Sunday, March 25 2012

New Orleans ‘Cap and Muniz Memorial ‘Cap Probables; Saturday’s Louisiana Derby Works

NEW ORLEANS (Saturday, March 24, 2012) – Twin Creeks Racing Stable’s Mission Impazible, defending champion from last season’s Grade II New Orleans Handicap and winner of the Grade II Louisiana Derby two years ago, is set to meet George and Lori Hall’s Pants On Fire, hero of last season’s $1 million Louisiana Derby in the upcoming battle for the 2012 New Orleans Handicap to be run April 1.

This year’s $400,000 New Orleans Handicap will again be run on Louisiana Derby Day, which also is Closing Day of Fair Grounds’ 2011-2012 racing season.

RUSSELL, KOBISKIE CAPTURE LAUREL PARK WINTER MEET TITLES

LAUREL, MD. 03-24-12---The 12-week Laurel Park winter meeting ended today with Sheldon Russell and Dane Kobiskie winning individual titles. The 48-day stand began at the central Maryland track on January 4.

Russell, the top jockey in the Maryland colony a year ago, topped the rider standings with 54 first place finishes, 21 more than Malcolm Franklin. The 24-year-old had 16 multiple win days during the meet, including nine in the last four weeks of the stand.

EIGHTTOFASTTOCATCH CAPTURES HARRISON JOHNSON MEMORIAL STAKES FOR SECOND CONSECUTIVE YEAR

LAUREL, MD. 03-24-12---Sylvia Heft’s Eighttofasttocatch had to work hard for it, but at the finish he was the repeat winner of the $100,000 Harrison E. Johnson Memorial Stakes, the closing day feature at Laurel Park.

Under guidance by the meeting’s leading rider Sheldon Russell, the son of Not For Love was quick to assume the lead in the 1-1/8th mile test. Nearing the far turn Cherokee Artist pushed inside the leader and got to the front, setting up a duel that would not be decided until the final furlong, where Eighttofasttocatch put away his rival and won in 1:53.43 over a surface rated good. Cherokee Artist finished a length back in second and Indian Jones was another 2-1/2 lengths back in third.

GOLD BREW, ANOTHER SMOKEY CAPTURE TAMPA TURF TESTS

Wayne Scanlan’s 8-year-old gelding Gold Brew, last of the 10 runners for the first mile, charged past the leaders in the stretch and rolled to a 1 ¾-length victory under jockey Dean Butler in Saturday’s $27,000 Tampa Turf Test Male Division, his fourth consecutive victory at the current Tampa Bay Downs meeting.

In the $27,000 Filly and Mare Division of the Tampa Turf Test, 5-year-old gray mare Another Smokey rallied from mid-pack under Daniel Centeno to score an emotional victory for owner-trainer Joyce Kielty, whose late husband Donald picked out the Florida-bred at an Ocala yearling sale in 2008. The couple paid $2,500 for her.

Saturday, March 24 2012

FORMER HOLLYWOOD PARK CHAIRWOMAN MARJE EVERETT DIES AT 90

INGLEWOOD, Calif. (March 23, 2011)—Marje Everett, the longtime chairwoman of Hollywood Park, died Friday morning at her West Los Angeles home. She was 90.

A native of New York, Everett, who grew up in a racing family – her father Benjamin Lindheimer owned Arlington Park and the now defunct Washington Park in Illinois – spent a great portion of her adult life in race track management.

Friday, March 23 2012

Gulfstream Today: 3.23.12

Richard Sherman’s 5-year-old Kentucky homebred Nikki’s Sandcastle showed a second, two thirds and a fourth in as many tries at the Gulfstream Park meet going back to Dec. 4, but finally got his day in the winner‘s circle Friday after posting a hard-fought head decision in the eighth race.

Jockey Joe Bravo had Nikki’s Sandcastle rated in fifth down the backstretch of the 7 ½ furlongs turf test run under starter/allowance conditions, and rallied through the stretch to post his fifth victory in 22 career starts. Andrew Farm’s Chosen Empire finished third, two lengths behind the runner-up in the field of seven as Magdalena Farm’s 6-to-5 favorite Dark Cove finished fourth.

Where’s Sterling Set for Start in Skip Away

Frank Calabrese’s 5-year-old Where’s Sterling worked six furlongs from the gate in 1:14 3/5 Friday morning at Gulfstream Park and is on target to make his next start as one of the favorites in the $100,000 Skip Away Stakes (G3) going 1 3/16 miles on Florida Derby Day, Saturday March. 31.

“He’s ready to go,” said trainer Nick Canani. “We know he likes the Gulfstream track. He’s run two good races and had traffic trouble last out in the Donn Handicap (G1). He’s a big horse and he can’t just stop and start. The added distance also should help him.”

Plans for Kentucky Derby Prospects Set in ‘Motion’

BOYNTON BEACH, FL – Trainer Graham Motion had already loaded Lucky Chappy onto a Dubai-bound plane for a start in the UAE Derby (G1) on March 31 and was preparing for the departure of Howe Great and Went the Day Well to Kentucky for their respective starts in major preps for this year’s Kentucky Derby.

The flurry of activity surrounding his talented 3-year-olds at Palm Meadows Training Center could be viewed as a symptom of a bad case of Derby Fever to anyone unaware of the 47-year-old conditioner’s patient and somewhat conservative training program.

CHIPS ALL IN GAMELY WIRES FIELD IN $74,260 PASADENA STAKES

ARCADIA, Calif. (March 23, 2012) – Following a dreadful trip in the Grade II Robert B. Lewis Stakes on Feb. 4, Chips All In got back in gear Friday with a gritty wire-to-wire victory in Santa Anita’s 9th running of the $74,260 Pasadena Stakes for 3-year-olds at one mile on turf.

With Alonso Quinonez aboard, Chips All In quickly gained command in the field of 10 with Tones in close pursuit and 2-1 favorite Midnight Crooner stalking in third, and that’s the way they finished in what turned out to be a “carousel race.”

SADLER SAYS HOLY CANDY ON DERBY TRAIL, CANDY RIDE COLT BLITZES MAIDEN MILE FIELD

ARCADIA, Calif. (March 23, 2012)—An ebullient trainer John Sadler declared his 3-year-old Candy Ride colt, Holy Candy, fit for passage on the Kentucky Derby trail Friday, following his impressive maiden special weight score going a flat mile in Santa Anita’s fourth race. Holy Candy rallied from off the pace to get the mile in 1:35.98. Sadler said the Grade I Santa Anita Derby, to be run April 7, is under consideration.

“We’ve thought all along he was our best 3-year-old and it was nice to see him finish and gallop out the way he did today,” said Sadler. “In his last couple of races, things have kind of worked against us. We caught a sealed track a couple races back and we’ve just felt that he needs to be able to make a quarter mile run.”

SANTA ANITA STABLE NOTES (Friday March 23, 2012)

PLENTY AT STAKE FOR GOMEZ AT SANTA ANITA THIS WEEKEND

This weekend, Garrett Gomez hopes to pick up where he left off before fate dealt him a debilitating blow nearly three months ago.

The 40-year-old Tucson native, a two-time Eclipse Award winner as the nation’s outstanding jockey and four-time national earnings leader, remarkably had six stakes wins in the first two weeks of the meet before he suffered a broken left heel in a freak accident on Jan. 8.

Al Raihe cements champion trainer status

Ali Rashid Al Raihe, who has successfully defended his title as UAE Champion Trainer, continued his great run of form with a first and last race double at Jebel Ali on Friday afternoon.

The victory of Glen Nevis in the opening 1950m handicap, under stable jockey Royston Ffrench, was a remarkable seventh straight winner in Thoroughbred races for the trainer who won the last five races at Meydan last Saturday and the Group 3 Abu Dhabi Championship on Sunday.