Sunday, September 23 2012

Flying Trip Moves Atop Starter Series Table

MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. (September 23, 2012) – Trainer Gilberto Zerpa took one step closer to winning the $5,000 trainer bonus that will be presented upon completion of the Tropical Starter Series Filly and Mare Division when his Flying Trip won Saturday’s second leg, adding six points to the five points the filly had earned three weeks earlier when crossing the wire second in the opening leg.

Originally scheduled for turf, Saturday’s race was moved to the main track which proved beneficial to Flying Trip who had finished seventh and ninth in her two prior grassy attempts but was a proven performer on dirt with a stakes victory in the 2010 Cassidy, a second in this year’s U Can Do It Handicap, and a fourth in Grade 1 Princess Rooney Handicap.

Saturday, September 22 2012

Pellegrini Filly Rested and Ready for Stage Door Betty

MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. (September 21, 2012) – When Herman Van Den Broeck’s prized 4-year-old filly Angelica Zapata heads to the track as the likely favorite in Saturday’s Stage Door Betty Handicap, the three-time stakes winning daughter of Sharp Humor will be making her first start in 10 weeks, a respite that was born out of design and not necessity.

“That was always the plan with her,” trainer Ron Pellegrini said of the extended break given to Angelica Zapata following her nine-length triumph in the Nancy’s Glitter on July 14. “We wanted to keep her fresh for the second half of the year and we think that’s what we’ve accomplished; she was always going to get the time off following her last.”

Friday, September 21 2012

Angelica Zapata Returns for Stage Door Betty

MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. (September 20, 2012) – Herman Van Den Broeck’s Angelica Zapata, a three-time stakes winner at Calder Casino & Race Course this year that was last seen as the dominant nine-length winner of the $75,000 Nancy’s Glitter Stakes in mid-July, will look to pick up where she left off when returning to meet six rivals in Saturday’s $75,000 Stage Door Betty Handicap, run at the distance of 1 1/16 miles on the main track.

Trained by Ron Pellegrini, the 4-year-old daughter of Sharp Humor is unbeaten in three starts over the Calder dirt, adding stakes victories in the $55,000 Emergency Nurse and the $55,000 Sara’s Success to her Nancy’s Glitter triumph.

Thursday, September 20 2012

Santoro Points Unbeaten Rose to Gold to Keeneland

MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. (September 19, 2012) – The exclusive club of juvenile horses that first tasted stakes success at Calder Casino & Race Course before going on to enjoy national prominence, which includes the likes of Awesome Feather, Big Drama, and Jackson Bend, could soon welcome another member as the unbeaten Rose to Gold, the 13 ½-length winner of last weekend’s $100,000 Brave Raj Stakes, will depart her south Florida home by month’s end to take an October 5 Grade 1 test in Kentucky.

“She came back from the race very good and we’re planning to take her to Keeneland for a start in the Alcibiades,” trainer Sal Santoro said Wednesday morning.

Sunday, September 16 2012

FAVORITES WIN AND FAVORITES FALL ON FESTIVAL PREVIEW DAY AT CALDER

MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. (September 15, 2012) – Kathleen Amaya and Raffaele Centofanti’s Rose to Gold and Jacks or Better Farm, Inc.’s Awesome Belle ensured that the Festival Preview Day fillies would successfully fulfill their roles as race favorites when winning the $100,000 Brave Raj Stakes and the $100,000 Judy’s Red Shoes, but their male counterparts didn’t fare as well with Trilogy Stable and Laurie Plesa’s Itsmyluckyday upsetting the $100,000 Foolish Pleasure and Signal Hill Farms’ Mucho Mas Macho the surprise winner of the $75,000 Needles.

For much of the year, the 2-year-old filly division at Calder was wide open, but those days of divisional uncertainty appear to be a thing of the past as the Sal Santoro-trained Rose to Gold has gone from unraced maiden to two-time stakes winner in just a three-week period after Saturday’s 13 ½-length Brave Raj triumph.

Saturday, September 15 2012

COUTON, BAZE EACH WIN TO REMAIN TIED FOR TOP SPOT IN JOCKEY STANDINGS

Julien Couton and Russell Baze both won races Friday at Golden Gate Fields and remain tied for first in the jockey standings heading into the final two days of the summer meeting, which concludes Sunday.

Couton went 1-for-6 Friday and scored his victory with heavy favorite Curly Girl ($3.20), who won the fourth race at odds of 3-5. Baze went 1-for-4 and notched his win with first-time starter Mum’s Truckee ($14.60), who rallied down the stretch to win the seventh race at odds of 6-1.

Owner Centofanti Prepares for Landmark Preview Day

MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. (September 14, 2012) – For Venezuelan native and All Coffee Private Label Roasters coffee baron Alex Centofanti, whose red, gold, and white crested colors will be represented in three of the four Festival Preview stakes at Calder Casino & Race Course on Saturday, the day has already proven to be a milestone afternoon for the relatively new owner.

“Absolutely, this is definitely going to be our biggest day as horse owners,” Centofanti, whose son Raffaele and wife Kathleen own Saturday stakes participants Rose to Gold, Musical Flair, and Fine Silver, said from the Calder racing office Friday afternoon. “There is almost a part of me that wishes I could just go to sleep right now and wake up Sunday and read about what happened.”

Wednesday, September 12 2012

Trinniberg Back on Work Tab

MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. (September 12, 2012) – Shivananda Racing’s multiple graded stakes-winning 3-year-old Trinniberg returned to the Calder work tab Wednesday morning to put forth his first morning move since a disappointing ninth-place finish in the Grade 1 King's Bishop at Saratoga, drilling a half-mile bullet in :47 over a track listed as wet fast.

“I’m very happy with the way he worked this morning,” owner and trainer Shivananda Parbhoo said. “And he came back good; he dove right into his feed tub and within 10 minutes it was gone.”

Monday, September 10 2012

Bull Dozer Rolls to Starter Series Victory

MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. (September 9, 2012) – Frank C. Calabrese's Bull Dozer, claimed for $25,000 in mid-May and a winner of three straight for his new team, captured the opening leg of the Tropical Starter Series open division at Calder Casino & Race Course on Saturday, drawing off to a commanding 7 ½-length victory to shoot atop the points table for the three-race series.

Trained by Luis Ramirez, Bull Dozer sat contently in third through the early stages of the race before overpowering Abdel’s Ghost at the top of the stretch and then running away from that rival to post the easy win.

Sunday, September 09 2012

Spectacular Sky Streaks to Whippleton Stakes Win

MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. (September 8, 2012) – Male rivals proved nothing more than a slight obstacle in the path of Miller Racing, LLC’s filly sprinting sensation Spectacular Sky as the Marty Wolfson-trained daughter of Sky Mesa tallied her third straight open-length victory, and her second successive stakes score, when winning the $55,000 Whippleton Stakes at Calder Casino & Race Course Saturday.

“Very easy,” winning rider Luis Saez said triumphantly after the race. “I like this filly a lot; she’s very nice.”

Friday, September 07 2012

Champion Barbadian Rider Arrives at Calder

MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. (September 6, 2012) – Always a proving ground for up-and-coming young riders, Calder Casino & Race Course will become the test site for 2010 Barbadian champion rider Jalon Samuel as the 19-year-old arrived in south Florida on Wednesday and was at the track Thursday morning to begin a full-time assault on American racing.

“He did well this morning,” agent Dick Diego said of the rider who came to his attention through local trainer and Barbados native Saffie Joseph, Jr. “We just went around to meet some of the trainers and then he two-minute licked a horse for Saffie. We’ll breeze a few tomorrow and Saturday, and then we’ve got our first call for Wednesday.”

Thursday, September 06 2012

Wolfson Fillies and Mares to Challenge Male Rivals in Whippleton; Our Dear Peggy

MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. (September 5, 2012) – Miller Racing, LLC’s Spectacular Sky, runner-up in the Grade 3 Las Flores Stakes in March and recent winner of the $55,000 Barb’s Dancer, is one of two female runners from the barn of trainer Marty Wolfson scheduled to meet male rivals in Saturday’s $55,000 Whippleton Stakes at Calder Casino & Race Course. Wolfson will also saddle Grade 1 Princess Rooney Handicap seventh-place finisher Golden Mystery in the seven-furlong dash.

A 4-year-old daughter of Sky Mesa, Spectacular Sky enters the Whippleton off a pair of commanding victories, winning the Barb’s Dancer by 4 ½ lengths and a mid-July allowance by 9 ¼ lengths, with the latter run over the same seven-furlong distance as the Whippleton.