ARCADIA, Calif. – Scary thought: City of Light is better now than when he ran the race of his career seven weeks ago in the Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile.
“He has moved forward,” trainer Michael McCarthy stated with conviction Thursday at Santa Anita, after City of Light worked a half-mile in company in preparation for his career finale in the Grade 1 Pegasus World Cup on Jan. 26 at Gulfstream Park.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Although he was on the Kentucky Derby trail last year as a 3-year-old, it would appear one-turn races might be the right niche for Wild Shot – one-turn races such as Saturday’s Grade 3 Mr. Prospector at Gulfstream Park. The seven-furlong dash serves as the final graded stakes of the 2018 racing season in South Florida.
Haikal put in a sustained run to impressively take a six-furlong Aqueduct maiden race Saturday while making his second start. The Shadwell Stable homebred 2-year-old made up at least five lengths in the final furlong of the race to win by a neck and earn an 85 Beyer Speed Figure.
In his debut, he put in a similar run to miss by a neck going seven furlongs. The $150,000 Jerome, a mile race on Jan. 1, would have suited him but the time between races is too short.
One of the most accomplished horses in trainer Brad Cox’s stable is training at Fair Grounds for a possible start in Florida. Meanwhile, the most accomplished horse in his stable is resting in Florida and scheduled to re-enter training next month at Fair Grounds.
Horse A is Leofric, who has blossomed beautifully the second part of this season with a third-place finish in the Grade 1 Woodward in New York followed by wins in the Fayette at Keeneland and the Clark Handicap on Nov. 23 at Churchill, Leofric’s first win at the Grade 1 level.
The 3-year-old filly Midnight Bisou put together a supremely productive five-win 2018 campaign and will not take long to launch her 4-year-old season.
Third on Nov. 3 in the Breeders’ Cup Distaff, Midnight Bisou worked a half-mile in 50.40 seconds Tuesday at Fair Grounds and was deemed by trainer Steve Asmussen a probable starter in the $300,000 Houston Ladies Classic on Jan. 27 at Sam Houston Race Park.
Trainer Mike Tomlinson has split his stable between Gulfstream and Tampa for the first time, sending 24 horses here while maintaining roughly the same number on the other side of the Florida peninsula.
“We’ve grown the last few years,” said Tomlinson, whose permanent base is Kentucky.
Tomlinson's Tampa assistant is Mike Thompson, a former longtime trainer who had his most recent starter in November. Longtime assistant D.W. Fries remains based at Gulfstream.
No doubt that World of Trouble was the star of the Cotillion Festival program held last Saturday at Tampa by earning a 109 Beyer Speed Figure in a 13 3/4-length romp in the restricted Marion County Stakes, one of four stakes on the card. World of Trouble will make his next start in the Gulfstream Turf Sprint on the Jan. 26 Pegasus World Cup undercard.
Imperial Hint could have his first breeze since the Breeders’ Cup as early as next week, trainer Luis Carvajal Jr. said Wednesday from Tampa Bay Downs in Oldsmar, Fla.
“Maybe an easy three-eighths,” Carvajal said. “He has been back training a few weeks, looking good, doing good.”
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HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Trainer James Lawrence reported Glorious Empire returned to his home base at the Fair Hill Training Center early Monday morning in “great shape” following his impressive, wire-to-wire win in Saturday’s Grade 2 Fort Lauderdale at Gulfstream Park and that the thought, at the moment, is to bring him back here for the $7 million Pegasus World Cup Turf Invitational on Jan. 26.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – There are only 14 horses nominated to Saturday’s Grade 3 Mr. Prospector, four of whom come out of the same barn and belong to the same owner, Looch Racing Stable’s Ron Paolucci.
Paolucci nominated Mo Don’t Know, Sightforsoreeyes, Storm Advisory, and Uno Mas Modelo to the seven-furlong Mr. Prospector at Gulfstream Park; all four are trained by Anthony Quartarolo.
