ARCADIA, Calif. – The Chosen Vron, a graded stakes-winning California-bred who is currently sidelined, will target a comeback in spring or summer. Eric Kruljac trains the 4-year-old gelding, who came out of a stakes victory Nov. 5 at Turf Paradise with an issue.
“He had filling in a stifle, and it turns out he’s been running with OCD,” Kruljac said, referring to osteochondritis dissecans. The disease, which affects a horse’s bones and joints, is treatable.
ARCADIA, Calif. – Fashionably Fast, whose half-dozen stakes victories include the 2020 California Cup Sprint, was conspicuously absent from the nominations for this year’s California Cup Sprint on Saturday at Santa Anita. But the 7-year-old gelding is not done yet.
Fashionably Fast finished sixth Nov. 21 in a stakes race at Del Mar, after which trainer Dean Pederson initially thought he needed a vacation.
“He was a little knocked out. I was going to turn him out,” he said. “But he’s 7 years old, and they get a little smarter.”
Officials at Laurel Park in Maryland will decide over the next 48 hours whether to resume live racing as of Sunday and add additional race dates next week to make up for recent cancelations brought on by weather and continuing problems with its main dirt track, the officials said in a conference call with horsemen on Tuesday afternoon.
It’s not like Knicks Go has anything to prove at this point, but he still impressed his Eclipse Award-winning trainer in a Fair Grounds workout on Sunday, the third-to-last work before Knicks Go ships to Florida to end his career in the Pegasus World Cup Invitational at Gulfstream Park.
Knicks Go, who won the Pegasus last year, officially clocked 1:14 for six furlongs, with trainer Brad Cox timing his seven-furlong gallop-out in 1:26.20, his mile in 1:40.20.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Wednesday’s sixth race is a $62,000 allowance dash carded at five furlongs on the turf that lured a field of eight older fillies and mares led by speedsters Richies Great Girl, Running Memories, and Tracy Ann’s Legacy.
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HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – The first set of invitations were released on Sunday for the $3 million Pegasus World Cup here on Jan. 29, and it would have certainly been a treat for racing fans worldwide if the top three names on that list – defending champion and Breeders’ Cup Classic winner Knicks Go, Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile winner Life Is Good, and the sensational Flightline – were destined to meet. Unfortunately, that dream matchup, is not in the cards.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. – After Lobsta achieved his second stakes victory in four weeks in Saturday’s Say Florida Sandy Stakes, trainer Gary Sciacca was in no hurry Sunday morning to select a next spot for the 4-year-old New York-bred.
“I was just happy to see him run two good races back to back,” Sciacca said.
Lobsta actually crossed the wire second, a neck behind My Boy Tate in the seven-furlong Say Florida Sandy. My Boy Tate was disqualified and placed fourth for interfering with Chestertown, who finished fourth.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Jockey Jose Ortiz will miss this upcoming week at Aqueduct as he will be in Saudi Arabia to ride several horses at King Abdulaziz Racetrack on Friday and Saturday.
Ortiz said there are several important races for locally based horses who may or may not be pointing to the rich Saudi World Cup program at the end of February.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. – The two months he missed last spring due to a broken clavicle may have reinvigorated jockey Dylan Davis.
“I was out for two months and I was watching all my horses win and it made me mad,” Davis said Sunday at Aqueduct. “When I came back, I wanted to come back stronger and do better than what I was doing before. Sometimes you get in a little rut and you’re content with where you are, and it kind of reset me.”
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Emmanuel figured as a short-priced favorite in a mile and 40-yard allowance Friday at Tampa Bay Downs, but instead was kept home at Palm Beach Downs by trainer Todd Pletcher after spiking a temperature.
“He’s fine,” said Pletcher. “It was kind of frustrating because we were hoping to get him some two-turn experience. We’ll regroup and figure out where we go from this.”
