Tyler Gaffalione will ride 2019 Belmont Stakes winner Sir Winston in the $12 million Dubai World Cup on March 28 at Meydan, trainer Mark Casse said Sunday.
Gaffalione will become the eighth jockey to ride Sir Winston, who has run only 12 times. Joel Rosario was aboard for Sir Winston’s Belmont Stakes victory. Dylan Davis rode Sir Winston to a 2 1/4-length allowance victory at Aqueduct on Jan. 31.
NEW ORLEANS – Midnight Bisou on a wet Sunday morning turned in her final workout before departing Fair Grounds on Monday for Florida, the launching point for her journey Tuesday to Saudi Arabia for the $20 million Saudi Cup on Feb. 29. And if Sunday’s exercise was any guide, Midnight Bisou is more than ready for that trip.
Longtime Maryland trained John J. “Jerry” Robb closed out the Winter Carnival card in style on Saturday at Laurel Park by sending out Stroll Smokin ($5.60) to win a first-level allowance in the ninth-race nightcap. The victory was the 2,000th of Robb’s career.
Stroll Smokin is owned by Robb’s primary owner, the No Guts No Glory Farm of Gina Rosenthal, and was ridden by Robb’s first-string jockey Xavier Perez.
Ed Orr and his wife, Susie, decided to step up their investment in racing when he retired from a professional rodeo career, and the commitment has yielded a serious Kentucky Derby hopeful in Silver Prospector. The horse won the Grade 2 Kentucky Jockey Club Stakes last fall at Churchill Downs and on Monday will be looking to add another Kentucky Derby points race to his résumé in the Grade 3, $750,000 Southwest Stakes at Oaklawn Park.
NEW ORLEANS – Greg Tramontin has purchased a half-interest in undefeated Louisiana-bred 3-year-old No Parole from owner Maggi Moss. No Parole will stay in the barn of trainer Tom Amoss, who said there’s not a set plan for the colt’s next start.
NEW ORLEANS – Serengeti Empress zipped a half-mile in 47.40 seconds, fastest of 75 works at the distance Friday morning at Fair Grounds, in her first work since she finished second to Lady Apple in the Houston Ladies Classic on Jan. 26 while making her 4-year-old debut. Serengeti Empress won the 2019 Kentucky Oaks, finished third in the Breeders’ Cup Distaff in November, and remains on course to race March 14 at Oaklawn Park in the $350,000 Azeri Stakes, said Tom Amoss, who trains the filly for Joel Politi.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. – The Maryland-based trainer Horacio DePaz has brought a small string of horses – all New York breds – to Belmont where he hopes to expand his presence as the year moves along.
Amundson, a gelding by Curlin, is the best of the quartet for DePaz. A two-time allowance winner at Belmont in the fall, Amundson was entered Friday for Monday’s $100,000 Hollie Hughes Stakes for New York-breds at six furlongs.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Trainer Gary Sciacca is enjoying a successful winter in New York, one that could get even better when he sends out a pair of runners in Sunday’s $100,000 Gander Stakes for New York-bred 3-year-olds at Aqueduct.
Sciacca has a record of 7-6-7 from 42 starters through the first half of the meet, his seven wins putting him in the top 10 among trainers at the winter session.
“Better horses,” Sciacca said about why things are going so well. “We’re nothing without them.”
ARCADIA, Calif. – Less than two months after his arrival from Hong Kong, jockey Umberto Rispoli has been the surprise of the Santa Anita winter-spring meeting. Through Feb. 9, Rispoli had cracked the top five in the overall standings with 14 winners and led all riders with 13 wins on turf.
Rispoli, a 31-year-old native of Italy, had his first American stakes win with Billy Batts in the $84,750 Baffle Stakes on Feb. 7, the second of three days at the meeting in which he has won two races.
Trainer Coty Davidson was killed early Friday in central Florida in a single-vehicle wreck in which his passenger, jockey Megan Fadlovich, was reported to be seriously injured.
According to The Gainesville Sun, Davidson was driving southbound on Interstate 75 just north of Ocala when the crash occurred shortly after midnight. Davidson, 33, died after falling 40 feet from an overpass when apparently attempting to check on Fadlovich, 30, who had been ejected from the vehicle in the crash and had fallen over the same overpass.
