DEL MAR, Calif. – Trainer Christophe Clement won the Grade 1 Bing Crosby the first year it was run on Polytrack in 2007, he won the Grade 1 Del Mar Oaks last year with Discreet Marq, and over the years, he has sent numerous other horses such as the grass runner Summer Front here for stakes races. But not until Friday morning had he ever set foot at Del Mar.
“It’s hard to get away during Saratoga,” Clement said Friday. “I can’t get out. But when they had this meet, it was my chance.”
The Polytrack era at Del Mar ends Sunday, and the racetrack plans to give away the synthetic material to the first takers.
Through December, the surface will be removed from the racetrack and stored on the infield of the backstretch training track. While work begins on the installation of the dirt track that will be used for racing beginning in 2015, Del Mar will offer the Polytrack surface to anyone, free of charge.
“We’ll load it up for you,” track president Joe Harper said.
NEW ORLEANS – About a year ago at Fair Grounds, jockey Kerwin Clark and trainer Larry Jones teamed up for the first time, with Clark riding Albano to victory in a maiden race. Now, Clark is the go-to rider for Jones, and the 55-year-old jockey, who has nearly 40 years in the saddle, said that because of their connection, he’s rejuvenated.
STICKNEY, Ill. – Breeders’ Cup Sprint winner Work All Week is getting a winter break at the Ocala, Fla.-area farm of owners-breeders Rich and Karen Papiese.
Work All Week flew from California to Florida following his BC Sprint win at Santa Anita. At first, he was turned out in a round pen and recently has been spending time in a one-acre paddock.
“We’ll give him at least 30 days,” Rich Papiese said. “We’ll monitor the situation, but there’s no reason to hurry back.”
STICKNEY, Ill. – An eclectic field of 11 older horses will compete in Saturday’s Grade 2, $250,000 Hawthorne Gold Cup, the lone graded stakes still contested at Hawthorne’s fall-winter meeting.
The Gold Cup used to have a purse twice as large and was contested in October as a nominal prep for the Breeders’ Cup Classic, but Hawthorne, bowing to the realities of national trends, as well as its own purse structure, moved the Gold Cup to a month after the BC Classic last year, and the purse has been trimmed to fit available prize money at this meet.
Hall of Fame trainer D. Wayne Lukas will not be slowing down with the close of the calendar year. He swept into Vinton last Saturday and won the Grade 3, $400,000 Delta Downs Princess with Take Charge Brandi and missed by a nose with Mr. Z in the Grade 3, $1 million Delta Downs Jackpot.
Trainer Mike Maker, who swept two of the key stakes on the Retama Park calendar this season, has determined plans for both of those horses, Right On Kitten and Magna Breeze.
Right On Kitten won the $100,000 La Senorita for 2-year-old fillies on turf Oct. 11 at Retama Park to remain undefeated in two starts for owners Ken and Sarah Ramsey. Maker said the filly is being pointed for the $100,000 Ginger Brew at 7 1/2 furlongs on turf Jan. 3 at Gulfstream Park.
A stakes-caliber field of filly and mare turf-sprint specialists will square off under allowance conditions in Friday’s $42,000 main event, carded at five furlongs on grass. Madame Giry, a two-time stakes winner this season, likely will be favored to defeat a field that also includes Spun Cap, Kiama, What a Party, and Peggy Joyce.
VINTON, La. – Yahilwa’s win in the $200,000 Treasure Chest last Saturday at Delta Downs was a satisfying one for trainer Jim Cassidy. It was the first stakes victory for the filly, who had been locking horns with horses such as Beholder back home in Southern California.
“She’s been hard at it for a while,” Cassidy said. “She’s run against some tough fillies. She gives you everything she’s got every time.”
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Honor Code, fresh off an impressive allowance victory over the weekend, will arrive at his winter home at Payson Park on Sunday and could make his next start in the Grade 3 Hal’s Hope on Jan. 10, trainer Shug McGaughey said Wednesday.
McGaughey, who was not present at Aqueduct when Honor Code rallied from nearly a dozen lengths off the pace to post a one-length decision over Maleeh on Saturday, was impressed by the performance, for which his star received a career-best 106 Beyer Speed Figure.
