HOT SPRINGS, Ark. – What to do for an encore?
Oaklawn Park’s racing program reached a pinnacle last season when the eventual Triple Crown winner, American Pharoah, launched his 3-year-old campaign with wins in the Rebel Stakes and Arkansas Derby. It was the highest high in a run of 3-year-old success for Oaklawn dating back to Smarty Jones in 2004, but Oaklawn is not resting on its laurels for the 2016 meet, which opens Friday.
Mean Season, who came off an 11-month layoff to win a third-level allowance race at Laurel Park last Saturday, likely will return to Maryland for the $250,000 General George Handicap on Feb. 15.
“That seems logical,” Leanna Willaford, the Belmont Park-based assistant to Bill Mott, said Wednesday. “We’re just happy he came back good.”
Mean Season is 2 for 2 at Laurel, including a win going a mile. The General George is run at seven furlongs.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Trainer David Fawkes has been all smiles this week after learning that his big horse, Eclipse Award finalist Sheer Drama, will return to training in 2016. Sheer Drama, a 6-year-old homebred daughter of Burning Roma owned by Harold Queen, won two Grade 1 stakes in 2015 and concluded her campaign with a fourth-place finish in the Breeders’ Cup Distaff. She began her season with a second-place finish in the Sunshine Millions Distaff.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Royal Posse was claimed for $20,000 last May with the idea of being able to run in some two-turn races at Saratoga. That he has become a two-time stakes winner has been a pleasant surprise to his connections.
Royal Posse will seek another stakes victory in Saturday’s $125,000 Jazil Stakes at Aqueduct. Royal Posse was one of seven horses entered Wednesday for the Jazil, named for the 2006 Belmont Stakes winner.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – The $250,000 Sunshine Millions Classic, to be run Saturday, got an unexpected shot in the arm at entry time Wednesday when trainer Eddie Plesa Jr. decided to wheel Mr. Jordan back on one week’s rest. Mr. Jordan was virtually eliminated at the start of last Saturday’s Grade 3 Hal’s Hope after colliding with Matrooh while leaving the gate. Mr. Jordan had made only one previous start since running seventh last August in the Haskell at Monmouth, finishing third in the Harlan’s Holiday here Dec. 12.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Wildcat Red is the only millionaire entered on Saturday’s Sunshine Millions program. But Wildcat Red, the runner-up in the 2014 Florida Derby, will not be competing in the afternoon’s main event, the 1 1/8-mile Sunshine Millions Classic. Instead, trainer Jose Garoffalo has opted to bring him back off his latest layoff in a more suitable spot, the six-furlong Sunshine Millions Sprint.
For a slow learner, Henry the King is off to a fast start.
Purchased for $30,000 by trainer Greg Sacco at the 2014 Fasig-Tipton Kentucky fall yearling sale, Henry the King was 2 for 2 last year, winning a Parx maiden race and a Laurel Park optional-claiming race. He will take another step up in class Saturday when he begins his 3-year-old season in the $75,000 Frank Whiteley Jr. on Saturday at Laurel Park.
“He’s a May foal, and he’s been slow to develop, physically and mentally,” Sacco said.
Cathal Lynch is in the process of relocating his stable and family from Pennsylvania to Maryland. On Saturday, he will introduce himself to his new neighbors by sending out the solid favorite, Never Gone South, in the $75,000 Frank Whiteley Jr., a seven-furlong race for 3-year-olds at Laurel Park.
Lynch, a 40-year-old native of Derry in Northern Ireland, has been based at Parx Racing the past dozen years but is now stabled at Laurel Park. He recently sold his home near Parx.
ARCADIA, Calif. – The 2015 season caught up with Yahilwa in the stretch of the Breeders’ Cup Distaff at Keeneland last October.
Less than four weeks after a hard-fought third-place finish in the Grade 1 Spinster Stakes at Keeneland, Yahilwa faded to finish sixth of 14 in the BC Distaff. The season was over.
When Yahilwa returns to racing in Saturday’s $200,000 La Canada Stakes for fillies and mares at Santa Anita, trainer Jim Cassidy expects a brighter performance.
“She puts so much effort in her races,” Cassidy said. “She needs a little more time between races.”
ARCADIA, Calif. – Beholder, the two-time champion, arrived at trainer Richard Mandella’s stable at Santa Anita on Sunday following a two-month break in Kentucky. But it will be a short stay.
Mandella said on Wednesday that Beholder will spend the next two weeks at Julie Adair-Stack’s layup farm in Chino Hills, Calif., where she will begin light training.
“I’ll let her get the edge off there,” Mandella said.
Beholder will return to Mandella’s stable later this month and begin training for an expected comeback in the spring.
