ARCADIA, Calif. - The $200,000 California Cup Derby at Santa Anita on Saturday will be the sixth consecutive stakes appearance for Finneus.
Since early August, Finneus has started in three graded stakes, including two second-place finishes, notably the Grade 1 Del Mar Futurity at 38-1 in September. In two recent starts in stakes for statebreds, the highlight for Finneus was a win in the Golden State Juvenile at seven furlongs at Del Mar on Nov. 5.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – The Rainbow 6 wager that had been expected to draw several million dollars in handle by being forced out Saturday at Gulfstream Park was instead won by a single ticket when longshots paraded home in late Friday races.
The lone 20-cent winner was worth $1,200,305.85 when Canelo, the longshot in the last of 10 Friday races, easily prevailed at 30-1 under Corey Lanerie. A victory by Canelo was the only possible scenario under which a lucrative forceout of the Rainbow 6 on Saturday was to be averted.
Alternation. Bedanken. Gold Medal Dancer.
The horses are just a few of the Pin Oak Stud homebreds that won stakes across the Mid-South region and beyond for Josephine Abercrombie, the Texas native who has died at the age of 95.
The horses mentioned were all trained by Donnie Von Hemel, who last week fondly remembered Abercrombie. The team won the Grade 2 Oaklawn Handicap in 2012 with the millionaire Alternation, accounted for 10 stakes with multiple Grade 3 winner Bedanken, and won the Grade 2 Azeri in 2015 at Oaklawn with Gold Medal Dancer.
Two Emmys, who quietly put together an excellent 2021 campaign, will make his 2022 debut in the Colonel E.R. Bradley Memorial Stakes on Jan. 22 at Fair Grounds.
“He had a good five-eighths this morning and he’s ready to go,” trainer and co-owner Hugh Robertson said Thursday.
Two Emmys clocked 1:00.60 for five furlongs, his third workout since Robertson brought the 6-year-old English Channel gelding back to New Orleans.
No, she has not run especially fast, and yes, she has been fairly fortunate, but the filly North County comes into her 3-year-old season a stakes winner who is unbeaten after three starts.
She will risk that record at Fair Grounds in the Jan. 22 in the Silverbulletday Stakes or await the Rachel Alexandra Stakes on Feb. 26, trainer Brendan Walsh said.
ARCADIA, Calif. – Express Train worked a half-mile in 50.80 seconds on Friday at Santa Anita, and afterward trainer John Shirreffs said he is scheduled to start in the Grade 2 San Pasqual Stakes at 1 1/8 miles on Feb. 5, a race he won in 2021.
Trained by John Shirreffs for Lee and Susan Searing, Express Train won the Grade 2 San Antonio Stakes at 1 1/16 miles on Dec. 26. Friday’s workout was the first for Express Train since the San Antonio.
A 5-year-old, Express Train has won 5 of 15 starts and earned $815,800.
ARCADIA, Calif. – North County Guy, winner of the Unusual Heat Turf Classic at Santa Anita in 2021, might have run his last race.
Trainer Richard Baltas said Friday that the 7-year-old North County Guy was recently diagnosed with a soft-tissue injury and that retirement is a possibility. North County Guy has not raced since finishing second in the California Flag Handicap on the hillside turf course in October, and has not had a workout since mid-December.
“It’s minor, but still,” Baltas said of the injury.
ARCADIA, Calif. – Slow Down Andy, upset winner of the Grade 2 Los Alamitos Futurity on Dec. 11, is under consideration for two Grade 3 races in the next month – the $750,000 Southwest Stakes on Jan. 29 at Oaklawn Park or the $200,000 Robert Lewis Stakes on Feb. 6 at Santa Anita.
Trainer Doug O’Neill said Friday that Paul Reddam, who owns Slow Down Andy with his wife, Zillah, will make a final determination on a race goal.
The Southwest Stakes is run at a mile, while the Lewis is run at 1 1/16 miles.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – The Gulfstream stakes schedule the next two weeks consists entirely of $75,000 races formerly known as Sunshine Millions events.
Those races are the Sunshine Classic and Sunshine Sprint next Saturday, followed by the Sunshine Turf and Sunshine Filly and Mare Turf on Jan. 22.
Seven graded stakes are set for Jan. 29, the first major date of 2022, led by the Grade 1, $3 million Pegasus World Cup expected to match Knicks Go and Life Is Good.
Facility upgrades near done
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Superstar jockey Irad Ortiz Jr. was back riding Thursday at Gulfstream Park for the first time since sitting out 30 calendar days for a couple of riding infractions. Ortiz was suspended by the New York stewards for separate incidents on Dec. 3 and 4 at Aqueduct, when he had last been active.
