LEXINGTON, Ky. – While 12 is the Keeneland record for most wins by an owner at a meet, the track offers no such record for most starts.
This spring, Ken and Sarah Ramsey appear destined to smash the record for wins – and hardly anyone could argue with Keeneland if it decided to just go ahead and declare the Ramseys’ number of starts a new mark, too.
HOT SPRINGS, Ark. – There is no bad pick Thursday in the $100,000 Carousel Stakes at Oaklawn Park. A case can be made for each of the nine fillies and mares in the six-furlong sprint that continues the Racing Festival of the South.
The Carousel has drawn a mix of proven stakes horses and runners in career form. Beat the Blues is the race’s defending champ, while Good Deed has invaded from Fair Grounds off a win in the Mardi Gras Handicap.
LEXINGTON, Ky. – Wise Dan will break from the outside post in a field of just five older turf horses when making his first start since being named the 2012 Horse of the Year in the Grade 1, $300,000 Maker’s 46 Mile on Friday at Keeneland.
Will Take Charge, who won the Grade 2, $600,000 Rebel at Oaklawn Park in his last start March 16, will train up to the Kentucky Derby, his trainer, D. Wayne Lukas, said on Tuesday. Lukas had been debating training up to the May 4 race or running in the Grade 1, $750,000 Blue Grass at Keeneland on Saturday.
HOT SPRINGS, Ark. – The field for the Grade 1, $1 million Arkansas Derby was starting to grow Monday, with Falling Sky and Frac Daddy committing to the 1 1/8-mile race and Demonic’s connections debating a start in the Saturday stakes, which closes out the Oaklawn meet.
HOT SPRINGS, Ark. – Rose to Gold has been nearly perfect in dirt routes in a record that should make her a strong favorite to win the fifth stakes race of her young career Wednesday in the Grade 3, $400,000 Fantasy at Oaklawn.
The 1 1/16-mile race for 3-year-old fillies is Rose to Gold’s final prep for the Kentucky Oaks, the May 3 race she has been pointed to since winning last fall’s Grade 3, $500,000 Delta Downs Princess.
“If all goes well, we’ll run in the Oaks,” trainer Sal Santoro said. “That’s the plan right now.”
OZONE PARK, N.Y. - Big Screen worked four furlongs in 48.81 seconds Monday morning over Belmont Park’s main track, his first breeze since winning a second-level allowance race at Aqueduct on March 23 by 9 1/4 lengths.
Big Screen, a 4-year-old son of Speightstown, is being pointed to the Grade 3, $150,000 Westchester at Belmont on April 27.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. - West Hills Giant, the runner-up in the Grade 3 Gotham Stakes here on March 2, appears fully recovered from the respiratory infection that forced him to miss a workout a few weeks ago and last Saturday’s $1 million Wood Memorial.
On Monday, West Hills Giant drilled five furlongs in 1:00.47 on the Belmont training track under exercise rider Simon Harris, and later that afternoon was put on a van bound for Lexington, Ky., and Saturday’s Blue Grass Stakes.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. - Bill Mott was back in south Florida late Saturday, but the Hall of Fame trainer certainly had to have Kentucky on his mind after winning two major prep races for the May 3 Kentucky Oaks in a 45-minute span Saturday afternoon.
At Aqueduct, Close Hatches kept her undefeated record intact with a 3 1/4-length victory in the Grade 2 Gazelle. At Keeneland, Emollient, running back one week after losing the Gulfstream Oaks by 30 lengths, romped to a nine-length victory in the Grade 1 Ashland over Keeneland’s Polytrack.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Trainer Marty Wolfson wasn’t nearly as surprised by Swagger Jack winning Saturday’s Grade 1 Carter Handicap at Aqueduct as was the betting public, which sent him off at a generous 15-1.
Swagger Jack had finished second with what Wolfson felt were legitimate excuses in a pair of graded stakes at Gulfstream to Carter candidates Discreet Dancer and Fort Loudon, so he thought it was worth taking a shot in the Carter. He was rewarded when Swagger Jack rallied from fifth and beat Sahara Sky by three-quarters of a length.
