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SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 4, 2012
Racing Headlines
Amazombie blazes bullet three-quarters in advance of San Carlos
Champion sprinter Amazombie stood like a statue in his stall at Bill Spawr's barn Friday morning, a picture of happiness and contentment. This was less than three hours after the Breeders' Cup Sprint king worked six furlongs under the cover of darkness on Santa Anita's fast main track in a bullet 1:12, with jockey Alex Bisono aboard. It was the fastest of 22 drills at the distance. more... |
On Fire Baby skipping Martha Washington
With the ultimate goal being a race at some point on May 4 or 5 at Churchill Downs, trainer Gary 'Red Dog' Hartlage says he will point dual Grade 2 victress On Fire Baby toward stakes for both colts and fillies, but he won't aim her for next Saturday's $75,000 Martha Washington at Oaklawn Park. more... |
Soaring Empire confirmed for Donn
Soaring Empire breezed five furlongs in 1:01 flat Friday morning over the fast main track at Gulfstream Park, and trainer Cam Gambolati confirmed him as a probable starter in the Grade 1, $500,000 Donn Handicap to be run February 11 at 1 1/8 miles. more... |
Heitzmann running for Remember Me Rescue
What a miraculous comeback year it has been for Fair Grounds-based horsewoman Carmel Heitzmann. Severely injured when kicked by a horse in front of the Fair Grounds stands last February 17, Heitzmann's life was in jeopardy during those first critical hours and days, but following exploratory surgery that led to the removal of 24 inches of her colon, the wife of local trainer Eric Heitzmann was released from the hospital 10 days later. more... |
Summit of Speed highlights Calder's stakes schedule
Calder Race Course announced its stakes schedules for the 2012 Calder and Tropical meets on Friday. The Miami Gardens, Florida, venue will begin this year's live racing season on April 9 and host two consecutive meets -- the 85-day Calder Meet from April 9 to August 31 and the 65-day Tropical Meet from September 1 to December 2. more... |
Preakness InfieldFest acts announced
The Maryland Jockey Club on Friday announced that the 2012 Preakness InfieldFest will include performances by Grammy Award nominees Maroon 5 and Wiz Khalifa. Both artists will play extended sets on the main stage in the public infield on May 19 at Pimlico when the Maryland Jockey Club, North America's oldest sporting organization, hosts the 137th renewal of the Preakness Stakes. more... |
State of Play tests dirt in Sam F. Davis
After teaming up to win last year's Kentucky Derby with Animal Kingdom, Team Valor International and trainer Graham Motion are back on the trail with another potential contender in State of Play, an accomplished performer on turf. more... |
Game on Dude tops San Antonio
Following an outstanding season that included victories in the Grade 1 Santa Anita Handicap and Grade 1 Goodwood Stakes, Game on Dude will open his 2012 campaign in Sunday's $200,000 San Antonio Stakes at Santa Anita more... |
Hansen, Union Rags tied at 126 atop Experimental
Hansen, last year's undefeated champion two-year-old male and winner of the Breeders' Cup Juvenile, and Union Rags, who won the Grade 1 Champagne Stakes and finished second to Hansen in the Breeders' Cup Juvenile, have received the high weight assignment of 126 pounds on The Jockey Club's 2011 Experimental Free Handicap, released Thursday by The Jockey Club. more... |
Liaison, Rousing Sermon meet again in Robert B. Lewis
Separated by less than a length in two stakes at Hollywood Park last fall, Liaison and Rousing Sermon will renew acquaintance in Saturday's Grade 2, $200,000 Robert B. Lewis at Santa Anita, a 1 1/16-mile heat which marks the season debut for both classic contenders. more... |
Rapid Redux to be honored at Laurel
The Maryland Jockey Club will honor the connections of Rapid Redux on February 18. Rapid Redux has won 22 consecutive races, including a perfect 19-for-19 season a year ago and took home a pair of national awards last month. more... |
El Padrino overhauls Take Charge Indy
The Grade 3 Holy Bull Stakes wasn't the only contest with potential Kentucky Derby implications at Gulfstream Park on Sunday. Three races earlier, promising three-year-olds lined up in an entry-level optional claimer carded as the 7TH, and the Todd Pletcher-trained El Padrino rolled to a good-looking score over Take Charge Indy. more... |
Unzip Me guts out Wishing Well victory
Unzip Me switched leads a few times in the lane of Sunday's $86,600 Wishing Well Stakes at Santa Anita, but never gave up in gutting out a half-length victory under jockey Rafael Bejarano. more... |
Compari captures second Sensational Star
Saturday's $100,000 Sensational Star Stakes at Santa Anita lost considerable star power with the scratch of multiple Grade 2 winner Carocortado due to foot issues, but reaching the winner's circle was another graded stakes veteran, Compari, who came through between rivals in the stretch to win by 1 1/4 lengths in the about 6 1/2-furlong test on the firm turf. more... |
TRF creates new program for NYRA OTTBs
Organizations from every corner of the Thoroughbred industry have come together to support a new program created by the Thoroughbred Retirement Foundation (TRF) to develop second careers for horses racing at New York Racing Association (NYRA) tracks. more... |
Rachel Alexandra and foal doing fine
Horse of the Year Rachel Alexandra and her six-day old colt by fellow dual Horse of the Year Curlin, were taken to the Rood and Riddle Equine Clinic in Lexington, Kentucky, as a precautionary measure after her delivery for pain management related to the birth. more... |
Kirkwoods purchase promising filly Silver Hustler
The electrifying debut by Silver Hustler last Saturday at Oaklawn Park sent trainer Grant Forster's phone into overdrive, and while a winning offer came through for the three-year-old filly, she will stay in her same stall with Forster eyeing the Grade 3, $125,000 Honeybee and the Grade 2, $300,000 Fantasy Stakes later this meet. more... |
Dubai World Cup attracts 271 nominees
The list of nominees for the Group 1 Dubai World Cup features an international cast of some of racing's current and rising stars, as well as a number of trainers who have previously won the world's richest race. more... |
Twinspires.com offering Kindle Fire, $250 cash for referrals
TwinSpires.com, the official advance-deposit wagering service for Churchill Downs Inc. (CDI), is offering its players a major incentive for encouraging their friends to use TwinSpires.com. The "Fire Up 5" program will reward players who refer five friends to TwinSpires.com in 2012 with a Kindle Fire tablet and $250 in cash. more... |
Arlington St Leger a new addition to Arlington stakes slate
The International Festival of Racing, featuring the 30th running of the Grade 1 Arlington Million, tops a 2012 schedule that includes 26 stakes races worth $5.8 million during 90 days of racing at Arlington Park from May 4 through September 30. The stakes schedule must first be approved by the Illinois Racing Board at its January meeting. more... |
Forty-two Canadian stakes graded for 2012
The Jockey Club of Canada's Graded Stakes Committee held its annual review of the graded stakes in Canada, and has announced there will be a total of 42 graded stakes in 2012, up from 37 in 2011. more... |
Sovereign Awards finalists announced
The Jockey Club of Canada will host their 37th Annual Sovereign Awards Ceremony to honor the Canadian champions of 2011 on April 5 on the third floor of Woodbine Race Track in Toronto. Woodbine Entertainment Group will join in the celebration as they get ready to kick-off their 2012 live Thoroughbred meet on April 6, a date which represents the start of Thoroughbred racing in Canada. more... |
Nominations for Dubai World Cup night revealed
On Monday, the Dubai Racing Club published the complete list of nominations for the March 31 World Cup card at Meydan. Horses from a grand total of 24 countries hold engagements for the world's richest race meeting, comprising eight Thoroughbred races and one Purebred Arabian contest. more... |
Breeders' Cup returns to NBC
The Breeders' Cup and the NBC Sports Group Monday announced a multi-year media rights partnership beginning with the 2012 Breeders' Cup World Championships, November 2-3, from Santa Anita Park, featuring the first-ever running of the $5 million Breeders' Cup Classic in primetime. more... |
Lecomte top three bound for Risen Star rematch
Trainer Larry Jones was all smiles during training hours at Fair Grounds Sunday morning -- and that for at least two reasons. Late Saturday afternoon, Jones saddled former Kentucky Governor Brereton Jones' Mr. Bowling to register a tenacious head victory in Fair Grounds' Grade 3 Lecomte Stakes in the centerpiece race of Fair Grounds' Road to the Derby Kickoff Day. more... |
Believe You Can wires Silverbulletday
Brereton C. Jones' homebred Believe You Can suffered a slight setback when a tiring sixth in the Grade 2 Pocahontas Stakes on October 30 at Churchill Downs, but got back on the winning track Saturday while making her sophomore bow in the $120,000 Silverbulletday Stakes on Fair Grounds' Road to the Derby Kickoff Day. more... |
Singapore's Ip Man sets track record at Meydan
Singapore-based trainer Steven Burridge has made a flying start to the 2012 Dubai World Cup Carnival and saddled his third winner from only four runners when Ip Man broke the track record in the concluding featured handicap at Meydan on Saturday. more... |
First City just foils Mahbooba in Cape Verdi
English Group 1-placed First City had finished first in just two of 23 starts in Europe, but wasted no time in opening her Dubai account with a photo-finish upset of Mahbooba in Friday's Group 2, $200,000 Cape Verdi at Meydan. more... |
Ashland, Jenny Wiley purses boosted
Five Grade 1 stakes, among them the Blue Grass, Ashland and the newly upgraded Jenny Wiley Stakes, headline the 16 stakes worth $3.625 million slated for Keeneland's 2012 spring race meeting. more... |
Study shows economic benefit of casino gaming in Kentucky
The Kentucky Chamber of Commerce on Tuesday released preliminary findings from a statewide study commissioned by a partnership of Kentucky horse industry interests. The study, conducted by the independent research firm Spectrum Gaming Group, shows the economic impact of adding casino-style gaming more... |
All hail Havre de Grace, Horse of the Year
HAVRE DE GRACE joined an elite group on Monday as she became the third straight female to earn Horse of the Year honors at the Eclipse Awards ceremony held in Beverly Hills, California. The bay mare won in a landslide, joining last year's Horse of the Year, Zenyatta, and 2009 honoree Rachel Alexandra in defeating her male counterparts as best of 2011. more... |
Handicapping News
Graded Recaps
Algorithms dismisses Hansen in Holy Bull
Newly-crowned champion Hansen lost his perfect record in his first start as a three-year-old in Sunday's Grade 3, $400,000 Holy Bull Stakes at Gulfstream Park, as Starlight Racing's Algorithms blew by him and went on to romp by five lengths on the sloppy, sealed track. more... |
Willa B Awesome in Santa Ysabel
Daniels et al's Willa B Awesome lived up to her name on Saturday with a nice front-running win in the Grade 3, $100,000 Santa Ysabel Stakes at Santa Anita. more... |
Features
Off Track
We are going way off track here. I was at the Fasig-Tipton sales a while back, and I see this van advertising a "Horse Communicator." Well, I looked at that for a bit and had a pretty good idea what my next article was going to be about. more... |
Kentucky Derby Report
Sunday was Todd Pletcher day at Gulfstream Park as the 2010 Kentucky Derby-winning conditioner unleashed a pair of rapidly rising prospects in El Padrino and Algorithms. Pletcher also sent out Broadway's Alibi, who romped by 16 3/4 lengths in the Grade 2 Forward Gal Stakes for fillies. more... |
Handicapping Insights
Gulfstream's road to the Kentucky Derby got underway on Sunday with the Grade 3, $400,000 Holy Bull Stakes going a one-turn mile more... |
2011 Turf Awards
Fireworks have been ignited around the world, along with the popping of corks and the blaring of noisemakers, so it's time once again for the fifth annual Reilly Turf Awards, my idiosyncratic review of the racing season. more... |
Commentary
In the dozen years I've had the privilege of casting an Eclipse Awards ballot, I don't think I've approached the exercise with as much trepidation as I do this year. As is the case every year a majority of the selections are pretty straightforward, but the racing gods have chosen to be unusually cruel this time by making several divisions either completely inscrutable or an extremely difficult choice between two (relatively) worthy candidates. more... |
Commentary
Five straight graded stakes wins, three of the Grade 1 variety. Clearly the best turf horse in the West, but also a winner over the best main-track runners in the Pacific Classic. Yet the Donald Warren-trained Acclamation gets little credit. more... |
Reilly's Peerage
Major campaigns are calling to mind the fascinating history of the gray coat color in the Thoroughbred, and how fortunate we are to have so many at the sport's highest level today. more... |
Notebooks
Aqueduct Notebook
A total of 46 races were held over the Jamaica, New York, venue, with favorites winning at a 39 percent rate and more... |
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