OZONE PARK, N.Y. – The attorney representing embattled trainer Rudy Rodriguez claims inaction by the New York Racing Association led to the possible tampering with a filly who ran on March 10 at Aqueduct and was subsequently found to have an excess level of the drug Flunixin in her post-race sample.
HOT SPRINGS, Ark. – Tour Guide will make his first start for Calumet Farm on Saturday in the $75,000 Bachelor for 3-year-olds at Oaklawn Park. His recent purchase fills a void for Calumet, which has a leading Kentucky Derby prospect in Oxbow.
“We didn’t have a 3-year-old sprinter, or horse that we thought would run short,” said D. Wayne Lukas, the primary trainer for Calumet. “We think this horse could be a really nice miler, and we’ve seen nothing to dispel that notion. At this point, we think we made a really nice buy, and we’re very, very happy with him.”
ARCADIA, Calif. - Hear the Ghost, the winner of the Grade 2 San Felipe Stakes at Santa Anita on March 9, will miss Saturday's $750,000 Santa Anita Derby because of injury, trainer Jerry Hollendorfer said on Thursday afternoon.
The injury was detected after Hear the Ghost trained at Betfair Hollywood Park on Thursday. Hollendorfer did not disclose the nature of the injury.
MIAMI – Despite going into the meet without a signed purse contract with the horsemen and facing the prospect of racing head to head with his crosstown neighbor Gulfstream Park beginning July 1, Calder general manager John Marshall was decidedly upbeat about the 2013 Calder meet, which opens Saturday with a 12-race program featuring the $250,000 Calder Derby. The April 6 opening is the earliest in the history of the track.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. – In a rematch of the Barbara Fritchie’s first three finishers, Funnys Approval will be out to prove her front-running upset in the mud over My Wandy’s Girl and Withgreatpleasure wasn’t a fluke in Saturday’s $250,000 Ruffian Stakes at Aqueduct.
ARCADIA, Calif. – The 2013 season has not gone the way trainer Richard Mandella expected with Jimmy Creed, the winner of the Grade 1 Malibu Stakes here Dec. 26.
Mandella hoped to run Jimmy Creed in the Strub Stakes in February and maybe the $750,000 Santa Anita Handicap on March 2. A persistent wintertime cough ended that.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Maybe later, Clearly Now and Honorable Dillon will show prowess in route races. For now, though, both seem better suited to seven furlongs, which creates an intriguing matchup in Saturday’s Grade 3, $250,000 Bay Shore Stakes at Aqueduct.
Clearly Now, winner of the Grade 3 Swale on March 2 at Gulfstream, and Honorable Dillon, winner of the Grade 2 Hutcheson on Feb. 2 at Gulfstream, square off in the seven-furlong Bay Shore on the Wood Memorial undercard.
ARCADIA, Calif. – Birdlover is a threat from the front, and Wittgenstein can win from off the pace. Trainer Doug O’Neill has two formidable starters in Saturday’s $150,000 Providencia Stakes for 3-year-old fillies at Santa Anita, but is not willing to choose which of the fillies he prefers in the Grade 3 Providencia over 1 1/8 miles on turf.
“I’m not going to touch that,” O’Neill said. “They’re both coming off wins.”
OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Unlike his younger stablemate Verrazano, Discreet Dancer was unable to successfully stretch out in distance after winning the first two starts of his career in one-turn races.
Undefeated in four starts around one turn, the now 4-year-old Discreet Dancer looks for his first Grade 1 victory in Saturday’s $400,000 Carter Handicap at Aqueduct.
Revv Me Up won for the first time in her nine-race career in a time trial March 16 for Saturday’s $200,000 La Primera Del Ano Derby for fillies at Los Alamitos.
Previously, she was second six times, including a nose loss in the $125,000 Los Alamitos Maiden Stakes on Feb. 24, before the breakthrough win in the trials.
