The 3-year-old filly Taken by the Wind has started her career with three wins, the most recent Saturday in the Silverbulletday Stakes. Her trainer, Kenny McPeek, sees Taken by the Wind as a Kentucky Oaks horse, and McPeek believes she needs only one more race before the Oaks.
That race could come at Fair Grounds, in the Fair Grounds Oaks on March 21; at Oaklawn, in the Fantasy Stakes on March 27; or at Keeneland, in the Ashland on the first weekend in April.
The final five races of Saturday’s nine-race card at Aqueduct were canceled due to snow that led to adverse track conditions, according to the New York Racing Association.
The final five races included the $135,000 Ladies Stakes, which has been rescheduled for Jan. 30.
Saturday’s first four races, which were run in the snow, included the first two legs of the pick six. That wager was refunded. Also refunded were the pick five, that started with race 3, as well as the cross-country pick five, which was to start with the Ladies, Aqueduct’s eighth race.
Mr. Disrepectful, the veteran gelding, tends to earn his wins.
In allowance races for statebreds on turf at Del Mar in Nov. 30 and at Santa Anita on Dec. 29, Mr. Disrespectful overcame troubled trips to win as a favorite. He won by a nose at Del Mar and by 3 1/2 lengths at Santa Anita.
The determination could lead to the 6-year-old’s first stakes win in the $175,000 Unusual Heat Turf Classic for California-breds at 1 1/8 miles on turf at Santa Anita on Saturday.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – The undefeated Breeders’ Cup winner and soon-to-be-named Eclipse champion Ted Noffey was finally back on the work tab Friday when breezing an easy three furlongs in 37.01 seconds at the Palm Beach Downs training center. It was his first official work since putting a punctuation mark on his championship 2-year-old campaign with a one-length victory in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile.
The trainer Michael Stidham has two talented 4-year-old grass horses in his Fair Grounds barn, and while both should race in February, Stidham isn’t sure when and where that will happen.
Tom’s Magic, undone by a tough trip, finished second in the $1 million King’s Plate in August, and in his most recent start on Nov. 29 missed by a neck in the Grade 1 Hollywood Derby. He has worked twice in January toward his 4-year-old debut.
The connections of the 5-year-old mare Lotsandlotsofcandy were willing to try their horse on turf last weekend in the Nelson Menard Memorial but did not at all mind the Menard getting rained off grass. That made Lotsandlotsofcandy an odds-on favorite, and she ran her career record to 6-4-1-0 while winning her stakes debut by 4 1/2 lengths and earning a career-best 96 Beyer Speed Figure.
Magnitude, one of the more interesting older dirt-route horses in North America, remains on course to leave North America for his 4-year-old debut.
Magnitude’s connections secured a spot in the $20 million Saudi Cup on Feb. 14 at King Abdulaziz Racecourse in Riyadh and Magnitude has so far hit every mark preparing for the race.
“He’s been training great. He flies over on Feb. 2,” said Steve Asmussen, who trains Magnitude for Ron Winchell’s Winchell Thoroughbreds.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Attfield, last seen winning the Central Park Stakes on turf at Aqueduct on Nov. 7, returned to the work tab Thursday at Belmont Park, breezing a half-mile in 49.90 seconds over the training track.
While it was Attfield’s first official work of his 3-year-old season, trainer Tom Morley said the horse “had a little leg-stretcher” last week.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. – My World will soon be traveling to a different part of the world.
My World, winner of the Nashua and Jerome Stakes in his last two starts at Aqueduct, will soon be headed to Saudi Arabia to compete in the $1.5 million Saudi Derby on Feb. 14 at King Abdulaziz Racetrack in Riyadh. He will join his fellow Brad Cox trainee Bishops Bay, the Grade 2 Cigar Mile winner, who has gotten an invite to the $20 million Saudi Cup, the same day.
The Saudi Derby is run as a one-turn mile, the same configuration of the Nashua and Jerome.
ARCADIA, Calif. – On Thursday, Santa Anita unveiled a slot machine-style parimutuel game based on previously run races, a venture track officials hope will lead to an ancillary form of revenue to support California racing.
The track installed 26 machines in a small grandstand pavilion. The machines, which were available for public use for the first time on Thursday, will be active on live racing days.
