Runhappy, who won the Breeders’ Cup Sprint at Keeneland on Oct. 31, was scheduled to arrive Thursday afternoon, Dec. 3, at Santa Anita for a scheduled start in the $300,000 Malibu Stakes for 3-year-olds Dec. 26, said owner Jim McIngvale.
Runhappy is likely to be favored in the Grade 1 Malibu at seven furlongs, a fixture on opening day of the track’s winter-spring meeting.
“He’s happy, fit, and on the muscle,” McIngvale said in a phone interview from Houston.
Monty Hanna, who has delivered the Daily Racing Form to Golden Gate Fields and other Northern California locations for several decades, will be honored Saturday at Golden Gate with a race named in his honor. Hanna is returning to work after recovering from a long illness.
Track spokesman Sam Spear said the race was being named for Hanna as a way to welcome him back.
Smack Smack has developed into one of the top older horses in the Southwest over the second half of the year. He won last week’s $150,000 Zia Park Distance Championship and then was sent to Oaklawn Park.
“He’s sitting here in Hot Springs, waiting on the stakes here,” said trainer Don Von Hemel.
Von Hemel said the horse is a candidate for the $100,000 Fifth Season on Jan. 16.
Texas Chrome, a three-time stakes winner this year at 2, will miss the $250,000 Springboard Mile on Dec. 13 at Remington. The horse emerged from his fifth-place finish in Remington’s $100,000 Clever Trevor on Nov. 6 with an injury and is getting a few months off, according to his trainer, Shea Stuart.
Trainer Mike Hushion confirmed that Artemis Agrotera, the two-time Grade 1-winning New York-bred filly, has been retired from racing and will be bred in 2016.
Artemis Agrotera, a 4-year-old daughter of Roman Ruler owned and bred by Chester and Mary Broman, won the Grade 1 Spinaway at 2 and the Grade 1 Ballerina at 3.
Overall, she won five races from nine starts and banked $943,800. Her other stakes victory came in the Grade 2 Gallant Bloom in 2014.
The Pickett Factor has put himself in the mix for Louisiana Champions Day at Fair Grounds after running one of the most impressive races of the meet at Delta Downs. The Pickett Factor, 3, won last month’s $100,000 Gold Cup over older horses by 5 3/4 lengths, earning a career-high Beyer Speed Figure of 99.
The next step for The Pickett Factor could be the $150,000 Louisiana Champions Day Classic, a 1 1/8-mile race for 3-year-olds and up bred in Louisiana on Dec. 12.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Princess Violet, a Grade 1 winner earlier in the year, will return from a six-month layoff in Saturday’s $100,000 Garland of Roses Stakes, the final stakes to be run over Aqueduct’s main track in 2015.
Princess Violet, one of seven entered in the six-furlong event, is back with trainer Mike Hushion after making her last three starts with trainer Linda Rice. Hushion battled leukemia earlier in the year but has been back training on a full-time basis since Saratoga.
Oklahoma Derby winner Shotgun Kowboy is back home at Remington Park after a seventh-place finish in last week’s Clark Handicap at Churchill Downs, and he will target a March return to the races, trainer C.R. Trout said. The goal is a start in the Grade 3, $300,000 Razorback Handicap on March 19 at Oaklawn.
“We’re just going to rest him for a while then get ready for the March race in Hot Springs, the Razorback,” said Trout.
CYPRESS, Calif. – Her performance in Saturday’s $100,000 Soviet Problem Stakes at a mile at Los Alamitos could define Lucky to Win’s winter campaign.
Lucky to Win won her second start, which came in a maiden race at 5 1/2 furlongs at Del Mar on Nov. 20. The Soviet Problem Stakes, restricted to California-bred 2-year-olds, will be Lucky to Win’s first start around two turns. The filly is by Lucky J.H. and owned by breeder John Harris.
Stormy Lucy, upset winner of the Grade 1 Matriarch Stakes at Del Mar last Sunday, will stay in training in 2016 with the goal of running in the Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Turf at Santa Anita next November.
It will not be long before Stormy Lucy is back in action.
Trainer Ed Moger Jr. said on Wednesday that Stormy Lucy will be pointed for the $100,000 Robert Frankel Stakes for fillies and mares at 1 1/8 miles on turf at Santa Anita on Dec. 27.
“We’re going to keep going with her as long as she stays healthy,” Moger said.
