HOT SPRINGS, Ark. – Champion Will Take Charge and Southwest Stakes winner Tapiture put in works Sunday at Oaklawn Park before rain moved into the area and temperatures dropped. The track was rated “fast” for workouts Sunday.
Will Take Charge, preparing for Saturday's Grade 1, $750,000 Santa Anita Handicap, came out when the track opened at 7 a.m. Central on an overcast, 60-degree morning. He was strong throughout a half-mile work in 47.80 seconds, the fastest of 74 moves at the distance Sunday.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – The mutuel field, the 24th or “all others” option, closed in its familiar spot as the favorite in Pool 3 of the Kentucky Derby Future Wager, which closed Saturday following a three-day run.
The field closed at 3-1, followed by Cairo Prince (9-1), Top Billing (11-1), Honor Code (11-1), Candy Boy (12-1), Shared Belief (15-1), Bayern (17-1), Tapiture (17-1), and Strong Mandate (18-1).
OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Rydilluc, a multiple stakes-winning turf horse, sustained a soft-tissue injury when finishing fifth in the Canadian Turf Stakes at Gulfstream Park on Feb. 22 and will miss at least the remainder of the year, according to trainer Gary Contessa.
Contessa said it hasn’t been determined whether Rydilluc will attempt to come back next year or be sold as a stallion prospect. He did say the earliest Rydilluc could return to training would be at the beginning of 2015.
Cairo Prince continued his preparations for the $1 million Florida Derby on March 29 by working five furlongs in 59.95 in company with Long River at Palm Meadows on Saturday. The breeze was just his third since registering an impressive 6 3/4-length victory over Conquest Titan in the Grade 2 Holy Bull on Jan. 25 and first since his owners sold a majority interest in the colt to Sheikh Mohammed’s Darley Stable earlier this week.
[ROAD TO THE KENTUCKY DERBY: Prep races, point standings, replays]
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Little Mike arrived at Gulfstream Park on Saturday to begin preparations for his 2014 campaign. But the van that brought the 2012 Breeders’ Cup Turf winner from Ocala did not stop at trainer Dale Romans’s barn, but a little farther down the road, where he was greeted by his owner and new trainer, Carlo Vaccarezza.
ARCADIA, Calif. - American Blend will need the race of his career to beat rivals such as Mucho Macho Man and Will Take Charge in next Saturday’s $750,000 Santa Anita Handicap.
“I’m running in a Breeders’ Cup,” said Carla Gaines, who trains American Blend.
It’s a valid reference. Mucho Macho Man and Will Take Charge were first and second in the Breeders’ Cup Classic here in November and have been shipped back to California for the Big Cap, the top race for older horses of the winter-spring meeting.
ARCADIA, Calif. - Jockey Patrick Valenzuela, who has not ridden since late January and was suspended on Feb. 7 for failing to appear at a hearing with track stewards, met briefly with track stewards on Friday to discuss his absence.
Valenzuela, 51, who has a history of substance abuse and personal issues that have interrupted his career, is scheduled to have a formal hearing next Sunday to discuss why he did not appear to ride at Santa Anita on Jan. 24.
Isn’t He Clever has turned in some memorable stakes wins in New Mexico, from his track-record performance in the Bill Thomas Memorial on the Sunland Park Derby undercard last March, to his 16 3/4-length triumph in the San Juan County Commissioner’s Handicap in June. He’ll launch his 5-year-old season on Tuesday in a 6 1/2-furlong allowance at Sunland that drew fellow stakes winners Homerun Berti and Smack Ridge.
ARCADIA, Calif. – Mike Lakow, a former director of racing at the New York Racing Association, has been hired as racing director at Santa Anita, the track announced Friday.
Lakow, 57, will begin working at Santa Anita on March 24 and will assist Santa Anita racing secretary Rick Hammerle, the track said. Lakow currently works as a steward at Calder Race Course in Miami.
Aside from NYRA, Lakow has worked at tracks in Delaware, Dubai, Florida, Kentucky, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania. He spent 12 years with NYRA as director of racing.
ARCADIA, Calif. – The first Santa Anita spring-summer meeting from April 25 to June 29 will look very similar to the Hollywood Park spring-summer meeting it replaces even though some of the race names have been changed.
The list of 34 stakes includes six Grade 1 races with familiar names such as the Gamely Stakes, American Oaks, Vanity Stakes, Shoemaker Mile, and Triple Bend Stakes. The Grade 1 Hollywood Gold Cup has been renamed the Gold Cup at Santa Anita, and will be run on June 28, the final Saturday of the meeting.
