My Sweet Addiction was entered in the $75,000 Paseana Stakes over a mile last Sunday until trainer Marty Jones took a look at the Santa Anita main track early in the day.
“It looked pretty ugly out there,” he said.
Overnight rain left the main track wet-fast that day and led Jones to scratch My Sweet Addiction. Jones had a backup plan with Monday’s $200,000 Santa Monica Stakes for fillies and mares over seven furlongs.
BOYNTON BEACH, Fla. – With five runners nominated to next Saturday’s Grade 3, $400,000 Holy Bull Stakes at Gulfstream Park, trainer Kiaran McLaughlin would appear to have a hammerlock on the race. But he said Friday that he will try to divide and conquer with his bevy of 3-year-olds, splitting the quintet among different spots while reserving the Holy Bull for the highly regarded Frosted, who finished second in the Remsen Stakes in his final start at age 2.
Fast Anna, who set the pace into the stretch before finishing fifth in the Breeders’ Cup Sprint, returned to the track for the first time Thursday at Gulfstream Park after undergoing minor knee surgery this winter, according to trainer Kathy Ritvo.
Trainer Mike Tomlinson said things couldn’t be better with Barbados, a three-length winner of the Jan. 3 Spectacular Bid at Gulfstream Park, and indicated that the colt will run back in the Grade 3, $150,000 Hutcheson Stakes on the Holy Bull undercard next Saturday.
“I’ll probably do a little something with him Tuesday, maybe breeze him an easy three-eighths,” said Tomlinson. “With just three weeks between races, there’s no need to ask for too much.”
OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Trainer David Jacobson entered two horses for Sunday’s $100,000 Hollie Hughes Stakes at Aqueduct, but he did not enter the 10-year-old Be Bullish, a two-time winner from five starts in the race.
Jacobson did enter Big Business, who will be cutting back to six furlongs for the first time since Sept. 20, 2012, when he won a $35,000 claiming race at Belmont in his first start for Jacobson. Big Business is coming off a win in the Alex M. Robb at 1 1/16 miles.
He drew post 6 and will be ridden by Fernando Jara.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Condo Commando, an Eclipse Award finalist for champion 2-year-old filly of 2014, has recently returned to trainer Rudy Rodriguez’s Aqueduct barn to begin preparations for her 3-year-old campaign.
Following her 11 1/2-length victory in the Grade 2 Demoiselle at Aqueduct in late November, Condo Commando was turned out at the Fair Hill Training Center in North East, Md.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. – New York’s version of the Claiming Crown will comprise 10 stakes worth a total of $710,000 in purse money when the inaugural Claiming Championship Series is held at Aqueduct on March 21.
Modeled after the Claiming Crown, which was run at Gulfstream Park last December, New York’s Claiming Championship Series will be open to horses who have started for a claiming price in 2014-15. The races will be run over the inner track.
Eclipse Award finalist Don’t Tell Sophia had been targeting the $100,000 Pippin at Oaklawn on Saturday for her first start of the year, but weather-related training disruptions led trainer Phil Sims to skip the race with her when entries were taken Wednesday.
Sims said Don’t Tell Sophia likely will make her next start in the Bayakoa, a $100,000 race for fillies and mares Feb. 15. This year, the race has been elevated in status to a Grade 3.
HOT SPRINGS, Ark. – Private Prospect brought a tidy record into last year’s Breeders’ Cup Juvenile at Santa Anita. The multiple stakes winner had won 3 of 4 career starts, with his lone loss coming by a head when he finished second in the Grade 3 Arlington Washington Futurity.
