ARCADIA, Calif. - Demonic, the winner of a seven-furlong maiden race for 3-year-olds in his debut on Jan. 13, had a workout delayed this week because of a “minor issue,” trainer John Sadler said.
Sadler and owners Lee and Susan Searing are hoping to start Demonic in the $300,000 San Felipe Stakes over 1 1/16 miles on March 9 if the colt can resume full training.
[ROAD TO THE KENTUCKY DERBY: Prep races, point standings, replays]
Jeff Greenhill said this week that his stable star Mac the Man most likely will skip the final prep and just train into the $550,000 Spiral Stakes at Turfway Park on March 23.
Mac the Man was a dominant winner of two earlier $50,000 preps, the Turfway Prevue and 96 Rock Stakes, and probably would have been the favorite in the next one, the $100,000 John Battaglia Memorial. The Battaglia, a 1 1/16-mile Polytrack race, will be run next Saturday, March 2, at the northern Kentucky track.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – With seven of the top 13 3-year-olds on Daily Racing Form’s Derby Watch in his barn, Todd Pletcher has a problem any other trainer not named Bob Baffert would love to have – keeping his Kentucky Derby hopefuls separated while on the quest to amass as many qualifying points as possible for the main event on May 4.
With that in mind, Pletcher has entered only one of his leading Derby prospects, Violence, in Saturday’s $400,000 Fountain of Youth Stakes at Gulfstream Park. And in this case, one figures to be enough.
The road to the Kentucky Derby enters a new phase Saturday with ramped up point values for prep races. Between the Risen Star at Fair Grounds and the Fountain of Youth Stakes at Gulfstream Park, which are both Grade 2, $400,000 events, there will be 170 Derby points available, points that will be crucial in an oversubscribed Kentucky Derby field.
HOT SPRINGS, Ark. – Always in a Tiz, who finished fifth as the second choice in the Grade 3, $300,000 Southwest at Oaklawn this past Monday, was found to have a lung infection following the race, according to his connections. The horse came into the Southwest off a fast-closing third in last month’s $150,000 Smarty Jones at Oaklawn.
“He scoped with a lung infection,” said Anthony Bonomo Jr., general manager for MeB Racing Stables and Brooklyn Boyz Stables.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. - He’s Had Enough arrived safely at Gulfstream Park from California on Tuesday and got his first feel for the local surroundings going to the racetrack to train Wednesday morning.
He’s Had Enough was accompanied both on the trip and out on the track by trainer Doug O’Neill’s stable pony, the former champion Lava Man, who was returning to Gulfstream for the first time since 2005, when he finished a well-beaten seventh in the $1 million Sunshine Millions Classic.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. - Eleven horses were entered for Saturday's Fountain of Youth at Gulfstream Park, but at least one, Sky Captain, figures to come out at scratch time. Trainer Mark Casse said Wednesday that barring any significant scratches, he’ll come out and await either Turfway’s Battaglia or the Grade 3 Gotham at Aqueduct for Sky Captain’s stakes debut. Both races will be decided March 2.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Two years ago, trainer Kiaran McLaughlin won the Grade 2 Fountain of Youth with Soldat, a War Front colt best known for his exploits on turf at 2.
On Saturday, McLaughlin is hoping lightning will strike in a similar manner with Elmutahid, a son of Street Cry who made all four of his 2-year-old starts on grass before switching to dirt to register an impressive maiden win over a sloppy track here at Gulfstream last month.
