CYPRESS, Calif. – California Chrome worked six furlongs in 1:11.80 at Los Alamitos on Saturday, his final major workout for the $300,000 San Felipe Stakes at Santa Anita on March 8. The Grade 2 San Felipe Stakes, a key prep for the $1 million Santa Anita Derby on April 5, will play a defining role in how California Chrome is campaigned this spring.
“We’ll learn where he fits with those horses,” trainer Art Sherman said. “It will be a good test for him.”
NEW ORLEANS - Unknown Road has returned to regular galloping after being gelded in late January. Unknown Road scored one of the best maiden victories of the Fair Grounds meet when he won a Dec. 19 sprint race by almost 12 lengths, but he could only finish a distant fourth as the heavy favorite in a two-turn first-level allowance race here Jan. 24.
NEW ORLEANS – Unbridled Forever probably would have been favored had she lined up in the starting gate for the Rachel Alexandra Stakes here Saturday, but when the Rachel Alexandra was run, Unbridled Forever was to be chilling in her stall.
Harpoon, In Trouble, and Surfing U S A all were nominated to the Grade 2, $200,000 Swale Stakes, a seven-furlong race to be run at Gulfstream Park next Saturday. Trainer Todd Pletcher on Friday said that Havana was scheduled for his first start of the year in the Swale, but that a final decision on where he, Harpoon, and Surfing U S A all race would be made following workouts Sunday morning.
[ROAD TO THE KENTUCKY DERBY: Prep races, point standings, replays]
The unbeaten colt In Trouble has been training at Palm Meadows this winter, but he is scheduled to head north Wednesday for his 2014 debut in the Grade 3, $500,000 Gotham Stakes at 1 1/16 miles at Aqueduct next Saturday. He had his final work for the race Friday morning at Palm Meadows and worked slower than trainer Tony Dutrow desired, officially five furlongs in 1:02.75 while going from the half-mile pole to a furlong past the wire.
HOT SPRINGS, Ark. – Oaklawn has announced its second purse increase of the meet after a strong Presidents Day weekend in which nearly 60,000 patrons attended the races and handle was up close to 30 percent from the corresponding holiday weekend a year ago.
Claiming races of $20,000 or less will be boosted $500 each, beginning Thursday, while all other overnight races will increase $3,000 each. The move will bring maiden special weight races to a record $60,000 at Oaklawn.
HOT SPRINGS, Ark. – Apparently, the millionaire mare Dixie Strike is not yet ready to be a mom.
The $100,000 Bayakoa at Oaklawn Park last week could have been the final start of her career. But her fast-closing second to Don’t Tell Sophia has pushed back the breeding card her owner, John Oxley, and her trainer, Mark Casse, had been debating.
“She got to choose her future,” Casse said. “About the five-eighths pole, I thought, ‘Well, she’s going to be a mom.’ At the half-mile pole, I thought, ‘Maybe not.’ And at the eighth pole, I said, ‘The girl’s still got it in her!’ ”
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Sprint stakes on the grass are few and far between, especially for fillies and mares, so it came as a bit of a surprise when only 10 signed on for Sunday’s $75,000 Ladies Turf Sprint at Gulfstream Park.
CYPRESS, Calif. – The Ocean King is the fastest qualifier for Sunday’s $112,000 Los Alamitos Maiden Stakes for 3-year-olds. The race is restricted to horses that were maidens as of Dec. 1 and is designed for late-developing 2-year-olds or those who had training setbacks during that season.
The Ocean King would qualify on both counts.
