OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Trainer John Servis will have contenders in both the Demoiselle and Remsen – Grade 2, $200,000 stakes for juvenile females and juveniles, respectively, at Aqueduct on Saturday.
In the Demoiselle, Servis will send out the uncoupled entry of Daisy and Maurer Power in a field of eight.
Daisy, a daughter of Blame, is 2 for 2, including a 4 3/4-length victory in the Grade 3 Tempted here on the Nov. 3 opening-day card.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. – The decision by the New York Racing Association to move the Cigar Mile back a week on the calendar seemed to pay dividends as four of the 10 horses entered Wednesday for Saturday’s Grade 1 stakes are coming out of a race run on Breeders’ Cup weekend.
Jockey Tracy Hebert reached 4,000 Thoroughbred wins in North America on Tuesday, when he guided Rational Decision to a 4 1/4-length victory in the fourth race at Zia Park in Hobbs, N.M.
Hebert, 54, is a native of Erath, La., the same hometown as jockeys Randy Romero, Shane Sellers, and Curt Bourque. Hebert’s first win came at 16 at Evangeline Downs in 1979. He was aboard for his uncle and mentor, trainer Doris Hebert. Tracy Hebert’s mounts have since earned more than $54 million.
Caleb’s Posse, the winner of the Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile in 2011, will be among six inductees into the Oklahoma Horse Racing Hall of Fame on Dec. 15 at Remington Park.
Others set to enter the Hall are broadcaster Chris Lincoln, trainer Joe Offolter, jockey Luis Quinonez, breeder C.R. Trout and multiple stakes winner She’s All In. They will be feted between races on a card that will kick-start the final weekend of the meet at Remington.
Norman McKnight, a former Standardbred driver and trainer who is in the midst of his best year training Thoroughbreds, will be wintering at Oaklawn Park in Hot Springs, Ark., for the first time following the close of the Woodbine meet on Dec. 10.
McKnight is the second-leading trainer at Woodbine in Toronto. He plans to have a 20-horse division at Oaklawn, which opens Jan. 12. McKnight said the remaining runners in his stable will go on a vacation. The horses for Oaklawn will ship around Dec. 15.
CYPRESS, Calif. – Carpathia kept up with the rest of her family when she won a maiden race for California-bred 2-year-old fillies at Del Mar on Nov. 5 in her second start.
Six of Carpathia’s older half-siblings have won a race, but none is a stakes winner. Carpathia can become the first in the family to do so in Saturday’s $100,000 Soviet Problem Stakes for statebred 2-year-old fillies at a mile at Los Alamitos.
The distance of the race suits Carpathia, said trainer Phil D’Amato.
Mr. Hinx, who was vanned off after finishing second in the Damascus Stakes at Del Mar on Nov. 3, is recovering from surgery for a displaced condylar fracture of a foreleg.
Owner and breeder Gary Barber said at Del Mar last weekend that there is no timetable for Mr. Hinx’s recovery and is hopeful the 3-year-old gelding will race again. Mr. Hinx underwent the operation days after the Damascus Stakes.
“It will take time,” Barber said.
“The vet is very happy. They say it went well. Some come back and some don’t come back.”
Stormy Liberal, the upset winner of the Breeders’ Cup Turf Sprint at Del Mar on Nov. 4, worked five furlongs in 59.20 seconds in a clockwise direction at San Luis Rey Downs on Tuesday in preparation for the Group 1 Hong Kong Sprint at Sha Tin Racecourse in Hong Kong on Dec 10.
Stormy Liberal began the workout just before the first turn, and ran down the stretch and onto the backstretch for five furlongs, according to trainer Peter Miller. Miller timed Stormy Liberal in 22.60 seconds for the final quarter-mile. Stormy Liberal galloped out six furlongs in 1:12.60.
Jockey Alan Garcia, who won the Belmont Stakes in 2008 with Da’ Tara, said this will be the first time he has wintered at Oaklawn. There were several reasons to test the new market, said the rider, currently based at Woodbine.
“I have some people who are giving me an opportunity to ride for them,” he said.
Garcia said another reason is because of how well the Oaklawn season dovetails with Woodbine, where he will continue to ride through the end of the meet, Dec. 10. Garcia is the ninth-leading rider at Woodbine.
