INGLEWOOD, Calif. – Beholder, the champion 2-year-old filly of 2012 who was second in the Kentucky Oaks at Churchill Downs on May 3, will return to racing in August – at Del Mar or Saratoga.
Trainer Richard Mandella said Thursday that Beholder is nearing a return from a three-week vacation at a local farm, but that her next start has not been determined.
“I gave her a little break, and we’ll point for the later part of the summer,” Mandella said.
BALTIMORE - Emma-Jayne Wilson picked up points in three of the four legs of the Jockey Challenge at Pimlico Race Course on Friday to win the annual series over Edgar Prado.
There was a special wager attached to the competition, and Wilson paid $25 to win. The exacta of Wilson and Prado, who also picked up points in three of the legs, paid $72.80. The winning numbers were 4 and 6.
Wilson won with 24 points, with Prado earning 19.
INGLEWOOD, Calif, - Sweet Swap may be too quick to catch in a $62,000 allowance race over six furlongs on turf at Betfair Hollywood Park on Sunday, but he will have a formidable group of stakes winners in pursuit.
A 4-year-old colt trained by John Sadler for Kosta Hronis, Sweet Swap led throughout his last start, an optional claimer on the hillside turf course at Santa Anita on April 14. That turf sprint was his third win in eight career starts.
Sweet Swap will be ridden by Rafael Bejarano in Sunday’s seventh race, which drew a field of six.
MIAMI – Trainer Leo Azpurua Jr. is looking for the right spot to bring Bellefire back from a brief freshening, especially after watching the multiple stakes-placed colt work a sharp five furlongs in 1:01.67 from the gate here Friday morning.
Whether that “spot” will be the $75,000 Memorial Day Handicap here a week from Monday remains to be determined.
Bellefire is one of 15 older horses nominated for the Memorial Day, which will be decided around two turns at 1 1/16 miles.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. - Centre Court, arguably the top filly-mare turf runner in North America, has thrived since posting her third straight victory last month at Keeneland and is “very much on target” for her next start in the Grade 1 Just A Game on the June 8 Belmont Stakes undercard, said trainer Rusty Arnold.
“She is doing just terrific,” said Arnold. “It’d be hard to imagine her training any better than she is.”
GROVE CITY, Ohio – It’s been a long process, but the 65-day River Downs-at-Beulah Park meet opens Sunday. The River Downs meet needed to be relocated this year because the track’s grandstand has been demolished and the racing surface is being repositioned to make way for a new racino that will hold 1,600 slot machines. The new facility, which is owned by Pinnacle Entertainment, is expected to open in spring 2014.
Funfair, who won both of her juvenile turf sprints impressively, makes her seasonal debut against seven rival 3-year-old fillies in Sunday’s $85,000 Miss Otis overnight stakes, a six-furlong race scheduled for the inner turf.
Funfair was a decisive debut winner on this same course last July, and went to Monmouth Park a month later to win the Colleen with similar ease. She started just once more after that, when she pressed the pace and faded to sixth as the 8-5 favorite in the Presque Isle Debutante.
History is on the side of She Forgives and Docs First Fire in Sunday’s $281,100 Kindergarten Futurity for Quarter Horses at Los Alamitos.
Jaime Gomez trains She Forgives and Docs First Fire for the Dutch Masters III partnership. Together, Gomez and Dutch Masters have combined to win the Kindergarten four times. Overall, Gomez has won the first futurity of the Los Alamitos season seven times, a record he shares with the late Blane Schvaneveldt. Dutch Masters is currently tied with the late Ivan Ashment as the all-time winningest owners in Kindergarten history with four wins.
VANCOUVER, British Columbia – Wando Woman, who will make her seasonal debut in a $35,000 optional claimer at Hastings on Sunday, is a seasoned veteran. She has started 21 times, and among her five wins are scores in the CTHS Sales Stakes in 2010 and the Vancouver Sun and Strawberry Morn in 2011.
