Tue, 02/11/2014 - 14:06

Oaklawn Park: Southwest runners head south to beat the weather

Dustin Orona Photography
Louies Flower has been shipped from Oaklawn Park to the Evangeline Downs Training Center to prepare for the Southwest Stakes.

HOT SPRINGS, Ark. – A quartet of Oaklawn Park-based 3-year-olds targeting Monday’s Grade 3, $300,000 Southwest have temporarily moved to the Evangeline Downs Training Center near Lafayette, La., to outrun the winter weather that forced the cancellation of last week’s live racing and stripped horsemen of four days of training.

Tue, 02/11/2014 - 13:09

Gulfstream Park notes: Romans gets meet back on track

Barbara D. Livingston
Dale Romans (above) tied Steve Asmussen for the Churchill Downs training title. Romans has now won the Churchill title 11 times, and Asmussen 13.

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Typically lost in the mad shuffle of something as major as Donn Handicap weekend are races or developments that normally would merit notice on their own.

The Dale Romans stable was among those flying under the Gulfstream Park radar otherwise dominated by Groupie Doll, Lea, and other stakes performers last weekend. Romans sent out a couple of nice allowance winners in Tarpy’s Surprise and Pick of the Litter, helping to turn around a meet that had been somewhat lagging.

Tue, 02/11/2014 - 12:06

Golden Gate Fields notes: Tamarando super sub for El Camino Real Derby

Shigeki Kikkawa
Tamarando won the Grade 1 Del Mar Futurity, then ran third as a heavy favorite in the Golden State Juvenile.

Trainer Jerry Hollendorfer is finding out it’s good to have a deep bench.

Hollendorfer, who trains last year’s champion 2-year-old Shared Belief, recently learned that his undefeated 3-year-old Exit Stage Left was injured and would miss Saturday’s Grade 3 El Camino Real Derby at Golden Gate Fields.

No problem.

Mon, 02/10/2014 - 15:30

Aqueduct: Gracer, three-time stakes winner, retired due to sesamoid fracture

Tom Keyser
Gracer won three stakes during her six-race career and finished third in the Grade 2 Matron Stakes in September.

Gracer, the dominant winner of Saturday’s $100,000 Dearly Precious Stakes at Aqueduct, came out of the race with a fractured sesamoid in her left front ankle and has been retired from racing, trainer Tony Dutrow confirmed Monday.

Dutrow said Gracer will be offered at public auction as a broodmare prospect in November. Gracer, a 3-year-old Pennsylvania-bred daughter of Exchange Rate who brought $150,000 at auction as a yearling, retires with a record of 4-1-1 from six starts and earnings of $243,000 for Team D and Three Chimneys racing.

Mon, 02/10/2014 - 15:14

Aqueduct notes: Moonlight Song to go in Tom Fool Handicap

Adam Coglianese/NYRA
Moonlight Song scores as the even-money second choice under Jose Ortiz in Thursday's Gold and Roses.

OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Moonlight Song, the 7-year-old New York-bred gelding who has won three of his last four starts, will be pointed to the Grade 3, $200,000 Tom Fool Handicap on March 1, trainer Charlton Baker said Monday.

Mon, 02/10/2014 - 14:48

Aqueduct: Sweet Reason working toward 2014 debut

Barbara D. Livingston
Sweet Reason worked three furlongs in 37.71 seconds on Monday at Belmont Park.

OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Sweet Reason, trainer Leah Gyarmati’s Grade 1-winning filly, worked six furlongs in 1:18.91 over a slow Belmont Park training track Sunday. It was her sixth work since returning to training following a brief freshening after her fourth-place finish in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies.

Sweet Reason worked in company but pulled away from her workmate in the final furlong. Though the time was slow – the training track yielded slow times over the weekend – Gyarmati called it “a useful work.”

Mon, 02/10/2014 - 14:46

Gulfstream Park notes: Contreras sore after Saturday spill

Barbara D. Livingston
Luis Contreras, pictured here aboard Recall Dynaformer, was thrown from that mount near the quarter pole in the fourth race on Saturday at Gulfstream.

Jockey Luis Contreras took off his three mounts Sunday while still sore from being thrown from his mount in a turf-course incident involving three horses in the fourth race Saturday. Abdiel Jaen and Emma-Jayne Wilson were thrown from their mounts in the maiden special weight race after 3-year-old Recall Dynaformer, ridden by Contreras and trained by Roger Attfield, suddenly fell in front of them near the quarter pole.

Mon, 02/10/2014 - 14:44

Tampa Bay Downs: Gallardo success story continues

Tom Keyser
Antonio Gallardo ended last week second in the Tampa Bay Downs rider standings.

OLDSMAR, Fla. – Like a lot of folks around Tampa Bay Downs, jockey Antonio Gallardo was glad to see blue skies and sunshine on Sunday after a week of cool temperatures and rain that must have reminded him of the cold weather that prompted him to relocate from his native Spain five years ago.

Mon, 02/10/2014 - 14:44

Gulfstream Park notes: Falling Sky might target Carter

Tom Keyser
Falling Sky won the Grade 3 Gulfstream Park Sprint on Saturday.

Trainer George Weaver is considering his options with Falling Sky in the wake of a breakout 5 1/2-length victory by the 4-year-old colt Saturday in the Grade 3 Gulfstream Park Sprint.

Mon, 02/10/2014 - 14:41

Aqueduct: Noble Moon likely to skip Gotham Stakes

Michael Amoruso
Noble Moon, ridden for the first time by Irad Ortiz Jr., scores by two lengths in the Jerome for 3-year-olds.

OZONE PARK, N.Y. – While she didn’t completely rule it out, trainer Leah Gyarmati said Monday that it is unlikely Jerome Stakes winner Noble Moon will make the Grade 3, $500,000 Gotham Stakes at Aqueduct on March 1.

It is more likely that Noble Moon will train up to the $1 million Wood Memorial at Aqueduct on April 5, Gyarmati said.