HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Five-time Eclipse Award-winning jockey Irad Ortiz Jr. will take off his scheduled mounts through Sunday, per agent Steve Rushing, after being injured in an incident following the start of the fifth race Thursday at Gulfstream Park.
Ortiz was aboard A Moment a Love, a first-time starter trained by Carlos David, who ducked in after the start and ran into the rail. Ortiz was taken to nearby Aventura Hospital complaining of hip pain.
El Potente, a game second to the outsider Final Boss in the Grade 2 Frank Kilroe Mile at Santa Anita on Saturday, is likely to have a brief rest before his next start.
Trainer Dan Blacker said on Thursday that El Potente is unlikely to race again until the Grade 1 Shoemaker Mile on turf at Santa Anita on May 25. The $300,000 Shoemaker Mile is the leading annual turf race at Santa Anita.
El Potente, who won the Grade 3 Thunder Road Stakes by 3 3/4 lengths at a mile on turf on Feb. 7 in his first start of 2026, was beaten a half-length by Final Boss in the Kilroe Mile.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Trainer Rick Dutrow Jr. laughed as he noted that it took six starts for Sculcos Folly to finally face New York-breds, something he did last Saturday when he won the Gander Stakes by 5 3/4 lengths at Aqueduct.
Prior to his victory in the Gander, Sculcos Folly won an open starter allowance by 9 3/4 lengths at Aqueduct after making two starts at Laurel and one at Monmouth Park.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Though the workout was not officially recorded because of foggy conditions on Sunday, Withers Stakes winner Talk to Me Jimmy had an important drill last Sunday at Belmont Park for the Wood Memorial.
According to trainer Rudy Rodriguez, Talk to Me Jimmy worked five furlongs and galloped out six furlongs. But since the workout was done with the Belmont Park training track at least partially covered in fog, it will not go down as an official workout.
Rodriguez said jockey Ruben Silvera was aboard for the move.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. – The maiden Civil Liberty, third in the Grade 1 Del Mar Futurity and fourth in the Grade 1 American Pharoah at Santa Anita as a 2-year-old, is pointing to the Grade 2, $750,000 Wood Memorial on April 4, trainer Doug O’Neill told New York Racing Association publicity.
In his 3-year-old debut last Saturday at Santa Anita, Civil Liberty finished second, beaten a neck by Crude Velocity, in a fastly rated 6 1/2-furlong maiden race. Civil Liberty is by Independence Hall, who won the Nashua and Jerome stakes, both one-turn mile races at Aqueduct.
ARCADIA, Calif. – Help is on the way for the maligned California handicap division.
British Isles won the Grade 1 Santa Anita Handicap at 1 1/4 miles on March 7 in a sluggish 2:05.17, earning an allowance-caliber 90 Beyer Speed Figure. The figure is the lowest by a Big Cap winner since Beyers were first published in the 1990s.
The final time does not concern trainer Richard Baltas. The $180,000 winner’s share of the purse spends the same. And on Wednesday morning, Baltas was more excited about the 4 1/2-length margin of victory by British Isles.
Randy and Jenny Boyd bought a share in the multiple stakes winner Splendora on Monday, March 2. Last Saturday, the Boyds were at Santa Anita for the first time to watch Splendora cruise to an easy win in the Grade 1 Beholder Mile.
A five-day gap between a private purchase of a top-ranked racehorse and a major stakes win is almost unheard of.
“I know it took us a little while, but we’ll try to do better,” Boyd wisecracked an hour after the race.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – The 2025-26 Championship meet is slowly winding down, but there are still plenty of stakes opportunities left before the final curtain comes down on March 29. A case in point is Saturday’s 12-race card, which features a trio of $125,000 sprint stakes – the Hutcheson for 3-year-olds and its filly counterpart, the Any Limit, plus the Captiva Island that will showcase the red-hot 5-year-old mare Moon Spun, who is seeking her fifth straight victory.
Bricklin, who ran third in the Sunland Derby, has a pair of upcoming race options at Oaklawn Park, according to his trainer, Rudy Brisset. The horse won a first-level allowance at a mile at Oaklawn before heading to New Mexico for the Sunland Derby.
Brisset said Bricklin is possible for either the Grade 1, $1.25 million Arkansas Derby on March 28 or the $200,000 Hot Springs, which is a one-mile race for 3-year-olds on March 26.
“We haven’t really made a final decision on that,” said Brisset, who is weighing options with owner Imagine Racing.
