ARCADIA, Calif. – Four jockeys, including leading rider Santiago Gonzalez, were given three-day suspensions for riding infractions at Santa Anita last week.
Gonzalez, who is suspended from Friday through Sunday, was cited for his ride on Perfect Set, the winner of the third race last Friday. The stewards ruled that Gonzalez allowed Perfect Set to cross over without clearance in the first turn. There was no inquiry after the race.
ARCADIA, Calif. – Dortmund, the top handicap horse stabled in California, worked seven furlongs Wednesday at Santa Anita in preparation for his anticipated role as favorite in the Grade 2 San Antonio Stakes here on Feb. 6.
Dortmund was credited with a five-furlong work time of 59.40 seconds, the fastest of the morning. According to trainer Bob Baffert, the team workout with Midnight Hawk was seven furlongs.
“I could tell he needed the work,” Baffert said. “He worked good. I put Midnight Hawk out there in from of him to give him a target.”
Ravenheart, the winner of the Maryland Juvenile Futurity at Laurel Park for owner Bode Miller’s DB Dojo LLC and trainer Tres Abbott, has been sent to Florida for a freshening and will be pointed to a spring-and-summer campaign, according to Abbott.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Joan Scott is well aware that Awesome Banner is the horse to beat Saturday in the Grade 2 Swale Stakes at Gulfstream Park, “but this is the time of year when you have to face really good horses if you’re trying to move along,” she said.
Scott will be sending out Richie the Bull for the first time in the $150,000 Swale at seven furlongs. A winner in three of four starts as a 2-year-old, Richie the Bull has been privately purchased by a new group known as Richie’s Usual Suspect, a partnership based primarily out of the West Palm Beach, Fla., area.
ARCADIA, Calif. – A 15-minute delay was no problem for Songbird on Wednesday at Santa Anita, where the 2015 champion 2-year-old filly posted her final major workout leading up to her first start of the year in the Las Virgenes Stakes on Feb. 6.
Songbird was scheduled to work seven furlongs at 6:45 a.m.; the work was postponed due to an injured horse at the clubhouse turn. Songbird took it all in stride. She jogged clockwise from the quarter pole to the eighth pole and stood still for several minutes while the injured horse was removed.
CYPRESS, Calif. – California Chrome is likely to have the first start of his 2016 Dubai campaign in a $150,000 handicap at Meydan Racecourse on Feb. 25, rather than the $400,000 Round 3 of the Maktoum Challenge on March 5, trainer Art Sherman said at Los Alamitos on Wednesday.
The main goal for California Chrome this spring is the $10 million Dubai World Cup on March 26. Last year, California Chrome was second in the Dubai World Cup to Prince Bishop in his final start of the year.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Like a pitcher who has been nothing short of sensational working his way through the minor leagues, Cathryn Sophia will find out if her stuff is good enough for the majors when she puts her unblemished record on the line in Saturday’s Grade 2 Forward Gal Stakes at Gulfstream Park.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario - Due to a projected shortfall in funding, Woodbine announced Tuesday that it’s reducing a lucrative bonus for eligible Ontario-sired runners.
The 40 percent bonus instituted in 2014 for Ontario-sired horses competing in open company (except for those claimed and racing below $20,000) has been lowered to 30 percent in allowance and maiden special weight events, and to 20 percent in all other eligible races.
Woodbine is also eliminating Ontario-sired maiden special weight races for 3-year-olds and up.
Clearly Now could only finish third in the Thanksgiving Handicap at Fair Grounds while making his first start since being privately purchased by Brittlyn Stable and moved into the barn of trainer Ron Faucheux, but the suspicion that Clearly Now raced against a bias in the Thanksgiving, and that even at age 6 he still is capable of better, was confirmed when Clearly Now won a high-end optional-claiming race on Saturday by 3 1/4 lengths.
Trainer Brad Cox said Monday that Chocolate Ride had come out of his game win in the Col. E.R. Bradley Handicap on Jan. 16 at Fair Grounds in good shape, and that the high-class turf horse probably will next start Feb. 20 in the Fair Grounds Handicap, a race Chocolate Ride won last year.
“He came out of the race really, really well, and I think right now we’re going to point for the Fair Grounds Handicap,” Cox said. “It gives us a solid month between races.”
