Take Charge Brandi has drawn post 6 in a field of seven for the $100,000 Martha Washington at Oaklawn on Saturday.
The one-mile race for 3-year-old fillies will be the 2015 debut for Take Charge Brandi, whose wins in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies, Grade 3 Delta Downs Princess, and Grade 1 Starlet secured her the Eclipse Award for outstanding 2-year-old filly of 2014.
Trainer Kellyn Gorder had a productive week at Oaklawn, with Joy Boy and Bootsy’s Girl both positioning themselves for potential stakes starts off powerful wins. On Sunday, Joy Boy captured a $62,500 optional claimer that drew a handful of stakes winners. He led throughout for his second straight win at the level, earning a 97 Beyer.
A field of 12 3-year-olds has been entered for the Grade 3, $250,000 Sam F. Davis Stakes on Saturday at Tampa Bay Downs in Oldsmar, Fla.
Ocean Knight, an impressive winner of his lone start, figures as one of the favorites in the 1 1/16-mile race. He is trained by Kiaran McLaughlin. Also among the favorites will be the Ocala, Fla.-based Catalina Red, the winner of the Inaugural and Pasco stakes for trainer Chad Stewart.
Ocean Knight and the uncoupled Todd Pletcher duo of Royal Son and G Five are among seven entered from the Gulfstream-Gulfstream Park West circuit in Miami.
All three stakes starters whom trainer Mike Maker had at Sam Houston Race Park last Saturday night are headed in different directions. Coalport, who won the Grade 3, $200,000 Connally Turf Cup, is returning to Florida; Dreams Cut Short, who finished fourth in the same race, will target stakes at Fair Grounds; and Shanon Nicole, a close third in the $400,000 Houston Ladies Classic, is headed to next month’s Fasig-Tipton auction in Kentucky.
ARCADIA, Calif. – Fast workouts are rare at six furlongs on the Tapeta Footings synthetic surface at Golden Gate Fields – unless the horse in question is Shared Belief.
On Wednesday, Shared Belief, the champion 2-year-old male of 2013, worked six furlongs in 1:11.80, which trainer Jerry Hollendorfer described as the 4-year-old gelding’s last major workout before the $500,000 San Antonio Stakes at Santa Anita on Feb. 7.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. – After Good Luck Gus won the Damon Runyon Stakes for New York-breds on Dec. 14, part-owner Michael Dubb said he would like to give the colt a chance in an open-company stakes for 3-year-olds early in 2015.
Good Luck Gus, who has worked only once since the Damon Runyon, was not among the 24 nominees for next Saturday’s Grade 3 Withers Stakes.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Belle Gallantey, a dual Grade 1 winner in 2014, could decide her own future based on how she runs in Saturday’s $100,000 Ladies Handicap at Aqueduct.
A good performance and she likely will continue racing. A poor performance – akin to her fifth-place finish in the Affectionately Stakes on New Year’s Day – and she could be retired and bred.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Trainer Kiaran McLaughlin is changing paths to jump-start Mawthooq’s return to the Triple Crown trail.
Mawthooq, the beaten 6-5 favorite when finishing 10 1/2 lengths behind Bluegrass Singer in the Mucho Macho Man Stakes at Gulfstream Park on Jan. 3, is being pointed to the Grade 3, $250,000 Withers Stakes at Aqueduct on Feb. 7, McLaughlin said.
McLaughlin had considered keeping Mawthooq in Florida and running him in an allowance race, but he wants to find out sooner if the son of Distorted Humor should remain on the Triple Crown trail.
Nearly a month into his retirement, Manny Tortora already is pretty bored. But at least he still has some of the earnings for which he worked his entire adult life in the racing business.
“I was going to go broke if I kept going the way I was,” said Tortora. “I was losing $5,000 a month. The workers’ compensation was about to kill me.”
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Nominations are out for the Grade 1 Donn Handicap, and along with the expected probables, including defending champ Lea and a host of older handicap stars from the barn of trainer Todd Pletcher, the list included one surprise – Grade 1 winner Hoppertunity, who is stabled on the West Coast with trainer Bob Baffert.
The Donn shares top billing at Gulfstream Park on Feb. 7 with the Grade 1 Gulfstream Park Turf Handicap.
