Notably absent from the overflow field entered for Saturday’s Tom Benson Memorial Stakes, a turf route for older fillies and mares, was Nanda Dea, who would have been favored had she run.
A champion miler in Argentina, Nanda Dea won her North American debut last fall in a Keeneland allowance race. In her second start for trainer Ignacio Correas, she overcame significant trouble to capture the Albert Stall Memorial last month.
The road to Louisville runs through Hot Springs for the 3-year-old filly Simply Joking.
After missing an intended start on Feb. 15 in the Rachel Alexandra Stakes at Fair Grounds, Simply Joking wasn’t entered for the March 22 Fair Grounds Oaks and instead will run March 29 in the $750,000 Fantasy at Oaklawn Park.
Trainer Whit Beckman said on Sunday that he’ll ship Simply Joking along with the 4-year-old Honor Marie, who’s set to race for the first time since August in the restricted American Pharoah Stakes on the same card.
ARCADIA, Calif. – Unraced since a fourth-place finish in the Breeders’ Cup Turf at Del Mar last November, Gold Phoenix is scheduled to start in Saturday’s Grade 3 San Luis Rey Stakes at Santa Anita.
The 7-year-old Gold Phoenix has performed well enough in recent works to convince trainer Phil D’Amato to aim for the $100,000 San Luis Rey Stakes at 1 1/2 miles on turf.
“He’s breezed sensationally,” D’Amato said Sunday. “I’ve had four or five good five-eighths in him. For an old veteran, I haven’t seen him as sharp as he has been in these drills.”
Four of trainer Bob Baffert’s leading 3-year-olds worked at Santa Anita on Monday, including Citizen Bull, the champion 2-year-old male of 2024. They are all expected to start in leading stakes in the buildup to the Triple Crown in coming weeks.
Citizen Bull, winner of the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile at Del Mar in November, and the Grade 3 Robert Lewis Stakes on Feb. 1, worked six furlongs in 1:12 for a likely start in the Grade 1 Santa Anita Derby on April 5.
Capitol Hill, a full brother to Grade 2 Wood Memorial winner Resilience, may have found his home on a different surface.
After getting beaten by 41 lengths in his debut on dirt at Gulfstream, Capitol Hill won a 1 1/16-mile maiden race on turf by 1 1/4 lengths last Friday at Tampa Bay Downs. Capitol Hill, trained by Bill Mott, beat a heavily bet first-time starter, Uncatalyzed, from the barn of Chad Brown. The rider of Uncatalyzed, Samuel Marin, dropped his whip, but it likely didn’t make the difference between winning and losing.
After initially saying he was using the Boston Handicap at Colonial Downs as a prep for the Godolphin Mile on April 5 at Meydan for Book’em Danno, trainer Derek Ryan has changed his mind and opted to keep the Grade 1-winning New Jersey-bred home for a domestic campaign.
“It’s a little too quick back with the traveling and everything,” Ryan said Monday. “We don’t like to run back in three weeks anyway. We had it in our minds, but it’s just not the right thing to do.”
Jockey Ferrin Peterson, who is based on the Kentucky and Ohio circuits, was discharged from the hospital on Sunday after sustaining injuries in a paddock accident March 11 at Mahoning Valley.
Peterson was thrown while mounting and was trampled. She sustained multiple fractures and a ruptured spleen, for which she underwent surgery. She is expected to be sidelined several months.
Ten 3-year-olds, headed, nominally, by John Hancock were entered Saturday for the $1 million Louisiana Derby on March 22 at Fair Grounds.
The Brad Cox-trained John Hancock won his debut Jan. 8 at Tampa Bay Downs and returned Feb. 8 with a half-length Sam F. Davis Stakes victory over Owen Almighty, who came back with an easy win in the Tampa Bay Derby. Cox entered John Hancock in the March 15 Virginia Derby but scratched the colt in favor of the Louisiana Derby, where he also runs last-out first-level Fair Grounds allowance winner Instant Replay.
Fair Grounds canceled racing Saturday because of “high winds and corresponding electrical issues in the area,” according to a release from the New Orleans track.
Horses had been saddled and Saturday racing was only a few minutes from commencing when the Fair Grounds simulcast signal went down. The nearby New Orleans Lakefront Airport at the time was recording steady winds over 30 miles per hour with gusts exceeding 60 miles per hour.
Topped by local stakes winners California Burrito and Baby Max and Grade 2 winner Poster, an overflow field of 13 3-year-olds was entered today for next Saturday's Grade 3, $777,000 Jeff Ruby Steaks, a major Kentucky Derby prep that offers the richest purse in Turfway Park's history.
