HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Trainer Mark Casse had been resigned to missing the Kentucky Derby chase this year. But at least one promising colt has him thinking he might have a shot to make the May 2 Derby after all.
A 4 3/4-length victory by Danzig Moon in a one-mile maiden race Saturday at Gulfstream Park has earned the son of Malibu Moon a berth in the March 7 Tampa Bay Derby, said Casse.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Though Kid Cruz is progressing well, trainer Linda Rice doesn’t think he will be ready to run this coming weekend.
Sidelined since August, when he came out of a fourth-place finish in the Travers with a knee chip, Kid Cruz worked six furlongs in 1:15.25 Sunday morning over the Belmont Park training track. It was his fifth work for his return and second at six furlongs. Rice had targeted next Monday’s $100,000 Evening Attire Stakes at Aqueduct, but said it’s unlikely Kid Cruz would run.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. – While the top three finishers from Saturday’s Grade 3 Withers Stakes could very well run back in next month’s Grade 3, $400,000 Gotham Stakes at Aqueduct, that race also looks like the destination for Ocean Knight, undefeated winner of the Sam F. Davis Stakes at Tampa Bay Downs on Jan. 31.
OLDSMAR, Fla. - Kenneth Wirth, a trainer who has raced a stable at Tampa Bay Downs since 1996, was arrested Feb. 1 and accused of maliciously stalking jockey Oriana Rossi, according to a report from the Tampa Bay Times.
The report said that according to an arrest affidavit, Wirth, 57, admitted to harassing Rossi, 32, who has ridden a number of horses for the trainer. According to the Times , Rossi reported she had been receiving vulgar text messages from various phone numbers.
OLDSMAR, Fla. - Four jockeys including the meet’s leading rider, Antonio Gallardo, continue to recover from injuries following a multi-horse spill during Friday’s sixth race.
La Ranchera, with Alice Cartwright aboard, went down heavily along the inside leaving the turn of the 5 1/2-furlong sprint. That caused a chain reaction with Gallardo, Huber Villa-Gomez, and Janelle Campbell all being unseated from their mounts.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – With so many Derby prospects in his barns at Palm Beach Downs, trainer Todd Pletcher conceded Sunday that he likely will have to run some of his trainees against each other in upcoming prep races.
Seven of his 34 Triple Crown nominees were out for serious work Sunday, led by Grade 1 winners Daredevil and Competitive Edge, both nearing their seasonal debuts.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Javier Castellano reached another milestone when posting his 4,000th career win aboard Captain Stan in Sunday’s 10th race. The memorable victory capped off a tremendous weekend for Castellano, the meet’s leading rider, who swept both Grade 1 stakes, the Donn Handicap and Gulfstream Park Turf, the previous afternoon for trainer Todd Pletcher with Constitution and Mshawish, respectively. Castellano is the two-time reigning Eclipse Award winner as the nation’s top rider.
OLDSMAR, Fla. – After being the underdog trying to beat the big guns for years, Sandino Hernandez is enjoying being the trainer saddling the horses to beat these days at Tampa Bay Downs.
Hernandez has sent out 26 starters at this meet and has 10 wins for a blistering 38 percent win rate.
Hernandez, who has been training for more than 30 years, managed to make a living on the tough New York circuit, but said he never had the kind of owners that allowed him to compete with many of the high-profile outfits.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Constitution earned a 113 Beyer Speed Figure in his gate-to-wire triumph on Saturday in the Donn Handicap at Gulfstream Park and could make his next start in the $10 million Dubai World Cup on March 28, according to trainer Todd Pletcher.
“We’ve kicked around the idea of Dubai, but we haven’t committed to it yet,” Pletcher said Sunday. “It’s certainly one of the options.”
