HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. - Funny Cide paved the way last year. Now John Kimmel is hoping another New York-bred can make a major impact on the Triple Crown trail.
Kimmel trains Friends Lake, a New York-bred 3-year-old who will make his seasonal debut Saturday in the $100,000 Holy Bull Stakes at Gulfstream Park. "I'd like him whether he was a New York-bred or not," said Kimmel. "He's got a whole lot of pedigree, and he hasn't done anything wrong yet."
ARCADIA, Calif. - When she seeks redemption Monday in the Grade 2 Santa Ynez Stakes, the 3-year-old filly House of Fortune will race seven furlongs over a track she likes. That was not the case Dec. 21 in the Hollywood Starlet when House of Fortune finished a distant third. Trainer Ron McAnally believes he knows why she ran poorly. Before the Starlet, House of Fortune vanned from Santa Anita to Hollywood Park for a seven-furlong work that did not go well. Under Alex Solis, the filly switched leads back and forth, and was uncomfortable.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. - Thunder Blitz, the winner of last month's Grade 3 Queens County Handicap, will be forced to miss Saturday's $100,000 Aqueduct Handicap after trainer Richard Dutrow Jr. discovered filling in the horse's left foreleg.
Dutrow said he noticed something amiss with Thunder Blitz on Tuesday morning, one day after the horse worked a bullet five furlongs in 1:00.86 over Aqueduct's inner track. Dutrow had yet to take X-rays of the leg, but said that Thunder Blitz would miss the Grade 3 Aqueduct.
Last year began as a breakout year for Royal Spy. Three races into his campaign, Royal Spy was one of the top turf milers in the Midwest, with stakes victories in the Col. E. R. Bradley Handicap at Fair Grounds and the Grade 2 Maker's Mark Mile at Keeneland.
ALBANY, Calif. - Trainer Jerry Hollendorfer admits the move is a bit unorthodox, but on Thursday he is prepping graded stakes winner Eye of the Tiger on the turf for a dirt stakes.
Eye of the Tiger makes his turf debut in an $80,000 optional claimer at Golden Gate Fields. Eye of the Tiger drew the outside post 8 in the one-mile race.
Hollendorfer expects Eye of the Tiger to run well in this race, his prep for the Grade 2 Strub Stakes, a 1 1/8-mile dirt race on Feb. 7 at Santa Anita.
Beginning Thursday, Fair Grounds will impose an early cutoff on bets placed on Fair Grounds races at a wagering hub in Lewiston, Maine. Fair Grounds president Bryan Krantz said the track would stop accepting bets from there at zero minutes to post. A Fair Grounds race typically starts about one minute after that, and bets usually are taken up to the time the horses leave the gate.
BOYNTON BEACH, Fla. - Trainer Barclay Tagg stood just outside Funny Cide's stall while accepting congratulations from several passersby during training hours at Palm Meadows on Sunday morning.
A day earlier, , the Kentucky Derby and Preakness Stakes winner trained by Tagg, opened his 4-year-old campaign with an impressive five-length victory in a seven-furlong allowance race at Gulfstream Park.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. - Silver Wagon got his first feel for the Gulfstream Park racetrack when he worked five furlongs in 59.40 seconds shortly after the first renovation break on Monday morning.
, winner of the Grade 1 Hopeful at Saratoga, will make his 3-year-old debut in Saturday's Grade 3 Holy Bull Stakes. The 1 1/16-mile Holy Bull is the first major test on the road to the Grade 1, $1 million Florida Derby on March 13.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. - Indy Dancer and Formal Attire had Kentucky Derby aspirations when they stepped into the starting gate for the 2003 Florida Derby. Ten months later, they square off again, this time under more modest second-level allowance conditions in Wednesday's $36,000 feature at Gulfstream Park.
Indy Dancer and Formal Attire finished third and sixth behind Empire Maker in last year's Florida Derby, and their careers have been pretty much on hold ever since.
