ARCADIA, Calif. – The Grade 1 Santa Anita Derby on April 7 may have one of its smallest fields in recent history, and the presence of the two leading 3-year-olds in the nation – Bolt d’Oro and McKinzie – is largely to blame.
McKinzie and Bolt d’Oro, both Grade 1 winners as 2-year-olds, were first and second, separated by a head, in the Grade 2 San Felipe Stakes at 1 1/16 miles on March 10. McKinzie was disqualified and placed second behind Bolt d’Oro for causing interference in the stretch.
World Approval, the reigning champion male turf horse, worked a sharp five furlongs in 1:00.95 over the turf course at Palm Meadows on Friday morning in preparation for a start in the Grade 1, $300,000 Maker’s 46 Mile at Keeneland on April 13.
World Approval worked in company with the stakes-winning filly Let It Ride Mom, getting a final quarter in 24.29 seconds and galloping-out six furlongs in 1:14.20.
“The plan was to put a good, strong work in him today and it sounds like that’s what we got,” said Mark Casse, who was not at Palm Meadows on Friday.
Danny Gargan enjoyed a successful winter meet at Gulfstream Park and plans to keep a string of horses there year round, he said Thursday.
“Racing’s going in the right direction there,” Gargan said.
Gargan will have his main base in New York this summer, and he plans to have a presence in Kentucky during the fall.
“I’m looking at having a big stable in the fall in Kentucky,” Gargan said. ”People give you horses there.”
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Luis Saez hopes to ride the wave of a record-setting winter into a successful spring at Keeneland and summer in New York.
On Thursday, Saez rode seven winners from eight mounts on the Gulfstream card, coming within a neck of having a perfect day. It was the second time this meet Saez has won seven races on a Gulfstream card, equaling the record set by Jerry Bailey in 1995 and equaled by Tyler Gaffalione last summer. Saez also won seven races on Jan. 24.
Turning into the stretch at the Palm Meadows training center Friday morning, Enticed was about a length behind his stablemate First Commander, a maiden, in what was to be Enticed’s final workout before the Grade 2 Wood Memorial on April 7 at Aqueduct.
Trainer Kiaran McLaughlin, watching from the clocker’s stand, said of Enticed, “He’s likely to be second.”
Indeed, Enticed was only able to get within a neck of First Commander at the end of the half-mile work. Enticed was timed in 49.91 seconds.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Caledonia Road, who has not started since her resounding victory in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies on Nov. 4, will have her much-anticipated 3-year-old debut delayed again due to a virus she contracted earlier this month.
Old Time Revival tuned up for the April 7 Wood Memorial at Aqueduct by working five furlongs at Laurel Park over a “good” track in a bullet 58.60 seconds Wednesday.
Maryland Jockey Club head clocker Kevin Geraghty timed Old Time Revival for a half-mile in 46.80, with a gallop-out of 1:11.40.
Jockey Victor Carrasco, sidelined with a badly broken right leg since a Sept. 14 spill at Delaware Park, was informed by his doctors Tuesday his bones have healed well enough for him to begin galloping horses in the next few weeks.
Carrasco, a leading rider in Maryland and the Eclipse Award-winning apprentice of 2013, has undergone extensive physical rehabilitation the past few months and is eager to resume his career.
The promising 3-year-old Diamond King was scratched from the Private Terms Stakes with a fever March 17, but he never became very ill and quickly resumed training. He worked a mile for trainer John Servis in 1:47.60 at Parx Racing on March 24.
“The work was excellent, he’s doing very good,” Servis said. “His fever got up to about 102, but he fought it off. We never did treat him for it.”
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. - Luis Saez continued his dominance of the Gulfstream Park Championship meet, winning seven races from eight mounts on Thursday’s 11-race card, equaling a single-day record for the South Florida track.
His only loss came by a neck.
It was the second time this meet Saez won seven races on a card, having done so on Jan. 24 when he went 7 for 9. Jerry Bailey in 1996 established the record and Tyler Gaffalione equaled it last July.
