday card looks wide open, regardless of whether it remains on turf as scheduled. It’s a $97,000 first-level allowance that goes as race 9 with a full field of 10 fillies and mares.
Depending on weather and course conditions – intermittent showers and temperatures in the 40s are in the forecast for Friday – the one-mile race will be run around two turns over turf, or around one turn if it’s switched to the main track.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Roadster, Draft Pick, Mr. Buff, and Mocito Rojo are among the out-of-town runners whose connections are closely eyeing the Grade 1, $600,000 Clark, to be run next Friday at Churchill.
At this early juncture, these are the known prospects for the 1 1/8-mile Clark, for which entries will be drawn Sunday: Bravazo, Draft Pick, Mocito Rojo, Mr. Buff, Mr Freeze, Roadster, Seeking the Soul, and Tom’s d’Etat. Possibilities include Owendale, Snapper Sinclair, and Blueridge Traveler, with maybe a couple more rounding out a solid lineup.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Christmas will just have to come a little later for Brendan Walsh than everyone else. The Irish-born trainer said he expects to be reunited in Florida with Maxfield and Vitalogy “sometime in the early part of January” when both colts return from brief vacations.
Walsh said this week that he expects to have sufficient time with both colts to make the major spring races, assuming everything goes to plan. Both were scratched from their last scheduled starts in the Breeders’ Cup at Santa Anita.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Trainer Kevin Attard said Starship Jubilee is on target for the Grade 3 Cardinal Stakes on Thanksgiving at Churchill Downs.
Starship Jubilee is a leading candidate for Canadian Horse of the Year honors, and a graded stakes score in the United States would bolster her chances. Attard said the Grade 1 E.P. Taylor winner could make one more additional start at Gulfstream before heading to the breeding shed.
“We’re hoping the weather cooperates,” Attard said. “Obviously, the turf in Kentucky will be good.”
DEL MAR, Calif. – Seeking opportunities to ride more races and earn more money, jockey Joe Talamo, a mainstay on the Southern California circuit for a dozen years, said he has decided to relocate to Oaklawn Park for the start of that track’s meeting on Jan. 24 and will ride on a year-round circuit that includes Arkansas and Kentucky.
“For me and my family, it’s a good time to head back there,” Talamo said. “There should be more opportunity – full fields, and the purses are astronomical.”
Talamo and his wife, Elizabeth, have two sons – Vincent, 3, and Dominic, 1 1/2.
