OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Owner Charles Hallas seems to have an affinity for Backsideofthemoon. So much so, that he has spent $162,500 on the gelding in the last 15 months.
On Monday, Hallas and trainer Bob Klesaris took Backsideofthemoon, now 9 years old, for $62,500 off owner Mike Repole and trainer Rudy Rodriguez. In November 2019, Hallas and Klesaris took Backsideofthemoon for $100,000, also from Rodriguez, who has claimed the gelding twice for two different owners for a total of $125,000.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Imprimis, one of the more accomplished turf sprinters of recent seasons, is skipping the Grade 3 Gulfstream Park Turf Sprint on Saturday to race instead a week later in the Feb. 13 Turf Dash at Tampa, said trainer Joe Orseno.
Gulfstream has banned Lasix treatment for all stakes, whereas Tampa still permits it, and “that’s the deciding factor,” said Orseno.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Jockey Luca Panici will be out of action indefinitely after suffering three veterbrae fractures Saturday in a Gulfstream Park spill.
Panici, a year-round regular at Gulfstream, was injured when thrown from Bourbon Highway about a furlong into the 10th race, a one-mile maiden-special run out of the chute and over a sloppy track. Bourbon Highway, a 3-year-old colt, continued on under his own power.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – A hoped-for rematch between the first two finishers in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies will probably have to wait a little longer.
Vequist, who was voted the champion 2-year-old filly of 2020 after winning the BC Juvenile Fillies, remains on schedule for the Davona Dale at Gulfstream Park, but the runner-up, Dayoutoftheoffice, is “very questionable” to make the Feb. 27 race, trainer Tim Hamm said Wednesday.
Dayoutoftheoffice has not breezed since Jan. 24 at Tampa Bay Downs, where the speedy Into Mischief filly is training this winter.
Charlie’s Penny, easy winner of the Silverbulletday Stakes on Jan. 16 at Fair Grounds, is out of Saturday’s Rachel Alexandra Stakes and out of action for several months after being diagnosed with a hairline fracture of the shin.
Factor This began a four-race winning streak in the Fair Grounds Stakes last February and is coming back to New Orleans from Florida to try and win the race’s 2021 renewal on Saturday.
Factor This won five races, including three Grade 2s and a Grade 3, during an excellent 2020 campaign that ended less successfully than it began. Factor This finished eighth, beaten less than four lengths, in the Breeders’ Cup Mile, a race short of his best distance, and ran eighth as the favorite in the Dec. 12 Fort Lauderdale Stakes at Gulfstream.
Highly regarded 3-year-olds Jackie’s Warrior and Midnight Bourbon on Monday at Fair Grounds had their final workouts for stakes engagements this weekend. Both colts are trained by Hall of Famer Steve Asmussen but are on divergent paths.
Midnight Bourbon already has had a 2021 start, winning the Lecomte Stakes on Jan. 16 at Fair Grounds, and he went a half-mile Monday in a moderate 50.20 seconds preparing for Saturday’s Risen Star Stakes in New Orleans.
Boosted by a mandatory payout in the 20-cent Rainbow pick six, Saturday’s 10-race program at Santa Anita had an all-sources handle of $17,571,849, the second-highest in the first seven weeks of the meeting.
All-sources handle on the opening-day program on Dec. 26 was $23,003,159.
The pick six pool on Saturday was $5,316,575. The program began with a carryover of $898,062.
When Dream Shake closed from eighth to record a 20-1 upset in a high-profile maiden special weight race for 3-year-olds on Sunday at Santa Anita, trainer Peter Eurton watched in admiration as the colt pulled clear in the final furlong.
“That was way beyond my expectations,” Eurton recalled Monday.
There is a stakes race in the short-term future for Dream Shake.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Jockey Irad Ortiz Jr. stole the show here Saturday, posting six wins on the card, including aboard Great Island in the Suwannee River Stakes.
Sunday’s card was highlighted by Jouster’s victory as the 1-10 favorite in an allowance race under Luis Saez. The win was her second in as many starts on turf, and it came over a course rated good.
