HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Jonathan Thomas isn’t perfect. Just look at his NCAA bracket.
“No good,” he said with a laugh.
Thomas was, however, perfect last weekend. His 26-horse stable based at Payson Park, some two hours north of Gulfstream Park, went 4 for 4, with three of them winning at Gulfstream (two Saturday, one Sunday) and the other on Saturday at Laurel Park in Maryland.
Trainer Richard Baltas has been fined $1,000 after one of his starters at Santa Anita on Jan. 21 was ruled ineligible to race after testing positive for the muscle relaxant methocarbamol in a workout on Jan. 3.
Lookin at Sweetie won a $20,000 claimer for maidens on Jan. 21, but should not have been allowed to start because of the positive test found after the workout. The test result was not conveyed to officials until after Lookin at Sweetie’s win, stewards said.
Slow Down Andy, the winner of the Grade 2 Los Alamitos Futurity in December, is part of a field of eight in the Grade 3 Sunland Park Derby in New Mexico on March 27.
Trainer Doug O’Neill said Sunday that the $500,000 Sunland Park Derby was chosen over the Grade 1 Blue Grass Stakes at Keeneland on April 9 to give Slow Down Andy a better chance for a first stakes win of 2022.
Slow Down Andy finished sixth of 10 in the Grade 2 Risen Star Stakes at Fair Grounds on Feb. 19 in his first start this year.
Green Light Go sped around the Belmont Park training track Sunday morning, working a half-mile in 46.42 seconds in preparation for a start in the Grade 1, $300,000 Carter Handicap at Aqueduct on April 9. It was the fastest of 81 works at the distance for the winner of the Feb. 26 Stymie Stakes.
The track has produced slow times throughout the winter, had some moisture in it from overnight rains, and played quite fast on the first morning of spring.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. - Though his concentration during the winter is down south in venues like Gulfstream Park and Fair Grounds as well as Kentucky’s Turfway Park, trainer Mike Maker has put together a solid winter season in New York.
After performing far off key last month in the King Cotton Stakes at Oaklawn Park, Nashville was back in tune Thursday at Fair Grounds, winning a high-level allowance race by 4 3/4 lengths. Nashville ran six furlongs in 1:08.62, the fastest Fair Grounds time at the distance in more than two years and got a strong 102 Beyer Speed Figure.
The fractions Nashville laid down Thursday, 21.89 and 44.43, were as fast as a horse can run over the Fair Grounds main track.
Fulsome’s connections took a long look at the New Orleans Classic, then decided to look elsewhere for the colt’s 4-year-old debut.
Fulsome wasn’t among the horses entered Saturday for the March 26 New Orleans Classic and instead will make his 2022 debut in the $400,000 Oaklawn Mile on April 2, according to Brad Cox, who trains Fulsome for his breeder, Juddmonte Farm.
Nine horses, headed by Risen Star Stakes winner Epicenter, were entered Saturday for the $1 million Louisiana Derby on March 26 at Fair Grounds.
The Grade 2 Louisiana Derby, carrying 170 Kentucky Derby qualifying points, will be the last of 12 races next Saturday on an eight-stakes card that also features the 2022 debut of Echo Zulu. The champion 2-year-old filly of 2021 on the strength of a perfect season during which she won three Grade 1s, Echo Zulu will be heavily favored to beat five rivals in the Grade 2, $400,000 Fair Grounds Oaks.
HOT SPRINGS, Ark. - Arkansas Derby candidates Un Ojo and Barber Road put in works toward the April 2 race at Oaklawn Park at separate locales on Saturday.
Un Ojo worked at his base of the Copper Crowne training center near Lafayette, La. The winner of the Grade 1, $1 million Rebel last month at Oaklawn breezed five furlongs in 1:03 on a fast track. The move was the fastest of six at the distance Saturday at Copper Crowne.
The 20-cent Rainbow pick six at Santa Anita has a mandatory payout on Saturday, and the pool will begin with a carryover of $395,500 from Friday.
Saturday’s pick six covers the fourth through ninth races on a nine-race program that begins at 1 p.m. Pacific. The fourth race has a scheduled post time of 2:35 p.m.
