Trainer Steve Asmussen has set up shop at Fair Grounds for the winter, started winning races in the past week, and now has his big guns on the way.
The two star Winchell Thoroughbreds homebreds, Untapable and Tapiture, were to ship from the Winchells’ Corinthia Farm in Kentucky to Fair Grounds on Friday, Asmussen said. On Monday, both horses will begin training for their 2015 campaigns.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – The old saying about necessity being the mother of invention certainly applies to trainer Sal Santoro’s decision to run his 4-year-old filly Rose to Gold against the boys in Saturday’s Harlan’s Holiday Stakes.
A multiple stakes winner, Rose to Gold has not started since she checked home fifth in the Grade 1 Apple Blossom last April at Oaklawn Park. A third-place finish or better in the Harlan’s Holiday would make Rose to Gold a millionaire. Rose to Gold, a homebred daughter of Friends Lake, enters the race with career earnings of $981,509.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Little Alexis’s scheduled trip to Santa Anita to compete in the Grade 1 La Brea on Dec. 26 has been canceled, owner-trainer Carlo Vaccarezza said Wednesday.
Little Alexis suffered an allergic reaction on her neck and spiked a fever of nearly 105 degrees immediately after her ninth-place finish in the Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Sprint, and last week she missed several days of training with a fever.
Conquest Eclipse, seventh in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies at Santa Anita on Nov. 1, will miss Saturday’s $350,000 Starlet Stakes at Los Alamitos and will resume her career away from California, trainer Mark Casse said Wednesday.
Casse said Conquest Eclipse will be sent to Florida this month and might race at Oaklawn Park in Arkansas in the coming months. He said he was not pleased with the way Conquest Eclipse emerged from a recent workout but said the filly is not injured.
Trainer Charlton Baker claimed Expression on his own behalf for $35,000 out of a win in a maiden race at Aqueduct in January 2012. In the almost three years since, Expression has been a steady horse, winning a nonwinners-of-two starter, two claiming races, and knocking out her first- and second-level allowance conditions.
There have not been any new cases of strangles at Finger Lakes since two horses tested positive for the illness last week and two barns were quarantined, according to Dave Brown, president of the local chapter of the Horsemen’s Benevolent and Protective Association.
“The incubation countdown has begun,” Brown said. “If there aren’t any new cases, I think the quarantine could be lifted on Dec. 18 or 19.”
High Noon Rider’s performance in the $250,000 Springboard Mile at Remington Park in Oklahoma City on Sunday will help determine the path for the horse next year at 3, said trainer George Weaver. High Noon Rider will be making his two-turn debut after winning a maiden special weight race at Aqueduct in his most recent start Nov. 19.
CYPRESS, Calif. – When D. Wayne Lukas arrives at Los Alamitos on Thursday in advance of Take Charge Brandi’s appearance in Saturday’s $350,000 Starlet Stakes, he may need a moment to gain his bearings.
Much has changed since Lukas was based at Los Alamitos in the 1970s, and since he raced a small stable of Quarter Horses there in the late 1990s and early 2000s.
On Tuesday, Lukas noted that there are few familiar faces left from his early days.
“I know it’s changed,” he said. “D. Wayne Lukas might be the answer to a trivia question.”
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Among the new additions to the local jockey colony this winter is Rafael Hernandez, who wasted little time in making his presence felt by guiding St. Borealis to victory from post 14 in Saturday’s Claiming Crown Tiara. Hernandez came to town at the behest of trainer Wesley Ward, who found the nine-year veteran while running horses this summer in the Midwest.
St. Borealis was the fourth stakes winner Hernandez has ridden for trainer Mike Maker and owner Ken Ramsey.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – It was only appropriate that Todd Pletcher would win the first race of the 2014-15 Gulfstream Park championship meeting. Costenia cruised to an entry-level allowance win in the first race Saturday, underscoring that Pletcher is back in full force seeking an unprecedented 13th training title here this winter.
