INGLEWOOD, Calif. – Egg Drop, the winner of Sunday’s Grade 1 Matriarch Stakes at Betfair Hollywood Park, will be entered in Keeneland’s January sale of horses of all ages but might be withdrawn to continue her racing career.
Billy Koch, the managing partner of the Little Red Feather Racing stable that owns Egg Drop, said Tuesday that a decision on the future of the 4-year-old filly will be made later this month.
The 2014 Golden Gate Fields stakes schedule for the winter-spring meet resembles last year’s. There is one notable exception among the 11 stakes scheduled for the meet, which begins Dec. 26 and runs through June 15, 2014.
The $50,000 Lost in the Fog, formerly a sprint for 2-year-olds that closed the meeting, is now a sprint for older horses on Feb. 17. The Lost in the Fog takes the place of the $50,000 Albany Stakes, which will be run at five furlongs on turf on the last Saturday of the meet, June 14.
Though he didn’t win the Remsen, trainer Todd Pletcher did win three races restricted to 2-year-olds on Saturday at Aqueduct, including the Grade 2 Demoiselle with Stopchargingmaria.
Pletcher also won with a pair of good-looking maidens who overcame troubled starts to win. The filly Dame Dorothy broke slowly, spotted the rest of the field several lengths, but managed to rally from last to win a seven-furlong maiden race by a half-length. Three races later, the colt Surfing U S A overcame a bad start to win his maiden by 2 1/4 lengths, also at seven furlongs.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. – It has been a year of many firsts for Javier Castellano. He hopes it culminates with his first Eclipse Award as North America’s champion jockey.
Entering the final four weeks of racing in 2013, Castellano is first in the nation in races won with 335 and first in purse earnings with $25,234,475. In the purse-money won category, Castellano is only $400,377 behind the single-year record set last year by Ramon Dominguez, winner of the last three Eclipse Awards, who was forced to retire after a spill in January.
ARCADIA, Calif. – Everything before the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies went ideally for Untapable, and everything since has gone well, too, which is why those closest to her are inclined to throw out her poor Breeders’ Cup performance and believe she can bounce back in the Grade 1, $500,000 Hollywood Starlet on Saturday at Betfair Hollywood Park.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – As horse vans streamed out the Churchill Downs stable gate Sunday and Monday for southbound destinations, a handful of trainers who ended the fall meet Saturday on a winning note departed with high hopes for the long winter ahead.
One of those was Dallas Stewart, who sent out Unbridled Forever to an eye-catching seven-furlong maiden victory that earned a 96 Beyer Speed Figure, easily the highest of any of the 12 winners on the meet-ending Stars of Tomorrow card, restricted to 2-year-olds.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Saturday’s Grade 2 Kennedy Road Stakes featured an intriguing matchup between two-time Canadian champion sprinter Essence Hit Man and this year’s divisional leader, Phil’s Dream, but it was Bear No Joke who got the last laugh when he prevailed at 17-1 under Emma-Jane Wilson.
Bear No Joke wore down the speedy Essence Hit Man in the stretch to beat him by a half-length in 1:08.63, which was 0.47 seconds off Essence Hit Man’s six-furlong Polytrack record. Bear No Joke earned a career-high Beyer Speed Figure of 101.
INGLEWOOD, Calif. – Full Ransom, the winner of Saturday’s $100,250 Miesque Stakes for 2-year-old fillies, is likely to start early in the Santa Anita meeting in the Blue Norther Stakes over a mile on turf.
The Blue Norther is an overnight stakes and has yet to be scheduled. In past years, it was run in late December or in the first days of January.
