ARCADIA, Calif. – Hall of Fame jockey Kent Desormeaux, a fixture in Southern California in the 1990s and early 2000s, will ride at Santa Anita on the weekend of Jan. 25-26 with an eye on a possible return to this circuit, he said Thursday.
“I’ll test the waters on the 25th and 26th,” Desormeaux said in a brief phone interview from Florida. “I would move back to California if I think I have the proper business.”
Runaway Wagon, a Grade 2-winning Quarter Horse, will make a significant cutback in distance at Louisiana Downs on Saturday, when he runs in the $15,000 Harrah’s Dash. The 250-yard race is one of two stakes on the first card of the track’s meet for Quarter Horses. The 46-date season will run through March 26.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. – When the Ruthless Stakes failed to fill for Saturday, a pair of New York-bred first-level allowance races became the co-features on the nine-race program at Aqueduct.
The eighth race, a $52,000 sprint scheduled for 5 1/2 furlongs, appears the more interesting of the two with the return of the speedy stakes-placed runner Marriedtothemusic, who has not been out since August at Saratoga, topping the 11-horse field.
ARCADIA, Calif. – Game On Dude, a finalist for the Eclipse Award as the nation’s outstanding older male of 2013, worked five furlongs in 1:01.80 on Thursday, preparing for his 2014 debut in the $300,000 San Antonio Stakes over 1 1/8 miles Feb. 8.
Trained by Bob Baffert, Game On Dude worked alone Thursday. The workout was his third since mid-December.
The 7-year-old Game On Dude has won 15 of 29 starts and earned $5,707,893. He has won 13 stakes, the most recent of which was the Pacific Classic at Del Mar last August.
ARCADIA, Calif. – Top Fortitude ran like an older horse when he won his 2-year-old debut in a maiden race for sprinters at Hollywood Park in November.
Instead of zooming to the lead, like many first-time winners, Top Fortitude closed from fourth in a field of nine with a wide rally to win by 2 3/4 lengths. The victory has led to a start in Saturday’s $100,000 Sham Stakes for 3-year-olds over a mile at Santa Anita.
ARCADIA, Calif. – The $200,000 San Pasqual Stakes over 1 1/16 miles at Santa Anita on Saturday is designed as a prep race for more lucrative two-turn races in the coming months, such as the $750,000 Santa Anita Handicap over 1 1/4 miles on March 8.
For Majestic City, a three-time stakes winner, the San Pasqual is the primary wintertime goal. The distance will be a test for the 5-year-old horse owned by Bloom Racing Stable and trained by Ron Ellis.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. - Breeders’ Cup Classic winner Mucho Macho Man is one of 145 horses nominated to the $1.3 million Sunshine Millions program on Jan. 18. Mucho Macho Man was nominated to the $400,000 Sunshine Millions Classic, the feature event on a program that will include five other stakes restricted to Florida-breds. Mucho Macho Man was eased as the odds-on favorite when he was having trouble handling a sloppy track in the 2013 Sunshine Millions Classic.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. - A field of 10 was entered for Saturday’s Grade 3 Hal’s Hope, including the improving Strike One for trainer Brendan Walsh. Strike One, a son of Street Cry, closed out his 2013 campaign with a pair of allowance wins at Churchill Downs.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Trainer Pat McBurney was all smiles in the winner’s circle after Just Call Kenny surged to an impressive victory in Saturday’s Spectacular Bid Stakes. But the celebration was short lived.
By the time Just Call Kenny left the test barn, he was already showing signs of soreness, and the next day it was confirmed the 3-year-old had suffered a condylar fracture to his right foreleg.
[Clocker Reports: Get Mike Welsch’s clocker reports from Gulfstream Park and Palm Meadows]
CYPRESS, Calif. – Los Alamitos has canceled three days of Quarter Horse racing from Jan. 17-19 to complete the expansion of its main track for future Thoroughbred meetings, the track announced on Tuesday.
The main track is being expanded from its current circumference of five-eighths of a mile to a mile. During the week of Jan. 13, maintenance crews will join the existing track with the expanded section and blend the surface.
The expansion project began on Dec. 10 and is on schedule, track officials said last weekend. This week, the rail posts were being installed.
