CYPRESS, Calif. – Quarter Horse jockey Cesar De Alba is retiring this weekend and plans to begin training Thoroughbreds on the Southern California daytime circuit in 2019.
De Alba, 37, said on Tuesday that he is in the process of completing the certification process to secure a trainer’s license. He said he plans to be based at Los Alamitos and may have a small group of Quarter Horses racing at the track’s year-round nighttime meeting.
Santa Anita’s betting menu will have a new addition beginning on Dec. 26 when the track launches a win wager patterned on roulette.
Horse Racing Roulette will be conducted on fields with six or more runners, with runners divided into three groups, dubbed red, black, and green.
The bet will have a 15.43 percent takeout, similar to a win bet. The morning-line favorite will typically be listed in the red group, while the green group will have more longshots, according to a statement released by Santa Anita on Tuesday.
Alwaysmining and Our Braintrust ran strong races to finish first and second in the $100,000 Maryland Juvenile Futurity last Saturday at Laurel Park. The two Maryland-breds could meet again in either the $150,000 Jerome at Aqueduct or the $100,000 Heft Stakes at Laurel.
The one-mile Jerome will be held New Year’s Day. The Heft is a seven-furlong race for 2-year-olds on Dec. 29.
Following a promising 2-year-old campaign, Congrats Gal will be given the winter off in Florida before rejoining trainer Cal Lynch’s Laurel Park stable in March.
In her last three starts, Congrats Gal has finished second by 1 1/2 lengths in a Delaware Park stakes to eventual Frizette and Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies winner Jaywalk, won a Laurel Park optional claimer by 14 lengths, and romped by 6 3/4 lengths at Laurel in the $100,000 Smart Halo Stakes.
LEXINGTON, Ky. – Lexington racing fans will need to adjust their calendar settings in preparation for next spring: The ever-popular Keeneland meet will start on a Thursday for the first time in more than 50 years.
Keeneland has moved the opening day to Thursday, April 4, from the traditional Friday opener in order to make up for the day it will lose during the spring meet to Easter, when Keeneland is closed. Easter next year is April 21. The spring meet, which closes on April 26, will be 16 days next year as a result, rather than the usual 15.
The Mark Casse barn won recent Fair Grounds races with two promising 2-year-old turf horses, and a 2-year-old dirt horse of interest also is bound for the Casse string in New Orleans.
Moon Colony, an Uncle Mo colt owner John Oxley paid $400,000 to acquire at auction, stalked and pounced on a slow pace to win a first-level two-turn turf allowance race by two lengths on Nov. 29. On Dec. 9, the Stonestreet Stables homebred colt Philosophy caught the eye capturing a turf-sprint maiden race by nearly six lengths.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – X Y Jet, who was forced to skip the Breeders’ Cup Sprint due to a minor illness, was back on the work tab Sunday, breezing a very easy three furlongs in 38 at the Palm Meadows training center for trainer Jorge Navarro.
X Y Jet has not started since cruising to a 2 1/4-length victory in the Grade 3 Smile Sprint at Gulfstream on June 30.
Hall of Fame trainer Nick Zito is headed to Oaklawn Park in Hot Springs, Ark.
In a major winter circuit switch, he plans to have a 20-horse division at the upcoming meet, which opens on Jan. 25. Zito had previously wintered at Gulfstream Park in Hallandale Beach, Fla.
“It’s a big change,” he said Monday. “We went to Florida for 30, 35 years.”
Zito said he would continue to have horses in New York this winter, with those runners stabled at Belmont Park.
The Arkansas Racing Commission met last week concerning casino gaming rules in Arkansas. The state’s voters passed a measure in November allowing for casinos in four counties, with one designated for Oaklawn Park. The commission is charged with adopting rules to put the gaming – which can include slot machines – in place, said agency attorney Byron Freeland.
Freeland said Arkansas rules will be modeled after gaming rules in place in Nevada.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – For a fleeting moment one couldn’t have blamed trainer Kelly Rubley for thinking her star Divisidero might actually become a Breeders’ Cup winner after he rallied from near the middle of the soggy turf course to join the leaders at the top of the stretch in the Mile. Unfortunately, the wide trip from post position 13 in the 14-horse field took its toll and Divisidero finished fourth, beaten less than a length by winner Expert Eye.
