OZONE PARK, N.Y. – He has raced only twice but has been brilliant both times. If Army Mule is going to run that way again, his connections want him to do it in an important race.
That is why despite having only two races under his belt, Army Mule will run in Saturday’s Grade 1, $400,000 Carter Handicap at Aqueduct. The Carter, contested at seven furlongs, drew a field of 11 and is one of four undercard stakes on the 11-race Wood Memorial program that starts at 1 p.m. Eastern.
Indexical, who in 2016 ran second to Lord Nelson in the Grade 1 Bing Crosby at Del Mar, will make his first start for owner Danny Caldwell and trainer Federico Villafranco in Friday’s eighth race at Oaklawn. He has not raced since being haltered by his current connections out of a $30,000 claimer last May at Prairie Meadows. Friday’s optional $45,000 claiming sprint is for 4-year-olds and up over six furlongs, and the field of nine also includes Grade 3 winner Guns Loaded and top Iowa-bred One Fine Dream.
ARCADIA, Calif. – Exercise rider Adrian Valenzuela underwent surgery to stabilize his spinal cord on Tuesday after suffering a devastating injury in a spill at Santa Anita on Saturday morning that left him partially paralyzed, according to his father, Martin Valenzuela.
Martin Valenzuela said his son was scheduled to be taken out of intensive care at Huntington Memorial Hospital in Pasadena, Calif., on Wednesday but does not have a favorable long-term prognosis.
Del Mar will increase appearance bonuses for out-of-state shippers who meet certain criteria for the track’s two race meetings this year.
The owner of a horse who made his previous start at other circuits or outside the United States and has not started in California in the preceding 12 months will be paid a $2,000 bonus for the horse’s first start at Del Mar. First-time starters are not eligible.
ARCADIA, Calif. – There are ebbs and flows to the Kentucky Derby and its prep season every year, but for the past few years, it is California-based runners who have had the most success on the first Saturday in May, and they have more than outpunched their weight when it comes to the Derby preps, too.
LEXINGTON, Ky. – Norm Casse has assembled a stable of about eight active runners as his solo training career gets under way in earnest this spring. The 34-year-old son of trainer Mark Casse has an 18-stall allotment at Keeneland, “but there are quite a few 2-year-olds still to come in.”
“I’m hoping to maybe have five or six starts this meet before we move everything over to Churchill after the Derby,” he said.
LEXINGTON, Ky. – Chad Brown ran zero stakes horses last Saturday on the huge Florida Derby card at Gulfstream Park, perhaps hoping that good things will come to those who wait. Brown is absolutely loaded for the first half of the Keeneland spring meet, with Analyze It in the opening-day Transylvania, Good Magic in the Blue Grass, Rushing Fall in the Grade 2 Appalachian on Sunday, and another handful of major contenders in stakes through next Saturday, April 14.
LEXINGTON, Ky. – Two of the first three races of the spring meet are 2-year-old dashes in which trainer Wesley Ward surely will dominate pre-race speculation. Ward has become synonymous with success in Keeneland baby races, having won a whopping 35 of them since the 2007 spring meet, having unleashed such precocious talents as Judy the Beauty, Undrafted, Hootenanny, and Lady Aurelia.
