OZONE PARK, N.Y. - Shoplifted, a multiple graded stakes-placed runner on this circuit, will try again for that elusive graded victory when he runs in the Grade 1, $300,000 Carter Handicap at Aqueduct on April 3.
Runner-up in the Grade 1 Hopeful at Saratoga in 2019 and third in both the Woody Stephens at Belmont and H. Allen Jerkens at Saratoga, Shoplifted will make his first start at Aqueduct in the Carter.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. - At this time last year, trainer Rob Atras was gearing up for New York’s Claiming Championships, in which he had as many as 11 horses pointing to those 10 starter allowance races.
The COVID-19 pandemic hit and those races - as well as 11 weeks of racing - were canceled on the New York Racing Association circuit.
This year, the Claiming Championships will be run in less than two weeks. While Atras will likely have some to run, it won’t be nearly as many as he had hoped to start a year ago.
Masteroffoxhounds, the winner of the Grade 2 San Marcos Stakes on Feb. 6 in his American stakes debut, worked five furlongs on the Santa Anita training track in 1:01.20 on Sunday in preparation for Saturday’s Grade 3 San Luis Rey Stakes.
The $100,000 San Luis Rey Stakes, run at 1 1/2 miles on turf, is the lone graded stakes at Santa Anita next weekend.
ARCADIA, Calif. - Swiss Skydiver ran at nine venues in 10 starts in 2020, winning five stakes and earning the title of champion 3-year-old filly.
Expect another travel-intensive itinerary this year.
On Saturday, Swiss Skydiver began her 2021 season with a convincing win in the Grade 1 Beholder Mile for fillies and mares at Santa Anita.
ARCADIA, Calif. - Santa Anita will not race at all on April 9 and 16, and will not race on turf on April 10 and 11 to give the turf course a brief rest next month in advance of the final months of the winter-spring meeting, track officials said Saturday.
As a result of those added off days, there will be a gap of nearly two weeks without turf racing from April 5-16 for maintenance, racing secretary Chris Merz said. The course will be used extensively through the conclusion of the current meeting on June 20.
Sam Houston Race Park on Sunday announced overnight purses will be increased for the second time this meet beginning with Wednesday’s program.
Sam Houston will increase all main-track overnight races by $6,000 each and all turf overnight races by $1,000 each. In addition, the track on Friday received Texas Racing Commission approval to add a card to the meet on March 31.
HOT SPRINGS, Ark. - Concert Tour and Hozier were headed home to Southern California on Sunday after running a respective one-two in the Grade 2, $1 million Rebel Stakes the day before at Oaklawn Park.
Concert Tour, who was trainer Bob Baffert’s eighth winner in the Rebel, earned 50 points toward a Kentucky Derby berth – and a preliminary Beyer Speed Figure of 94. Hozier, who finished 4 1/2 lengths back in second, earned 20 points for the Kentucky Derby.
“They came out of the race great, are on a plane as we speak,” Baffert said Sunday.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. - The lightly raced but extremely promising 3-year-old Collaborate served notice he could be a force to reckon with in the Grade 1 Florida Derby by bouncing out of his recent, one-sided maiden win with a strong work Sunday morning at Gulfstream Park.
Placed in company with the older, stakes-winning filly Sound Machine, Collaborate went four furlongs in 46.93, completing his final quarter in 22.84 going easily while kept nearest the rail throughout. He galloped out five-eighths slightly in front of his mate in 1:00.44.
Mandaloun, Proxy, and Midnight Bourbon filled the top three slots in the Lecomte Stakes in January and in the Risen Star Stakes in February, and now the leading trio of 3-year-olds stabled this winter in New Orleans top the eight entries for the March 20 Louisiana Derby.
Rush hour Saturday in New Orleans came at 5:45 a.m. out on the Fair Grounds dirt oval.
Dozens of horses, whose connections wanted a piece of a pristine, freshly groomed track surface, worked within about 15 minutes, including three Louisiana Derby hopefuls who breezed one after the other. Among that trio was the likely race favorite, Mandaloun, the Risen Star Stakes winner who went in company with recent Fair Grounds maiden winner Warrant and got an official clocking of 1:00.60 over five furlongs.
