Saturday’s card at Fair Grounds is that track’s biggest of the year so far, with six stakes up for grabs, led by the Grade 3, $200,000 Lecomte Stakes, a Kentucky Derby qualifying race. Elsewhere, Santa Anita has the highest-graded event of the day in the Grade 2, $200,000 Santa Monica, and it’s Sunshine Millions Day at Gulfstream Park, with five stakes for Florida-breds.
Louisiana Stakes
NEW ORLEANS – You can still find 57-year-old David Carroll out on the Fair Grounds oval most every morning doing what he has done since he was a 6-year-old in Ireland – riding horses.
Carroll has wintered at Fair Grounds for the better part of two decades. Things right now are both better and worse than they were a year ago.
Worse because Carroll, his stable down to a handful of modest runners, finally gave up being a head trainer at the end of the 2015-16 Fair Grounds meet, but better because he has settled comfortably into his job as an assistant to trainer Mark Casse.
HOT SPRINGS, Ark. - Uncontested emerged from his Monday romp in the $150,000 Smarty Jones in good order, and on Tuesday trainer Wayne Catalano said the horse is being pointed for the second race in Oaklawn’s series for 3-year-olds, the Southwest.
The Southwest, a Grade 3 race worth $500,000, will be run Feb. 20.
HOT SPRINGS, Ark. – Uncontested was left alone on the lead in the $150,000 Smarty Jones Stakes on Monday at Oaklawn Park and put on a show in the slop, winning off by 5 1/4 lengths while picking up 10 eligibility points for the Kentucky Derby.
Petrov, who made a run at the leader into the final turn, finished second, and it was another 4 1/2 lengths back to Rowdy the Warrior in third. Those horses, plus fourth-place finisher Warrior’s Club, also earned points on a sliding scale of 4-2-1.
ARCADIA, Calif. - Gormley is likely to have a nine-week gap between races after winning his 3-year-old debut by a head in a thrilling running of the $100,690 Sham Stakes at a mile on Saturday at Santa Anita.
Trainer John Shirreffs said on Sunday that he is leaning toward the $200,000 San Felipe Stakes at 1 1/16 miles on March 11 for Gormley’s next start. The Grade 2 San Felipe is a key prep for the $1 million Santa Anita Derby at 1 1/8 miles on April 8.
“I would like to give him time,” Shirreffs said. “The San Felipe is a logical spot.
ARCADIA, Calif. – Gormley is named for a famed British sculptor, but it is trainer John Shirreffs who is molding Antony Gormley’s namesake into one of the top prospects for the Kentucky Derby. Gormley disappointed in his final start at age 2, but he rebounded on Saturday with a big effort, out-dueling the well-regarded American Anthem in a thrilling edition of the Grade 3, $100,690 Sham Stakes for 3-year-olds at Santa Anita.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – A maiden winning a stakes race is no longer considered a rare phenomenon, but few have done so as impressively as Hemsworth did when cruising to a 9 1/2-length victory to close out his 2-year-old campaign in the Grade 2 Nashua at Aqueduct.
Trainer Tom Albertrani is hoping his homebred can build on that performance when he kicks off his 2017 season in the $100,000 Mucho Macho Man, the last of four stakes for 3-year-olds on Saturday’s 11-race program at Gulfstream Park.
El Areeb established himself as a Kentucky Derby prospect when he romped by 11 1/4 lengths in the Jerome Stakes last Monday at Aqueduct. Pressing the pace, he took the fight out of front-running favorite Takaful, pulled away on the turn to win with ease, and recorded a 91 Beyer Speed Figure, one of the better route dirt figures by a 2-year-old of 2016.
Girvin impressed trainer Joe Sharp enough winning his career debut Dec. 16 at Fair Grounds that he plans to give the colt his second start in the Grade 3 Lecomte Stakes on Jan. 21.
Girvin, by Tale of Ekati out of Catch the Moon, by Malibu Moon, showed excellent early speed in his debut, and after a race-long battle edged another talented first-timer, Excitations, by a head. He ran six furlongs in 1:10.32, earning an 87 Beyer, the best figure for a 2-year-old during 2016 at Fair Grounds.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. – While trainer Kiaran McLaughlin brought the bulk of his top-caliber horses to south Florida for the winter, he left one potentially very good horse behind for the time being.
Takaful, who dazzled in his debut before disappointing in the Remsen, will kick off 2017 in Monday’s Grade 3, $150,000 Jerome Stakes at Aqueduct, the first race on this circuit for New York-based 3-year-olds with hopes of making it to the Kentucky Derby on May 6.
