ARCADIA, Calif. - Neige Blanche has won six graded or group stakes in France and in California at Del Mar and Santa Anita. Her next stakes win could be at the highest level.
After Neige Blanche’s latest win in Saturday’s Grade 3 Santa Barbara Stakes at 1 1/2 miles at Santa Anita, trainer Leonard Powell said the 5-year-old mare’s next goal may be the Grade 1 New York Stakes, a $750,000 race for fillies and mares at 1 1/4 miles on turf at Belmont Park on June 10.
ELMONT, N.Y. - With the major targets for Bella Sofia later in the year, the 4-year-old filly who narrowly won Saturday’s Grade 3, $150,000 Vagrancy Handicap will likely get plenty of time before she makes her second start of 2022, trainer Rudy Rodriguez said.
Bella Sofia, last year’s Grade 1 Test winner, nosed out six-time stakes winner Frank’s Rockette in the Vagrancy, Bella Sofia’s first start since last year’s Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Sprint. Both Bella Sofia and Frank’s Rockette earned 100 Beyer Speed Figures for their performances.
ELMONT, N.Y. - Drafted got himself back into the good graces of his handlers Saturday with his victory in the Grade 3 $150,000 Runhappy Stakes.
About three weeks ago, on the pony track, Drafted unseated exercise rider Lara Duggan, who suffered a concussion.
“There’s no malice in him,” trainer David Duggan said. “He’s a likeable rogue.”
ELMONT, N.Y. - When Rougir made a triumphant 2022 debut winning Saturday’s Grade 3, $150,000 Beaugay Stakes by three lengths, it was the 10th graded win of the year for owner Peter Brant. Brant owns Rougir in partnership with Michael Tabor and M.V. Magnier.
Rougir joined Bleecker Street, Virginia Joy, Speak of the Devil, Regal Glory, and In Italian to win a graded turf stakes this year for Brant.
“Good year so far,” said Chad Brown, who trains all those runners for Brant.
ELMONT, N.Y. - Flavien Prat, who won three races including two graded stakes Saturday at Belmont Park, will serve a three-day suspension beginning Saturday - Preakness Day - for careless riding with his first mount at the Belmont meet.
ELMONT, N.Y. - Trainer Rodolphe Brisset was a man on the move Sunday. Such is life for a trainer of a Belmont Stakes contender.
Brisset on Sunday afternoon was flying back to Kentucky, where on Monday and Tuesday he would check on his string of horses at Keeneland and Churchill Downs. Sometime on Tuesday, Brisset will jump in his car and drive back to New York, where he’ll spend the majority of his time over the next three weeks at Belmont Park preparing We the People and, potentially, Western River, for the $1.5 million Belmont Stakes on June 11.
Shake Em Loose will run this weekend at Pimlico.
Only not in the Preakness.
Following a turf workout Sunday morning at Laurel Park, trainer Rodolfo Sanchez-Salomon confirmed that Shake Em Loose will instead start in Saturday's $100,000 James W. Murphy Stakes for 3-year-olds on grass. The gelding also was cross-entered in Wednesday’s $150,000 Caesars Stakes on turf at Horseshoe Indianapolis.
ARCADIA, Calif. - Six Santa Anita-based trainers said on Saturday that horses previously trained by Richard Baltas have been transferred to their stables, or will be moved in coming days, the aftermath of a recent decision by track management to ban Baltas from working or entering horses after a horse in his care was euthanized and another was a late scratch for an alleged medication violation on the weekend of May 7-8.
ARCADIA, Calif. - Barraza, the winner of two sprint stakes on turf earlier this year, was euthanized on Saturday as a result of a sesamoid injury sustained during morning exercise at Santa Anita, trainer Vladimir Cerin said.
Barraza, a 4-year-old colt by Into Mischief, won 5 of 14 starts and earned $262,075.
At his stable office, Cerin said he had hoped Barraza could be saved as a stallion prospect, but that he was told by veterinarians that the injury was too severe.
“He was a really cool horse,” Cerin said.
