HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – It’s a rare winter when trainer Dale Romans doesn’t show up with some promising young faces for the major 3-year-old stakes here later in the season. And this year is no exception.
Romans breezed the talented 3-year-old prospects Giant Game, Howling Time, and Red Knobs over the main track at Gulfstream Park on Tuesday, with his smile getting wider with each successive work.
ARCADIA, Calif. – Derby sleepers are re-emerging. A closing third by Oviatt Class in the Sham Stakes and a runner-up finish in the Bob Hope and subsequent layoff by Forever Kingdom have not dampened expectations for the Santa Anita-based graded stakes-placed colts.
Keith Desormeaux trains late-running Grade 1-placed Oviatt Class, third in the slow-paced Grade 3 Sham Stakes on Jan. 1.
“How do you go 48 and 4 at that level?” Desormeaux said, referring to the half-mile time of wire-to-wire winner Newgrange. “For us to close on them was pretty cool.”
ARCADIA, Calif. – Trainer Peter Eurton is off to a fast start at Santa Anita, with three wins in the first five days of racing, including impressive maiden winners I Got a Gal and Queen of Thorns. Both could make a splash in the 3-year-old filly division this winter.
I Got a Gal scored an improbable upset Dec. 27 in a turf mile, and Eurton was not exaggerating in his description: “She stumbled to her nose, grabbed her quarter off, first-time long on grass, gets to the backside, and just flies by everybody. It was amazing.”
ARCADIA, Calif. – Maglev’s runner-up finish as the favorite in the $100,200 Eddie Logan Stakes on Sunday received scant coverage. His nightmare trip cost the European import a clear victory in the mile turf race for 3-year-olds.
Maglev broke last, got rank, was blocked through the far turn and into the lane, squeezed through a narrow rail opening in the stretch, and missed by 1 1/2 lengths to perfect-trip winner Cabo Spirit. Maglev’s loss, and the colt’s behavior, frustrated trainer Mark Glatt, though he was aware of Maglev’s reputation as a rogue in Europe.
ARCADIA, Calif. – Competition in the female sprint division will be tougher for Edgeway when she seeks her first Grade 2 in the Santa Monica Stakes on Feb. 5 at Santa Anita. She will not face Gamine, whose retirement was announced this week, but Edgeway will need to run faster than the 86 Beyer Speed Figure she earned winning the $77,028 Kalookan Queen Stakes on Sunday.
Secret Oath has announced herself as a 3-year-old filly to reckon with this meet at Oaklawn Park.
She won a no-conditions allowance by 8 1/4 lengths on Dec. 31 at the Hot Springs, Ark., track. Secret Oath covered a mile in 1:37.38, and the Beyer Speed Figure of 93 that she earned tied for fifth-highest among all 2-year-olds in 2021.
“Didn’t she look good?” said D. Wayne Lukas, who trains Secret Oath for her breeder, Briland Farm.
When last they met on the Fair Grounds grass course, in the Red Camelia Stakes last March, Offspring took the measure of Net a Bear. Bigger picture, Net a Bear has been the better racehorse, and if the Fair Grounds grass course plays Friday with the temporary turf rail set out at 26 feet like it did with the rail in a similar position earlier in the meet, Net a Bear will get her revenge.
Churchill Downs Inc. is raising purses at Fair Grounds Racecourse in New Orleans, according to a Fair Grounds press release. The release credited “strong handle” as the purse increase driver, but the release didn’t cite any handle figures, nor does CDI permit handle totals to appear in daily results charts at the racetracks it owns.
All purses will get a 15 percent boost beginning with the Jan. 13 race card, which will be drawn Jan. 6; maiden special weight races, for instance, are going up to $52,000 from $45,000.
