ARCADIA, Calif. – There are two Grade 3 races for fillies and mares on Saturday’s program, but rain could result in one surface change.
The $100,000 La Canada Stakes at 1 1/16 miles on the main track has a probable field of six – Bernina Star, Escape Clause, Exuberance, Lemoona, Stradella Road, and True Royalty. Stradella Road was third in the Lady of Shamrock Stakes for 3-year-old fillies at a mile on turf and has not run on the main track in eight starts.
ARCADIA, Calif. – Shortly before 8 a.m. at Santa Anita on Wednesday, Game Winner’s 3-year-old campaign began in earnest.
The undefeated winner of the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile at Churchill Downs on Nov. 2, Game Winner worked three furlongs in 35.20 seconds under jockey Drayden Van Dyke. In his first work since the BC Juvenile, Game Winner had the fastest of 14 at the distance on Wednesday.
“He looks like he could run next week,” trainer Bob Baffert said.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Trainer David Fawkes won the Limehouse here last Saturday with Seismic Jolt, and then took a three-day trip to New Orleans, including a day of fishing on the backwaters just east of the Mississippi River. Par for the course? More or less.
“I usually only take Tuesdays off to go fishing,” said Fawkes, whose favorite spots in the South Florida area are Key Largo and Chokoloskee. “I’m not a seven-days-a-week trainer anymore – I’m not gonna lie.”
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Team Valor International will have a top contender Saturday at Gulfstream Park in the $150,000 Marshua’s River, but not with the horse you might think.
Capla Temptress emerged as one of the more promising female turf runners based in Florida this winter by winning the Grade 3 My Charmer here last month for Team Valor, but she wasn’t entered by trainer Bill Mott in the Marshua’s River.
Mine That Bird, the New Mexico-based runner who won the Kentucky Derby in 2009, will enter the Ruidoso Downs Hall of Fame, the track announced. The date of the ceremony is to be determined.
Ruidoso will open a few weeks earlier this year than in previous years, on May 10. The meet will close as usual on Labor Day, Sept. 2, with the running of the $3 million All American Futurity for Quarter Horses.
The Grade 1, $1 million Heritage Place Futurity tops Remington Park’s stakes schedule for its Quarter Horse meet, which opens March 8. The 50-date season will run through June 1.
The Heritage Place, a Grade 1 and the richest race in Oklahoma, will anchor a card of nine stakes on June 1, according to an announcement from Remington. The program will also feature the Grade 1, $250,000 Remington Park Invitational Championship, which last year was won by Jessies First Down, the sport’s two-time reigning world champion.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – After taking more than six years off from the everyday grind of training horses, Stanley Hough is back in business again and appears to have himself a top 3-year-old prospect in the barn following Global Campaign’s impressive debut win here last weekend.
Global Campaign drew off to a 5 3/4-length victory on Saturday for Hough, who trains the son of Curlin for Sagamore Farm and his breeder, WinStar Farm. Global Campaign is bred to be a good horse, being a half-brother to both the two-time Grade 1 winner Bolt d’Oro and multiple stakes winner Sonic Mule.
Godolphin and trainer Michael Stidham have an up-and-coming 3-year-old filly on their hands in Sunset Wish. She won her third straight race Saturday night in the $75,000 Take Charge Brandi at Delta Downs, defeating multiple stakes winner Taylor’s Spirit by 2 3/4 lengths and earning a career-high Beyer Speed Figure of 73.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – It’s been a long time since anybody turned in a workout over the Gulfstream Park turf course as flashy or as impressive as Monte Crista did here Sunday when breezing four furlongs in 45.03 in preparation, hopefully, for a start in Saturday’s Grade 3 Marshua’s River here.
Hopefully is the key word, as Monte Crista’s trainer, Mike Trombetta, explained on Monday.
