ARCADIA, Calif. – There is a two-day pick six carryover of $226,505 for Saturday’s nine-race program at Santa Anita.
Upset wins by Ancient Stone ($40.80) and Boozer ($42.20) in consecutive races Friday clinched the carryover. The pool of new money could exceed $1 million.
Saturday’s pick six covers the fourth through ninth races on a program that begins at 12:30 p.m. Pacific.
Lynn Chleborad got the 1,000th win of her training career Friday at Oaklawn Park when The Rock Rolls rallied to capture the 10th race by 2 3/4 lengths. Alex Birzer was aboard for longtime Chleborad client Poindexter Thoroughbreds. The Rock Rolls, racing in a $16,000 claiming sprint, paid $11.60.
Chleborad is a Nebraska native whose first training win came in the state at Lincoln on Oct. 9, 1987. She said reaching the milestone has a great deal of personal meaning.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Trainer Joe Orseno picked a few plums out of last year’s dispersal sale for the horses who participated in Frank Stronach’s innovative but short-lived Horse Racing League, including recent allowance winner Oasis at Midnight. On Sunday, Orseno will unveil perhaps the best of his acquisitions from that sale, the lightly raced Palm Island, who’ll face a strong group of first-level optional-claiming rivals, including the Grade 2-placed Morgan’s Guerrilla and impressive maiden winner Accelerare. The seven-furlong race is race 7 on the card.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. - The top sprinter Action Andy got back on the winning track in Friday’s featured fourth race, cruising to victory over the odds-on Apriority. The win was the first for Action Andy since he registered back-to-back victories in Laurel’s Frank De Francis Memorial and Tampa Bay Downs’s Pelican Stakes during the fall of 2012. Action Andy completed 6 1/2 furlongs in 1:14.89, .49 of a second off the track record, despite being geared down at the end by jockey Paco Lopez.
Action Andy was in for the $100,000 tag in the optional-claiming race.
ARCADIA, Calif. - Secret Circle, the winner of the Breeders’ Cup Sprint last November, will not start in the $2 million Golden Shaheen in Dubai on March 29, trainer Bob Baffert said on Friday.
Baffert said he prefers not to start Secret Circle on the Tapeta Footings synthetic surface at Meydan Racecourse, and plans to keep the 5-year-old horse in the United States for his next start, which will come on a dirt track. Baffet said no plans have been finalized for Secret Circle, who finished second in the Grade 2 Palos Verdes Stakes on Feb. 2.
Del Mar has postponed laying grass on its new turf course by 48 hours, to Wednesday, the track announced on Friday.
Over the winter, Del Mar expanded its turf course to accommodate larger fields. Installation of the new sod has been delayed to prepare the base and because of “more extensive preparation requirements,” according to a statement.
The sod is scheduled to arrive at the track at 6 a.m. on Wednesday, and be installed that morning.
ARCADIA, Calif. – The Admiral can hit the Triple Crown trail if he wins a $58,000 allowance race at Santa Anita on Sunday.
Trained by Bob Baffert, The Admiral won a maiden special weight race over seven furlongs on Feb. 15 in his last race, his fourth career start. He earned a Beyer Speed Figure of 90.
In his preceding race, The Admiral ran seventh in a maiden race over 1 1/16 miles, the distance of Sunday’s race.
[ROAD TO THE KENTUCKY DERBY: Prep races, point standings, replays]
OZONE PARK, N.Y. – The initial game plan as it pertained to Sheikh Mohammed’s 4-year-olds Romansh and Long River was to keep them separated, which explained why Long River stayed in New York for the early part of the winter while Romansh was based in south Florida.
While Long River improved his résumé with a pair of victories at Aqueduct, Romansh’s stock dropped somewhat with a last-place finish in the Grade 1 Donn Handicap at Gulfstream.
Retired trainer Larry Robideaux Jr., trainer Bret Calhoun, and Proud Spell, who swept the Fair Grounds Oaks/Kentucky Oaks double in 2008, were inducted Wednesday into the Fair Grounds Hall of Fame.
Robideaux, who retired in 2012 with 1,963 career victories, won the Fair Grounds Oaks with My Charmer in 1972 and with Honest and True in 1980.
“The biggest thrill I ever got in horse racing was winning with a first-time starter, any first-time starter,” said Robideaux, 80. “That means I did my job.”
NEW ORLEANS – Apprentice jockey Ashley Broussard points to several factors behind her recent run of success at Fair Grounds.
“More experience and a lot stronger now than when I first started,” Broussard said. “Better horses. A little bit of everything.”
A 21-year-old native of Youngsville, La., Broussard is having the most productive month of her young career. Entering Friday’s racing, she had 5 wins, 2 seconds, and 6 thirds from 22 mounts in March.
