Tue, 04/23/2013 - 16:19

Hollywood Park begins what could be final spring meet

Benoit & Associates
Hollywood Park will begin its spring meeting on Thursday.

INGLEWOOD, Calif. – The 2013 spring meet begins Thursday at Betfair Hollywood Park, where picking winners is easier than predicting the future of the racetrack.

Despite increasing likelihood the 75th anniversary season will be the final spring at Hollywood, racing secretary Martin Panza does not look beyond the current calendar. Is this the last hurrah for Hollywood?

“It is not for me to say,” Panza said. “Until they tell me we’re closing, we keep going along. Certainly, there is a lot of chatter that way.”

Tue, 04/23/2013 - 15:37

Keeneland notes: Judy the Beauty drops in class for return in Thursday allowance

Barbara D. Livingston
Judy the Beauty, beaten a nose last summer in the Grade 1 Prioress at Saratoga, will make her 2013 debut Thursday in a Keeneland allowance.

LEXINGTON, Ky. – Judy the Beauty nearly was ready to run last fall in the Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Sprint, but a mid-October workout at Hollywood Park dashed those hopes.

“She bled [internally] that morning,” said Wesley Ward, who owns and trains the speedy chestnut filly. “She’d never bled a drop before that. That was the end of her Breeders’ Cup.”

Tue, 04/23/2013 - 15:24

Kentucky Derby: Super Ninety Nine, Den's Legacy will not run

Barbara D. Livingston
Super Ninety Nine will not run in the Kentucky Derby, trainer Bob Baffert confirmed Tuesday.

Making official what had long been suspected, trainer Bob Baffert on Tuesday told Churchill Downs’s publicity department that both Super Ninety Nine and Den’s Legacy, who had been ranked 18th and 20th, respectively, on the points list for the May 4 Kentucky Derby, would not run.

Though both 3-year-olds were among the top 20 in points, they had not been listed in Daily Racing Form’s Derby Watch top 20, owing to the likelihood they were not going to compete.

Tue, 04/23/2013 - 15:03

Final time of Charles Town Classic adjusted

Coady Photography
Game On Dude was awarded a 105 Beyer Speed Figure for his win in the $1.5 million Charles Town Classic.

The official final time of last Saturday night’s $1.5 million Charles Town Classic – won by Game On Dude – has been changed to 1:49.93, which is 2.34 seconds faster than what was originally posted.

The final time, as well as the internal fractions, were changed following inquiries by several parties and a review by Charles Town officials, the track’s board of stewards, and Equibase. The new final time was hand-timed off a replay.

Tue, 04/23/2013 - 14:40

Hollywood Park: Teddy’s Promise targets B. Thoughtful Stakes

Shigeki Kikkawa
Teddy's Promise, the winner of the Grade 2 Santa Monica Stakes in January, will start in Saturday's $125,000 B. Thoughtful Stakes at Betfair Hollywood Park.

Teddy’s Promise, the winner of two graded stakes for female sprinters in the last 18 months, will start in Saturday’s $125,000 B. Thoughtful Stakes on the California Gold Rush program at Hollywood Park.

Trainer Ron Ellis said owners Ted and Judy Nichols considered sending Teddy’s Promise to the $300,000 Humana Distaff at Churchill Downs on May 4 but have opted to stay home.

Tue, 04/23/2013 - 14:40

Atlantic City: Six-day, all-turf meet opens

Thirty-seven races, all on turf, over six racing days. Welcome back to the itty bitty Atlantic City race meet.

Atlantic City Race Course is scheduled to open Thursday, with the first of four consecutive all-turf cards. The track will take a one-day break before returning for two more days of racing, closing on May 1.

First post each day is 3:30 p.m. Eastern, allowing area job-holders to sneak out a little early if they’re interested in live-racing action. The track will once again offer free admission and free parking on race days.

Tue, 04/23/2013 - 14:18

Hollywood Park: Sacred Ovation's rivals bring light credentials into Henson Stakes

Benoit & Associates
Sacred Ovation has won 2 of his 6 starts and will make his stakes debut Thursday at Betfair Hollywood Park in the $70,000 Harry Henson.

Sacred Ovation had been with Art Sherman’s stable briefly in February when the trainer began to think he found a bargain with the $16,000 claimer.

“I told the owners when I started training him that he could run a little bit,” Sherman said.

Sacred Ovation was second by a nose in an optional claimer in his first start for Sherman, on the hillside turf course at Santa Anita on April 4. He earned $11,600 from that race.

Tue, 04/23/2013 - 13:38

Keeneland: Gathering steps up to graded stakes in Bewitch

Coady Photography/Keeneland
Gathering comes into the Bewitch off a powerful allowance win earlier in the Keeneland meeting.

LEXINGTON, Ky. – Understated Englishman that he is, Jonathan Sheppard admitted to being “delighted” a couple of days after he sent out a filly named Gathering to win her North American debut on opening weekend of the Keeneland spring meet.

Tue, 04/23/2013 - 13:33

Golden Gate: San Francisco Mile shaping up with deep field

Vassar Photography
Hudson Landing will be back to defend his title in the Grade 3 San Francisco Mile.

Saturday’s Grade 3, $100,000 San Francisco Mile should have a deep field, with eight runners confirmed to enter early in the week, including defending champion Hudson Landing. Last year’s third-place finisher, Gallant Son, who won the six-furlong Albany Stakes earlier in the meet, also will compete.

Locally based Hudson Landing, Gallant Son, and Control Seeker, and Grand Berry, who won Group 1 and Group 2 stakes in his native Argentina, are multiple stakes winners who have notched stakes wins on the turf.

Mon, 04/22/2013 - 16:32

Hawthorne: Disposablepleasure eyes Ogden Phipps Handicap

Four-Footed Fotos
Disposablepleasure won the Sixty Sails Handicap by 3 1/2 lengths Saturday at Hawthorne.

Disposablepleasure almost certainly ran the best race of her life in winning the Sixty Sails Handicap on Saturday by 3 1/2 lengths and probably earned a return to Grade 1 competition with the performance, with Todd Pletcher saying the 4-year-old filly could be pointed to the $400,000 Ogden Phipps Handicap on May 27 at Belmont.

Disposablepleasure lost all seven of her starts last year but is 2 for 2 in 2013, having won a Gulfstream allowance race before being guided to victory Saturday by Javier Castellano.