OZONE PARK, N.Y. – With the temperatures near 50 degrees Friday morning, there was an April feel to the air in the New York area.
That spring feeling carried over to the entry box, where Dads Caps and Green Gratto – the one-two finishers from last April’s Grade 1 Carter Handicap – topped a field of six entered for Monday’s Grade 3, $150,000 Toboggan Stakes at Aqueduct.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Flexibility, winner of the Grade 3 Jerome Stakes on Jan. 2, tuned up for an expected start in the Grade 3 Withers Stakes by working a half-mile in 48.14 seconds over the Belmont Park training track Friday morning. The Withers will be run Jan. 30 at Aqueduct.
The work was done in company with Building Permit and equaled the fastest of 157 workouts at the distance on an extremely busy morning. Many horsemen moved up scheduled Saturday workouts to Friday due to forecasted overnight rain.
NEW ORLEANS – Louisiana-bred millionaire Sunbean, unraced since February 2015, has gotten up to five furlongs in his workouts and is set to make his return to the races sometime this Fair Grounds meet, trainer Ron Faucheux said Thursday.
Sunbean, a 6-year-old gelding who has won 13 of 21 starts, had his first work this winter Dec. 6, and on Wednesday he worked five furlongs in 1:02.40. Faucheux, who trains Sunbean for the Brittlyn Stable, said Sunbean is being pointed to the Star Guitar Stakes for Louisiana-breds March 26.
NEW ORLEANS – Cash Back is the latest in a long line of talented horses produced by the mare Hidden Assets, and the 3-year-old filly ran her career record to 2 for 2 with a comfortable front-running victory in a turf-sprint allowance race here Thursday.
NEW ORLEANS – Trainer Larry Jones is trying to take it easy with I’m a Chatterbox, but the 4-year-old filly, who has a chance to be named champion 3-year-old filly of 2015 at the Eclipse Awards this weekend, is getting restless.
Jones had been restricting I’m a Chatterbox’s morning exercise to half-mile gallops until two days ago. With I’m a Chatterbox pushing to do more, he let her begin galloping one mile.
“She’s ramped it up a little bit these last two days,” Jones said Friday morning after training hours.
ARCADIA, Calif. – My Year Is a Day, a stakes winner in France in 2014, was held out of the $200,000 Monrovia Stakes on the hillside turf course at Santa Anita on Jan. 3 in favor of Monday’s $100,000 Megahertz Stakes.
While the Megahertz Stakes at a mile on turf has a distance with greater appeal to trainer Phil D’Amato than the 6 1/2 furlongs of the Monrovia, he admits the race is not necessarily an easier spot.
“I think it will be a salty race,” D’Amato said. “I’ve got to run my filly. I think a mile will be her up her alley.”
ARCADIA, Calif. – Dressed in Hermes, the winner of two stakes on turf last year, has recovered from a fever that prevented him from starting in the $100,000 Sham Stakes at Santa Anita on Jan. 9.
Trainer Janet Armstrong said on Friday that Dressed in Hermes has resumed training and may start in the $150,000 Robert B. Lewis Stakes at 1 1/16 miles at Santa Anita on Feb. 6.
“We’ll see how he goes,” she said. “He can have a couple of works before then.”
California Chrome galloped 1 1/2 miles at Los Alamitos on Friday, continuing his preparation for a trip to Dubai next week in advance of the $10 million Dubai World Cup at Meydan Racecourse on March 26.
When California Chrome leaves, he will be flown to Dubai via Copenhagen and will have a 24-hour journey, trainer Art Sherman said on Friday.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Ami’s Flatter, who finished a distant third in the 2015 Florida Derby, made a triumphant return to south Florida on Wednesday, coming off a six-month layoff to register a convincing four-length allowance victory. He completed seven furlongs in 1:21.58 and received a 104 Beyer Speed Figure, the fastest main-track Beyer recorded in the U.S. in 2016.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Breeders’ Cup Turf Sprint winner Mongolian Saturday will miss his first scheduled start of the year, the Gulfstream Park Turf Sprint on Feb. 6, after being sent to the farm for a short rest, according to trainer Enebish Ganbat.
Mongolian Saturday outlasted Eclipse Award finalist Lady Shipman to register a neck decision in the BC Turf Sprint. He closed out his 2015 campaign six weeks later with a fifth-place finish in the Hong Kong Sprint.
