HOT SPRINGS, Ark. – Barber Road has put trainer John A. Ortiz on a path to the Kentucky Derby, which has been a goal for the horseman since he opened his public racing stable in 2016.
Barber Road has run second in the first two Kentucky Derby points races at the Oaklawn Park meet and next Saturday is set to start as one of the top contenders in the Grade 2, $1 million Rebel at Oaklawn.
HOT SPRINGS, Ark. – Free Like a Girl, a multiple stakes-winning Louisiana-bred based at Delta Downs, is being pointed to the Grade 3, $300,000 Honeybee at Oaklawn, trainer Chasey Deville Pomier said Thursday. The Honeybee is a Kentucky Oaks points race that shares a card with the Rebel next Saturday at Oaklawn.
Free Like a Girl, a five-time stakes winner, worked a bullet three-eighths in 36 seconds Friday at Delta Downs.
“We want to see what we’ve got,” Pomier said. “My dad is there, so we’ll send her up a little early and let her train over the track a little bit.”
NEW ORLEANS – Just One Time, a 4-year-old filly who could emerge as a prominent part of the older filly and mare dirt-sprint division, worked an easy half-mile in 50 seconds Friday morning at Fair Grounds.
The breeze was her first since she overcame a difficult trip to win the Grade 2 Inside Information Stakes on Jan. 29 at Gulfstream Park, her first start for trainer Brad Cox. Pennsylvania-bred Just One Time was privately purchased last fall after winning four of five starts, and posting a 96 Beyer Speed Figure, for trainer Michael Salvaggio.
NEW ORLEANS – The French jockey Vincent Cheminaud has ridden two horses in the United States, finishing unplaced in a turf stakes race at Belmont Park and winning the Grade 1 Sword Dancer at Saratoga aboard Flintshire in 2015.
Soon, if all goes to plan, Cheminaud will be riding plenty of American races. Cheminaud arrived in New Orleans earlier this week, plans to work some horses here this weekend, and, according to his agent, Tim Hanisch, will start looking for race mounts next week at Fair Grounds.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Two new innovative wagers are being promoted by 1/ST tracks for March 5, the next major stakes date at both Gulfstream Park and Santa Anita.
A combined 15 graded stakes worth more than $4 million are being run between the two 1/ST tracks, prompting the creation of the Coast to Coast All Turf Stakes Pick 5 and a Coast to Coast All Dirt Stakes Pick 5. Further information will be available in the coming days.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Newly minted Eclipse Awards champion Letruska was sent through her final pre-race work ahead of her 6-year-old debut when drilling five furlongs in 1:00.40 at the Palm Meadows training center Friday morning.
Letruska, the top filly-mare dirt runner of 2021, will be heavily favored next Saturday at Gulfstream Park in the Grade 3, $150,000 Royal Delta going 1 1/16 miles.
Condition books are never far from former trainer Peter Miller’s reach this winter at his northern San Diego County home. Neither are the practice and game schedules of the baseball and soccer leagues of his two sons.
“I have a lot of kid activities,” he said. “It’s great to be able to spend so much time with the boys. They’re only 7 and 9 once.”
Miller shocked California racing in November, announcing he would relinquish day-to-day control of his prominent stable to longtime assistant trainer Ruben Alvarado and take an advisory role.
Slammed, who ran her career record to 7 for 9 earlier this month with her win in the $100,000 La Coneja for New Mexico-bred fillies and mares at Sunland Park, is getting some time off, according to trainer Todd Fincher.
“She’s going to get a little time to address a foot issue,” he said.
Fincher said he has been seeking a specialist to work on Slammed. She has fought a nagging foot issue on and off during her career.
“It might be good for several months, and we always keep thinking we’ve got it fixed,” said Fincher, noting the foot would act up again.
It had been three days since Mandaloun worked six furlongs in 1:11.80 at Fair Grounds, and trainer Brad Cox’s eyes still lit up Wednesday morning when talking about the drill.
“Incredible work,” Cox said. “Amazing to watch.”
Mandaloun, in his major drill before shipping overseas for the $20 million Saudi Cup, galloped out seven furlongs into a headwind in 1:25.80. Mandaloun returned from a layoff in the Louisiana Stakes last month with a powerful win over Midnight Bourbon, with his work Feb. 13 hinting there might be even more to come.
The blue Godolphin silks do not regularly sail around the Indiana Grand racing ovals, but that is where a colt named Santin began his career last September. Trainer Brendan Walsh said he wasn’t certain he shipped a fully fit horse from Ellis Park, where Santin was based at the time, to Indiana Grand, now called Horseshoe Racing and Casino.
“He was just barely ready, and I thought if nothing else the race would set him up for Keeneland” in October, Walsh said.
