OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Going to a four-day race week at Aqueduct in February is proving to be a good decision for the New York Racing Association.
Two storms in 48 hours forced NYRA to cancel training at both Aqueduct and Belmont Park for three straight mornings – Monday through Wednesday – as well as forced Monday’s nine-race card to be postponed. The next live racing card isn’t scheduled until Friday, when the forecast calls for sunny skies and temperatures in the upper 20s.
Trainer Mark Casse confirmed Conquest Titan, a late-running second behind Cairo Prince in the Grade 2 Holy Bull Stakes last month, as a definite starter Feb. 22 in the Grade 2 Fountain of Youth.
“I was very pleased with his effort in the Holy Bull,” said Casse, who was at Oaklawn Park on Wednesday but planned to be in town to watch Conquest Titan work at Palm Meadows over the weekend. “I wasn’t expecting him to win, I just wanted to see if he belonged in that company, and he made a nice run after getting back a little farther than I’d have liked.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Uncaptured and Neck ’n Neck will be among the outsiders going up against the likes of Will Take Charge, Revolutionary, Lea, and River Seven in the Donn Handicap, but trainers Mark Casse and Ian Wilkes are looking forward to giving their horses another opportunity to become Grade 1 winners here Sunday.
Race 1 |
Spot PlayCocoanut Row (#3, 5-1) improved with blinkers two back with a fourth at this distance against classier, and then bombed on the grass; back on dirt, she should return to form at a square price. – Byron King |
HOT SPRINGS, Ark. – Gentlemen’s Bet is scheduled to make his first start of the year Saturday at Oaklawn in the $100,000 King Cotton, weather permitting, said trainer Ron Moquett. The six-furlong race ushers in the meet’s sprint series, which concludes with the Grade 3, $300,000 Count Fleet on April 10.
HOT SPRINGS, Ark. – Joel Rosario will ride Grade 1 Hopeful Stakes winner Strong Mandate in the Grade 3, $300,000 Southwest Stakes at Oaklawn Park on Feb. 17, trainer D. Wayne Lukas said. The race will be Strong Mandate’s first since he finished third under Rosario to New Year’s Day in the $2 million Breeders’ Cup Juvenile at Santa Anita on Nov. 2.
Warm Breeze clearly has found her calling as a dirt sprinter, and she jumped up from a first-level allowance victory on Dec. 28 to capture the $59,000 Happy Ticket, her stakes debut, on Saturday at Fair Grounds. Pacesetting Warm Breeze only held on to beat Same Cross by a nose in the six-furlong race, but the pair had more than nine lengths on third-place Ire, and Warm Breeze’s raw time of 1:10.33 produced a career-best and graded-stakes-class 97 Beyer Speed Figure.
Mondays typically are busy work days in the Steve Asmussen barn, and this week at Fair Grounds was no exception, with Asmussen putting most of his top horses in New Orleans through timed breezes.
Among the workers were Asmussen’s two leading 3-year-old hopes: Tapiture worked six furlongs in 1:12.80, and Gold Hawk went five-eighths in a snappy 1:00.60.
