HOT SPRINGS, Ark. – Oxbow is to make his next start in the Grade 2, $600,000 Rebel at Oaklawn Park on March 16 and will be ridden by Mike Smith, trainer D. Wayne Lukas said on Tuesday.
Oxbow had been under consideration for the Louisiana Derby after winning the Grade 3 Lecomte at Fair Grounds in January and returning to New Orleans last month and finishing a close fourth in the Grade 2 Risen Star.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. - Trainer Chad Brown said he’d been looking forward to starting Balance the Books in Sunday’s Grade 3 Palm Beach, which was won impressively by Rydilluc, but had to pass the race after Balance the Books took ill. The third-place finisher in the 2012 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf, Balance the Books worked a bullet half-mile in 48.18 seconds over the main track at Palm Meadows on Sunday.
He will run next in the Grade 3 Spiral Stakes at Turfway Park on March 23, Brown said.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Rudy Rodriguez’s decision to leave Vyjack in New York this winter had everything to do with the gelding’s state of mind.
So, while Rodriguez took about a dozen horses to sunny and sometimes-warm southern Florida – including his top 3-year-old filly, My Happy Face – Vyjack was left behind to endure the harsh winter weather of Queens and Aqueduct’s overly scrutinized inner track.
“He’s a little mental – that was the main reason,” Rodriguez said Sunday. “We didn’t want to go to Gulfstream. Aqueduct is like a private training center.”
OLDSMAR, Fla. – Saturday’s Festival Day will have three stakes races on the program, but the one most of the fans at the track and around the country will be most interested in is the Grade 3, $350,000 Tampa Bay Derby.
For years, sharp horsemen and savvy handicappers have come to learn that having at least one strong race over Tampa’s somewhat sandy and tiring surface can help a horse get ready for the first Saturday in May.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – The mutuel field closed as a clear-cut choice over the top individually listed option, Verrazano, when Pool 2 of the 2013 Kentucky Derby Future Wager closed Sunday at 6 p.m. Eastern.
The field, the 24th or “all others” option, closed as the 3-1 favorite, with Verrazano next at 8-1. They were followed by Vyjack (11-1), Orb (12-1), Flashback (12-1), Itsmyluckyday (13-1), Revolutionary (15-1), Shanghai Bobby (16-1), Normandy Invasion (17-1), and Super Ninety Nine (17-1).
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Can you say Derby Fever?
It’s certainly hard to blame trainer Gary Contessa and the connections of Rydilluc if they don’t start getting a little excited over the prospects of putting their 3-year-old on the Kentucky Derby trail after his eye-catching 3 1/2-length victory over Charming Kitten in Sunday’s $150,000 Palm Beach at Gulfstream Park.
ARCADIA, Calif. – Flashback, the unbeaten 3-year-old, had a tougher test than expected in a Sunday morning workout at Santa Anita.
A leading contender for Saturday’s $300,000 San Felipe Stakes, Flashback worked five furlongs in 59 seconds, the fastest of 63 recorded works at the distance. But the circumstances of the stretch run of the workout were not what jockey Julien Leparoux and trainer Bob Baffert envisioned.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Vyjack, West Hills Giant, and Elnaawi – the top three finishers from Saturday’s Grade 3, $400,000 Gotham Stakes at Aqueduct – all came out of the race in good order and are expected to meet again in the Grade 1, $1 million Wood Memorial here April 6.
