Horse Racing News

For more than a month, Qualia has been all dressed up with nowhere to run. Three weeks ago, she failed to crack into the field for the Breeders' Cup Filly and Mare Sprint. Two weeks ago, an overnight stakes at Aqueduct failed to fill.

When Wasted Tears came to California for the first time in August, she won the Grade 2 John Mabee Stakes by a nose at Del Mar, the smallest margin of victory in her 17-race career.

Gio Ponti, the dual Eclipse Award winner of 2009, will remain in training next year as a 6-year-old with his first major objective being the Dubai World Cup on March 26, owner Shane Ryan announced in a press release Tuesday afternoon.

Garrett Gomez, a two-time Eclipse Award winner who won three Breeders' Cup races earlier this month, tops a list of five finalists for the 62nd George Woolf Memorial Jockey Award, Santa Anita announced on Tuesday.

Sebastian Flyte will start in Sunday's $250,000 Hollywood Derby, and this time trainer Ben Cecil had no trouble finding a jockey well in advance. Joel Rosario, who through Sunday led the jockey's standings at the fall meeting, has the mount.

Trainer Steve Specht's fall meeting at Golden Gate Fields has been a lot like the racing career of his entrant in Friday's Grade 3, $100,000 All American, Massone.

Six were entered in the $100,000 Underwood, in which Cost of Freedom will try to lead gate to wire over E Z's Gentleman, Canonize, Gato Go Win, Scenic Blast, and Square Deal.

Apart was assigned post 2 when 11 3-year-olds and upward were entered Tuesday for the Grade 1 Clark Handicap, which will be run Friday for the 136th time at Churchill Downs.

The injured jockey Garrett Gomez returns to riding on a regular basis in Southern California on Sunday, and will ride Haimish Hy in the $250,000 Hollywood Derby that day.

With regular rider Calvin Borel sidelined through the end of the year with the injury he sustained Saturday, Tony Farina will get the mount on Brass Hat for the Clark Handicap at Churchill Downs on Friday.