Racing News

If there is one certainty in harness racing it is that there are no guarantees. There may be implied warranties, such as the gift of a horse’s natural speed endures. However, when it comes to habits, good and bad, the absence of time gives no assurance that behavior will improve.

Take for example two of last year’s most impressive juveniles, Mission Brief and Artspeak, a pair that excited the racing world with blinding speed, while at the same time offered a note of caution. The two have come back to race as three-year-olds and surprisingly, stunningly to some, have exhibited the same characteristics that marred them in some ways during otherwise brilliant seasons.

Trainer Joe Holloway is uncertain where many of the top 3-year-old female pacers might race to start this season, but he is pretty sure that no matter where he sends Bettor Be Steppin and Divine Caroline it’s not going to be easy.

Bettor Be Steppin and Divine Caroline -- who finished third and fourth, respectively, in November’s Breeders Crown for 2-year-old female pacers -- are among the horses set to qualify Friday at the Meadowlands. Holloway is preparing the fillies for a stakes-filled campaign and is likely to find many of the division’s top horses from last year wherever he turns.

In addition to being eligible to this season’s top stakes for 3-year-old filly pacers, Holloway’s two horses are eligible to the New York Sire Stakes. But so are defending Horse of the Year and Breeders Crown winner JK She’salady, Breeders Crown runner-up Sassa Hanover, returning NYSS champion Mosquito Blue Chip, and stakes-winner Bettor N Better.

Ekati's Phaeton, winner of the one-mile Davona Dale Stakes (gr. II) at 26-1 Feb. 21 at Gulfstream Park, tacks on an additional sixteenth of a mile and the likely favorite's role in the $250,000 Gulfstream Oaks (gr. II) Saturday, March 28.

The Oaks will go as race 12 on the card that features seven graded stakes highlighted by the day's finale, the $1 million Besilu Stables Florida Derby (gr .I).

Owned by the John Dowd-led partnership group Phaedrus Flights that originally intended to pinhook the 3-year-old Tale of Ekati   filly, Ekati's Phaeton has led them to the winner's circle in four of seven attempts and four of five races at Gulfstream Park.

While trainer Eric Guillot was born in New Iberia, La., his stable star Moreno is scheduled for his first start in the Pelican State March 28, in the $400,000 New Orleans Handicap (gr. II) at Fair Grounds Race Course & Slots.

Campaigned by Mike Moreno's Southern Equine Stables, Moreno will be making his second start of 2015, after opening the season with a runner-up finish to Shared Belief in the Santa Anita Handicap (gr. I) March 7. That marked Moreno's first start since a troubled, last-place finish in the Breeders' Cup Classic (gr. I) at Santa Anita Park to close out 2014.

"He's in really good shape right now," Guillot said. "Joe Talamo will ride him. He was on board for the (March 20 work at Los Alamitos Race Course of five furlongs in 1:00 2/5) and he rode him a couple years ago in the Breeders' Cup. The plan is to go three weeks (between the Santa Anita and New Orleans Handicaps) and then three weeks to the Charles Town Classic (gr. II, Apr. 18). Then we'll freshen him for a summer campaign. I'm not too concerned about the short break for him. He's a horse who keeps himself in good shape."

Two-time Breeders' Cup winner Secret Circle certainly has impressed assistant trainer Dana Barnes before, but in preparing for the $2 million Dubai Golden Shaheen Sponsored by Gulf News (UAE-I), the exercise rider can feel added strength in the 6-year-old Eddington   gelding.

Barnes said Secret Circle was moving more powerfully Wednesday, March 25, at Meydan while training for Saturday's 1,200-meter (about six furlongs) test.

"He's a monster," Barnes said Wednesday morning. "He literally dragged me around and then all the way back home (to the quarantine barn)."

Barnes is an assistant to two-time Dubai World Cup (UAE-I)-winning trainer Bob Baffert, who enters Secret Circle off a runner-up finish to Conquest Two Step in the Palos Verdes Stakes (gr. II) Jan. 31 at Santa Anita Park.

This Week: Blue Chip Matchmaker and George Morton Levy series second legs, Yonkers Raceway, Yonkers, N.Y.

Schedule of events: The Grand Circuit at Yonkers this week features two $40,000 divisions on Friday (March 27) in the second round of the Blue Chip Matchmaker series for open pacing mares. The Saturday (March 28) card at Yonkers will see four $50,000 divisions in the second round of the George Morton Levy series for open pacers.

A standing-room-only crowd gathered at Gulfstream Park Tuesday, March 24, for a memorial service to honor Hall of Fame horseman Allen Jerkens, who died March 18 at the age of 85.

Organized by owner-trainer Carlo Vaccarezza, who shared Barn 14 on the Gulfstream backstretch with Jerkens, known throughout the industry as 'The Chief,' the 60-minute ceremony took place inside the Sport of Kings Theater.

"He taught us you could live quietly but speak very loudly," master of ceremonies and television personality Caton Bredar said. "He was a giant of a man."

John McDermott stares into the stall of Hurrikane Kingcole and a wistful smile crosses the trainer’s face as he watches his 6-year-old pacer move playfully toward him.

 “I just wish we had a chance for him to show what he’s really made of,” McDermott says.

He thought this might be the year. Hurrikane Kingcole, back on the racetrack after throat surgery last year appeared to correct a myriad of health issues, was 2-for-2 in 2015. The speedy stakes-winner captured his two starts by a total of seven lengths and posted one of the season’s fastest times to date -- 1:49.4 -- in January.

Jockey Corey Nakatani was taken to the hospital March 15 after a spill in the fifth race at Santa Anita Park.

Aboard favored Bilger's Sapphire in a maiden special weight event on the downhill turf course, Nakatani trailed early with the 4-year-old filly before beginning a run mid-turn. Bilger's Sapphire appeared to clip the heels of Bullwinkle Babe at the top of the stretch, sending both jockey and horse to the ground. 

The 44-year-old riding veteran, who is on this year's ballot for the Racing Hall of Fame, was down on the track for an extended period of time before being removed on a backboard and lifted into an ambulance.

Trainer Jeff Greenhill remembered one winter several years ago when he decided to move his stable to Florida to enjoy the sunshine and warmth at Tampa Bay Downs.

"For those purses at Tampa, those races are really tough," he said. "I've told people, 'I went to Tampa for the winter and all I got was this Tampa Bay Downs T-shirt.'"

It wasn't the best meet financially for Greenhill, whose regular winter home is Turfway Park. Weather aside, the winter of 2014-15 hasn't been bad at all for the Northern Kentucky horseman. From Jan. 1 through March 8, his stable had 36 starts with 11 wins, eight seconds, and four thirds for earnings of $145,232, all at Turfway.

Workouts of note May 4 included last year's 3-year-old champion filly Untapable and grade I winner Lea, who both worked in Kentucky.

Winchell Thoroughbreds homebred Untapable, who won the Apple Blossom Handicap (gr. I) April 10 at Oaklawn Park, breezed five furlongs in 1:00 4/5 on a fast track at Churchill Downs for trainer Steve Asmussen. The work was the ninth-fastest of 27 at the distance.

Asmussen also sent out Winchell Thoroughbreds homebred Tapiture, a two-time grade II winner who completed the same distance in 1:01.

Also at Churchill Monday, Kaleem Shah's Santa Anita Oaks (gr. I) runner-up Luminance, trained by Bob Baffert, breezed six furlongs in 1:13. 

For three weeks after California Chrome landed in England, the weather gods smiled. It was almost as if they decreed he should be drenched in his own sunshine.

Newmarket can present a hostile environment in this part of the season. Winds whistle in from the North Sea to the east, unchecked by flat terrain. The Thoroughbred capital of the country may be 40 miles inland, but it can feel like a Siberian outpost.

Not this time. Temperatures soared to unseasonal highs as the darling of American racing flew in from Dubai. There was little climatic contrast for him to adjust to as he bedded down in Rae Guest's stables on the southern edge of Newmarket.

Morton Fink's two-time Horse of the Year Wise Dan is progressing well since he returned to tack-walking at Keeneland at the beginning of March, but the chestnut gelding will require 30 more days in recovery before he can go to the track, trainer Charlie LoPresti said March 26.

A March 24 check-up with Dr. Larry Bramlage at Rood & Riddle Equine Hospital near Lexington revealed that the non-displaced fracture at the bottom of the cannon bone in Wise Dan's right front fetlock, announced last Oct. 13, is healing well. Bloodflow to the area, which had diminished while the 8-year-old Wiseman's Ferry runner was turned out over the winter at LoPresti's Forest Lane Farm, has reactivated since Wise Dan began walking the shedrow at Keeneland with Amy LoPresti aboard.

"There's blood supply there and it's healing," Charlie LoPresti said. "It had kind of stalled out when he was at the farm because he wasn't doing enough, so now, doing this (tack-walking and round pen turnout) has increased the bloodflow."

Shared Belief will make his first start outside of California in the $1.5 million Charles Town Classic (gr. II) April 18, co-owner Jim Rome said March 25.

"Shared Belief's going on a plane for the first time," Rome tweeted Wednesday night. "We're headed to West Virginia for the Charles Town Classic."

Considered by many to be the best horse in the country, the son of Candy Ride   trained and co-owned by Jerry Hollendorfer hasn't proven he can ship outside of the Golden State, something he would have to do for a potential run in the Breeders' Cup at Keeneland this year. Hollendorfer had previously expressed interest in the $600,000 Oaklawn Handicap (gr. II) April 11 for Shared Belief's next race.

When it comes to Warrawee Needy, Mark Ford utters a sentence that anyone in this sport knows all too well in describing the stallion’s career.

“Welcome to horse racing,” said his conditioner and co-owner. “We were literally drooling we had the first crack at buying him, but there has been the bad luck, the awful draws and the fact we have never been able to get him quite right. I thought we would have a terrific older free-for-all pacer and he can go so fast so quickly, but we just don’t know if he ever will be what he once was.”

But the 6-year-old world champion son of E Dee’s Cam and the Apaches Fame mare Great Memories, appears to be regaining the form he flaunted at ages 2, 3 and 4, as he prepares to compete in a $50,000 second leg of the Levy Series at Yonkers Raceway on Saturday (March 28).

California Chrome, the 2014 Horse of the Year, drew the outside gate in a field of nine for the $10 million Dubai World Cup on March 28, and co-owner Steve Coburn said he loves that spot.

Main Sequence, the second reigning United States Eclipse Award champ on the Meydan card, drew Post 5 for the $6 million Dubai Sheema Classic presented by Longines, also in a field of nine. The Todd Pletcher-trained Mshawish landed Post 3 for the Dubai Turf Sponsored by DP World.

And in the $2 million Dubai Golden Shaheen, sponsored by Gulf News, 2013 Xpressbet Breeders' Cup Sprint winner Secret Circle will start from Post 7, Salutos Amigos drew Post 5 and Big Macher has Post 6.

California Chrome, however, was the center of attention at the well-attended draw ceremony in the Meydan auditorium.

California Chrome is rapidly morphing from "California rock star" status to "worldwide brand" and, if he does his part in the Dubai World Cup (UAE-I) on March 28, his connections are ready to give him the stage that status would deserve.

Still, they admit they a little humbled and a little awed about it all.

For trainer Art Sherman, a former jockey and veteran of decades of day-in, day-out racing, California Chrome's victories in the 2014 Kentucky Derby Presented by Yum! Brands and Preakness Stakes (both gr. I) were the fulfillment of a dream.

California Chrome, the 2014 Horse of the Year, drew the outside gate in a field of nine for the $10 million Dubai World Cup (UAE-I) March 28, and co-owner Steve Coburn said he loves that spot.

Main Sequence, the second reigning United States Eclipse Award champ on the Meydan card, drew post 5 for the $6 million Dubai Sheema Classic presented by Longines (UAE-I), also in a field of nine. The Todd Pletcher-trained Mshawish landed post 3 for the Dubai Turf Sponsored by DP World (UAE-I).

And in the $2 million Dubai Golden Shaheen, sponsored by Gulf News (UAE-I), 2013 Xpressbet Breeders' Cup Sprint (gr. I) winner Secret Circle will start from post 7, Salutos Amigos drew post 5, and Big Macher has post 6.

Ignacio Puglisi is getting a new start at age 40. With three wins, four seconds and seven thirds from 53 mounts through 47 racing days, the journeyman jockey, born in Rosario, Argentina, but raised a few furlongs from Santa Anita in Temple City, has been making ends meet in recent times as the go-to rider for trainer Paul Aguirre.

But he recently hired Philadelphian Bill Sadoo as his agent, spurning efforts to fly solo, and has been on the wagon for the last four years.

“Things are going well,” said Puglisi, called “Iggy” by his friends. “I’ve been clean for four years and that helped. I stopped drinking. I’ve picked up an agent, which I haven’t had in a couple of years. He’s really smart, keeps a lot of data on horses and we discuss different options on how we can attack the game and not just be riding for one guy. What’s really given me a shot is riding some horses for (Mike) Puype.