Before the champion Super Corredora starts in Sunday’s $100,000 Las Virgenes Stakes at Santa Anita, trainer John Sadler may already have a stakes win this weekend.
On Saturday, Sadler has three runners in two stakes – Namaron in the Grade 3 Thunder Road Stakes at a mile on turf, and Mohaven and Umbralle in the $100,000 Sweet Life Stakes for 3-year-old fillies at about 6 1/2 furlongs on the hillside turf course.
An attempt at a new distance has resulted in Hiding in Honduras starting in an allowance race at Santa Anita on Sunday and not Saturday’s Grade 3 Thunder Road Stakes.
Hiding in Honduras scored a 9-1 upset in his graded stakes debut in the Grade 2 Mathis Mile for 3-year-olds on turf at Santa Anita on Dec. 28, rallying on the inside to win by a neck.
Trainer Jonathan Thomas and owner Robert LaPenta nominated Hiding in Honduras for the Thunder Road Stakes at a mile, but have opted for Sunday’s race at 1 1/8 miles on turf.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. - The odds on horses in Thursday’s first race at Aqueduct were skewed when a large win wager came in on Patience N Grace, a horse listed at 5-1 on the morning-line who went off at odds of 3-10 and finished fourth.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. – With more arctic-like temperatures in the forecast, the Saturday and Sunday cards scheduled at Aqueduct have been canceled, the New York Racing Association announced Thursday.
The temperatures for both days will be in the teens, with single-digit wind chill values. On Saturday, winds were forecast between 20 and 30 miles per hour, with gusts up to 40 miles per hour.
The Maryland Jockey Club announced that the Saturday card at Laurel Park will be canceled because of “frigid temperatures,” expected to be made worse by severe wind chill. It will be the third straight Saturday card canceled or postponed at the track.
Laurel originally planned to conduct racing from Wednesday to Sunday this week, adding two race dates in order to run postponed cards from last weekend. On Wednesday, the track offered its first full card since Jan. 23, and all other race dates besides Saturday this week are currently scheduled to continue.
HOT SPRINGS, Ark. – Tom Durant has been in racing since the 1980s, but he will be charting some new territory Friday when his homebred D’code chases after Kentucky Derby points in the Grade 3, $1 million Southwest Stakes at Oaklawn Park.
“I’ve had some good horses, had some horses that have won a lot of money, but I haven’t ever been in the Derby,” he said. “He will be my first, if he makes it.”
Durant, 76, is the current leading owner at Oaklawn.
HOT SPRINGS, Ark. – Mystik Dan, who won the Southwest Stakes in 2024 before going on to capture the Kentucky Derby, enters stud this year and will have the support of mares owned by his trainer, Kenny McPeek, and some of his clients. They include Take Charge Milady, who won last year’s Martha Washington at Oaklawn.
“She’s going to be bred to Mystik Dan,” McPeek said. “We’re just simply going to get her covered early and put her back in training for the spring and summer.
“We’re going to be taking about 20-plus mares to Mystik Dan this spring.”
Del Mar has altered the conditions of maiden races on dirt for 2-year-olds for its summer meeting to allow horses from all stables to run for maximum prize money, according to a statement issued on Wednesday.
This summer, maiden races for 2-year-olds on dirt will be worth $100,000. Last year, the track offered maiden races on dirt for 2-year-olds with a purse of $80,000.
Kazushi Kimura can easily relate to the lengthy recovery fellow jockey Umberto Rispoli faces from ankle and leg injuries sustained at Gulfstream Park on Jan. 24. A year ago at this time, Kimura was in the midst of an absence of more than two months caused by a leg injury suffered in the starting gate at Santa Anita.
Through Sunday, the most recent day of racing at Santa Anita, Kimura was tied for the lead in the jockey standings with Juan Hernandez with 19 wins. Last Friday, the pair overtook Rispoli, who led the standings for much of January.
