HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Kelly Breen knows better than to spout off without good reason. Deep down, Breen believes Epic Dreamer has the potential to develop into a Kentucky Derby type of horse, but the data isn’t there yet.
“There’s not much to say until he runs a big race in a big race,” Breen said. “I’ve got a lot of faith in him, but let’s let him prove what he can do.”
Midnight Bisou’s end game this year is a return trip to the Breeders’ Cup Distaff and part of her path there is scheduled to run through Oaklawn Park.
Midnight Bisou – an Eclipse Award finalist for champion 3-year-old filly of 2018 – launched her 4-year-old season Sunday with a last-to-first win in the Grade 3, $300,000 Houston Ladies Classic at Sam Houston Race Park. She captured the 1 1/16-mile race by three-quarters of a length and earned a Beyer Speed Figure of 91. It was her first start since running third in the Breeders’ Cup Distaff on Nov. 3.
Gray Attempt won the $150,000 Smarty Jones wire to wire last week at Oaklawn Park, but it might be a mistake to brand the 3-year-old as one-dimensional. He was stretching out from six furlongs to a mile for a race that ended at the sixteenth pole and he drew the widest gate in circumstances that dictated tactics, trainer Jinks Fires said.
“We had the eight post and if you don’t go on from there, you could wind up getting hung wide all the way around the first turn,” Fires said.
The equine herpesvirus quarantine at Parx Racing that began Jan. 9 was lifted Wednesday, and horses are free to leave the backstretch without restrictions. Other tracks in the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic have resumed accepting entries from horses stabled at Parx.
A horse stabled in Barn 27 at Parx with trainer Ramon Martin spiked a fever on Jan. 8 and was sent to the Mid-Atlantic Equine Center in Ringoes, N.J. That horse tested positive for the non-neurological strain of the equine herpesvirus, but its temperature soon subsided.
Next Shares returned Monday to Santa Anita, none the worse after a bad trip contributed to his seventh-place finish in the Grade 1 Pegasus Turf Invitational on Saturday at Gulfstream Park.
A Grade 1 winner last fall in Kentucky and Grade 2 winner this year in California, Next Shares never had a chance in the Pegasus Turf. He steadied while repeatedly racing inside, was shuffled and lost position into and through the far turn, and was unable to overcome the trip under Tyler Gafflione. He finished 11 3/4-lengths behind winner Bricks and Mortar.
Trainer Mark Reid gave his undefeated 3-year-old filly Please Flatter Me her first workout in a month Sunday at Pimlico. He now plans to gear her up for the $250,000 Busher Invitational, a one-mile race on March 9 at Aqueduct.
Please Flatter Me, a Pennsylvania-bred daughter of Munnings, breezed a half-mile in 50.40 seconds in her first timed exercise since an easy 5 3/4-length victory in the Gin Talking Stakes on Dec. 29 at Laurel Park.
Laurel Park has joined Aqueduct, Charles Town, and Penn National in canceling some racing programs this week due to the arctic blast that is nearing the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic. Laurel Park has canceled its Thursday card and is scheduled to race Friday.
The temperature in Laurel, Md., is supposed to bottom out Wednesday night at 4 degrees, according to Accuweather. The Thursday high is forecast to be 22 degrees, with winds of 14 to 23 mph.
The advancing cold front that will bring frigid temperatures to the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic on Wednesday night has forced racing cancellations at Charles Town and Penn National.
Charles Town in West Virginia has canceled its Wednesday evening card and is scheduled to resume racing Thursday if conditions permit.
Penn National, outside Harrisburg, Pa., has canceled through Saturday and is scheduled to race next on Wednesday, Feb. 6. The temperature in Harrisburg is forecast to drop to 3 degrees Wednesday night and stay below freezing until Saturday.
There will not be live racing Thursday at Aqueduct due to a forecast that calls for extreme cold conditions, the New York Racing Association announced Wednesday.
Further, the tracks will be closed for training at both Aqueduct and Belmont Park.
The National Weather Service calls for a high temperature of 16 degrees in the New York metropolitan area on Thursday, with wind chills between minus 5 and minus 15 degrees. It is the third full-card cancellation at Aqueduct this month.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Trainer Robert “Butch” Reid told jockey Jose Ortiz he’d buy him lunch if he could hold the freakishly fast Maximus Mischief to a half-mile in 49 seconds over the packed down, sealed, but still muddy racetrack here Monday morning in his all-important final breeze before Saturday’s Grade 2 Holy Bull.
