Wildcat Red, who was named Florida-bred Horse of the Year for 2014 at the annual awards ceremony Monday night in Ocala, Fla., could return to light training around the first of April, according to trainer Jose Garoffalo.
Wildcat Red was diagnosed with a pulled back muscle when well beaten in the Jan. 17 Sunshine Millions Classic and is now walking the Garoffalo shed row at Gulfstream after getting time off. The 4-year-old Wildcat Red has earned $936,875.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Fillies and mares will take center stage on the main track Saturday at Gulfstream Park, where a pair of Grade 2, $200,000 races serve as nearly identical co-features on a 12-race program.
Distance is the only factor that differentiates the Inside Information, which will be run at seven furlongs, and the Royal Delta, a slightly longer race at 1 1/16 miles. Even the field size for both races – seven – was the same when entries were taken here Wednesday.
ARCADIA, Calif. – Shared Belief, the impressive winner of the Santa Anita Handicap on March 7, has resumed serious training for a spring campaign without a defined goal, trainer Jerry Hollendorfer said Wednesday.
On Tuesday at Golden Gate Fields, Shared Belief worked a half-mile in 52.80 seconds, a slow time that left Hollendorfer unfazed.
“That’s not unusual for him,” Hollendorfer said.
Hollendorfer said a number of races, including the $600,000 Oaklawn Handicap in Arkansas on April 11, are under consideration.
ARCADIA, Calif. – The Argentine Grade 1 stakes winner Galicado will miss a start in the $2 million United Arab Emirates Derby in Dubai on March 28 because of illness, trainer Ron McAnally said Wednesday.
Galicado, who has yet to race in the U.S., was scheduled to depart Tuesday but remained at Santa Anita after being diagnosed with a temperature of 102.
Rodney Prescott has ridden 3,237 winners in his 22-year career. He rode 340 winners in 2005, finishing second among all North American riders that year to Hall-of-Famer Russell Baze, and he has long been highly regarded by his peers. He was selected as one of five finalists for the 2013 George Woolf Memorial Award, won by Mario Pino.
In a career with many highs, one of the few things the 41-year-old Prescott hasn’t done is win a graded stakes race. According to Daily Racing Form statistics, he is 0 for 9 in such races, with his best finishes being a pair of thirds.
Golden Years, a two-time stakes winner and one of the top 3-year-olds based in Maryland, has been injured, according to his trainer, Rodney Jenkins.
Golden Years, a winner of 3 of 5 starts, won the $100,000 Marylander Stakes at Laurel Park in December by 7 1/4 lengths and the Maryland Million Nursery by 1 1/2 lengths in October. He ran a gallant third last time out in the one-mile Miracle Wood at Laurel on Feb. 16, when he was beaten a neck following a long stretch battle. Golden Years raced along the inside on a frigid day when the outer paths clearly offered the better footing.
The Maryland Racing Commission denied trainer Scott Lake’s appeal of a 120-day suspension stemming from two positive tests he had at Laurel Park in December for the anabolic steroid stanozolol.
Lake was suspended 60 days for each offense, but the penalties will run concurrently because he was not notified about the first positive until the second had been detected. He was suspended an additional 60 days because he had another stanozolol positive at Penn National last June.
The Maryland Jockey Club will be replacing the Jackpot Pick Five with a Rainbow 6 when the Pimlico meet begins April 2. A pick five with a 12 percent takeout also will be added to the wagering menu.
The changes were approved Tuesday by the Maryland Racing Commission.
ARCADIA, Calif. – A lack of pace appeared to compromise the chances of Curlin’s Fox when she finished second as the favorite in the China Doll Stakes on March 7, but trainer Carla Gaines said Curlin’s Fox bled in the race, too.
Highly touted before her Feb. 1 debut, Curlin’s Fox won impressively, as advertised. Thus far, she has made both her starts on turf, but she is expected to move to dirt for the Grade 1, $400,000 Santa Anita Oaks on April 4, the same card on which Gaines will run Bolo in the Grade 1, $1 million Santa Anita Derby.
ARCADIA, Calif. – With the major goal of the meet safely tucked away, trainer Craig Lewis still was not sure how high to aim next with Warren’s Veneda, who scored a resounding victory last Saturday in the Grade 1 Santa Margarita Stakes, the championship race of the Santa Anita season for older females.
Lewis said it was “possible we’d go to West Virginia to run against colts in the Charles Town Classic,” but he wasn’t close to committing to that $1.5 million race on April 18.
