BOYNTON BEACH, Fla. – Good Magic, last year’s champion 2-year-old male, was in good health Sunday morning at the Palm Meadows training center, a day after he emerged from his third-place finish in the Fountain of Youth Stakes at Gulfstream Park “a little tired,” trainer Chad Brown said.
“The horse came out of the race a little tired,” Brown said. “He’s in good order. He scoped clean. Hopefully he got something out of a race it looks like he needed.
The horses who finished fourth, sixth, seventh, 10th, and 12th in the Grade 3 Fair Grounds Handicap on Feb. 17 are back in a high-end turf-mile allowance, the feature Sunday at Fair Grounds. That is all well and good, but the most interesting horse in the race is not among that quintet.
Forever Unbridled worked five furlongs in 1:01.60 on Friday at Fair Grounds as she continues her preparations for the $10 million Dubai World Cup on March 31.
Forever Unbridled, coming off six- and seven-furlong works the last two Fridays, galloped out six furlongs in 1:14.60, trainer Dallas Stewart said.
“She worked great, came out of it great,” Stewart said Friday.
Snapper Sinclair is scheduled Monday for his first work since he was beaten a nose by Bravazo in the Feb. 17 Risen Star Stakes.
Trainer Steve Asmussen often works horses back nine days after a race, but he elected to wait another week with Snapper Sinclair, who ran hard in finishing third Jan. 13 in the Lecomte Stakes before another gritty front-end performance in the Risen Star.
“He’s not a big horse,” Asmussen said. “He ran hard last time, and we’re giving that performance the respect it deserves.”
HOT SPRINGS, Ark. – Jockey Fernando De La Cruz took a chance when he moved from Tampa Bay Downs to Oaklawn for the winter, and the risk has been rewarded. De La Cruz was tied for fifth in the Oaklawn standings through Thursday, and has been aboard a host of quality winners for leading trainer Brad Cox.
De La Cruz, 31, committed to Oaklawn after conversations with his brother, jockey Walter De La Cruz, who had been a regular at Oaklawn, and Tony King, an agent who now represents him at Oaklawn.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Trainer David Donk has won his last five races at Aqueduct, going 3 for 3 last Sunday after winning with his final two runners the previous day.
Donk knows his streak won’t last forever and could very well end Sunday, when he sends out Pragmatist in a maiden $30,000 claimer at Aqueduct. Pragmatist is winless in four starts and takes another step down the claiming ladder in this 6 1/2-furlong race.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Enticed, the beaten favorite in the Grade 2 Holy Bull at Gulfstream Park last month, worked five furlongs in 1:01.85 Friday morning at the Palm Meadows training center in south Florida, his final serious move before he starts in the Grade 3, $300,000 Gotham at Aqueduct next Saturday.
ARCADIA, Calif. – Jockey Martin Garcia will soon resume riding in California after spending most of the last four months riding in New York.
Garcia, 33, may ride at Santa Anita as early as Thursday, his new agent, Vince DeGregory, told Santa Anita publicity.
ARCADIA, Calif. – Pavel, a troubled fourth in the Grade 2 San Pasqual Stakes here on Feb. 3, will skip the Grade 1 Santa Anita Handicap on March 10 and be pointed for the $10 million Dubai World Cup in the United Arab Emirates on March 31, trainer Doug O’Neill said on Thursday.
O’Neill may still have a presence in the $600,000 Santa Anita Handicap, the track’s most prominent race for older horses. Curlin Road, unraced since a fourth-place finish in the Grade 1 Pacific Classic last August, is possible for the Big Cap, which is run at 1 1/4 miles.
ARCADIA, Calif. – The $100,000 Tiznow Stakes for California-bred milers will not be run this year because of insufficient entries. The race was scheduled for Sunday but drew only four entrants on Thursday – Image of Joplin, Smokey Image, Solid Wager, and Summersimage.
Two prominent members of the division were among the 10 nominees but were not entered.
He Will, the winner of the restricted Lure Stakes at Del Mar last fall, recently sustained an injury that will keep him out of training for several months, trainer Jerry Hollendorfer said.
