—Feb 17— Repole Stable’s Noble Indy took the lead leaving the gate, fell behind longshot Principe Guilherme past the half, then outdueled that rival to the wire, scoring a three-quarters length victory in the $400,000 Grade II Risen Star Stakes. Trained by Todd Pletcher and ridden by John Velazquez, Noble Indy paid $5.50 to win as the 8/5 cofavorite.

Bravazo, also 8/5, finished third, a head in front of the morning line favorite, Instilled Regard. Snapper Sinclair was fifth, followed by High North.

—Feb 17— My Boy Jack rebounded from a second-place finish to McKinzie in the Sham Stakes at Santa Anita with a one-and-three-quarters lengths win in the Grade III Southwest Stakes at Oaklawn. The small margin was misleading.

Kent Desormeaux, riding for his brother, Keith (who trains My Boy Jack), placed the 6/5 favorite on the lead from the outset and appeared set to run away from the field. My Boy Jack hit the eighth pole with a four-length lead before Gary Stevens, riding the place-horse, Ezmosh, made a late run.

Mourinho, a Super Saver colt trained by Bob Baffert, finished third, followed by Combatant, Seven Trumpets and Sporting Chance.

—Feb 17— Agave Racing Stable and Little Red Feather Racing’s Fault was sent to post as the heavy favorite in the Grade II Buena Vista Stakes at Santa Anita and didn’t disappoint, drawing away to a three-and-a-quarter lengths win over Thundering Sky.

Her jockey, Giovanni Franco, seemed impressed.

“Well I knew she is a nice filly. She’s been running in some nice stakes and placing in them. She just changed coasts and I guess she’s liking it because she seemed to today. She felt very good, just came out and took care of business.” he said.

Trainer Philp D’Amato was just as pleased.

I knew she was a very consistent filly and was only getting better back east,” he said. “… from the very first time I breezed her I thought, ‘This is a horse I’ve been looking for in this category for quite a while.'”

“She’s shown me a lot in the mornings and she trained like she belonged in here. You never know until you run against these girls in here and she showed that she fits.”

Bet down to 1/10, Fault paid just $2.20 for the win. After Fault came Thundering Sky, Sassy Little Lila, Madame Stripes, Insta Erma and Madam Dancealot.

 

 

—Feb 17— Berned went by Divine Miss Grey and Moiety midway through the race, then held off a strong late rally by the former to win the Grade II Barbara Fritchie Stakes by a length. The third choice in the betting, Berned paid $12.00 to win.

Divine Miss Grey, ridden by Kendrick Carmouche, broke on top then settled in a line with Ms Locust Point and Moiety. Carmouche and Divine Miss Grey appeared content to bide their time until just past the halfway mark, when Berned sprinted clear and appeared enroute to an easy win. Urged on by Carmouche, Divine Miss Grey unleashed a furious rally but fell short.

Moiety hung on to be third, followed by Ms Locus Point.

It was another four-and-a-half lengths back to Highway Star and Bishop’s Pond, who brought up the rear.

—Feb 17— Instilled Regard, the runaway winner of the Lecomte Stakes here in January, is expected to be made the favorite in the $400,000 Grade II Risen Star for three-year-olds in this afternoon’s ninth race. The Chad Brown trainee was simply devastating in his debut, running down the pacesetter and race favorite, Trigger Warning, then drawing away to a 4-length win.

The third- and fourth-place finishers in that race will also race in the Risen Star, but it is the invaders High North from Oaklawn and Noble Indy from Gulfstream Park that are most likely to give Instilled Regard a run for the money.

High North enters the race having just annexed the Smarty Jones Stakes while Noble Indy enters on the heels of a one-length score in a $60,000 Optional Claiming race.

Meanwhile, Snapper Sinclair, third in the Lecomte, and Principe Guilherme, fourth, will try to reverse their fortunes in the slightly longer Risen Star. Both horses made late moves that failed to menace the winner in the Lecomte.

Principe Guilherme will be ridden by a hot rider, Florent Geroux, who is currently second in wins behind Jose Ortiz and is winning with an amazing 43.8% of his mounts. Snapper Sinclair have Adam Beschizza in the irons. Beschizza is winless in four mounts.

View Past Performances For Risen Star

—Feb 17— Monomoy Girl made her 2018 debut in the $196,000 Grade II Rachel Alexandra and looked… well… like Rachel Alexandra, drawing off to an easy 4¼-length win over Wonder Gadot, the second favorite. The race was never in doubt.

Monomoy Girl and jockey Florent Geroux were first out of the gate and never seriously challenged. Any drama was limited to the batter between Wonder Gadot and Class Act for the place spot. In the end, Wonder Gadot prevailed by a head.

The rest of the field finished far back. Classy Act was more than 10 lengths in front of She’s a Julie, Beyond Blame and Patrona Margarita, who finished in a tight pack.

The goal for Monomoy girl and trainer Brad Cox is to race in the Kentucky Oaks in early May. How Monomoy Girl get there, though, isn’t yet certain. Cox said the filly will be considered for either the Ashland Stakes at Keeneland or the Fair Grounds Oaks here next month.

“We’ll just kind of see what we think moving forward,” he said. “It’ll be one of those two.”

—Feb 17— Altissimo, a promising four-year-old gelding by Noble Causeway, made his 2018 debut in the Grade III Mineshaft Handicap a winning one, beating Good Samaritan by two lengths.

The 2/5 race favorite, Altissimo paid just $3.10 for the win and earned $92,610.

Good Samaritan finished a length in front of Lookin for Eight, who was followed by Hence, The Player and Scuba.

—Feb 15— Bob Baffert’s Justify is scheduled to make his 2018 debut in the El Camino Real Derby at Golden Gate Fields. Since entry into the Kentucky Derby requires entrants to earn points in order to qualify, the horse’s connections decided to bypass more conventional routes to the Derby and instead chose to throw Justify into deep water from the outset, opting for starts in the El Camino Real Derby and Santa Anita Derby instead of ordinary allowance races where he would likely face easier competition.

The field for the El Camino Real Derby, which offers a purse of just $100,900 and 10 Kentucky Derby qualifying points, includes some of the best horses in California: Core Beliefs, Once On Whiskey, Blended Citizen, Paved and Shivermetimbers.

Despite the high-quality competition, Justify is expected to go to post as a solid favorite.

 

—Feb 10— Quip, winner of the Mucho Macho Man Stakes at Gulfstream Park in March, returned to the track at Tampa Bay Downs and unleashed a furious late rally to catch Captivating Moon and win the $200,000 Sam F. Davis Stakes by a length.

Ridden by Florent Geroux, Quip bided his time early, sitting just off the pace set by Flameaway and jockey Jose Lezcano. After going a half, Flameaway began to drop back, and Captivating Moon and Vino Rosso emerged from the pack to be one-two entering the stretch, with Quip further back alongside Catholic Boy and Flameaway.

Quip and Geroux were sensational in the latter stages, driving hard to the wire in a thrilling finish.

Captivating Moon, a 9/1 outside, hung on to be second, followed by Vino Rosso, Flameaway, Catholic Boy and Funny Duck.

—Feb 10— West Point Thoroughbreds’ Kanthaka drew clear of Nero and Restoring Hope down the stretch to win the $200,345 San Vicente Stakes at Santa Anita by three-and-a-half lengths.

Jockey Flavien Prat was enthusiastic about the performance. “He gave me a great run and he did everything right,” Prat said. “He broke like a bullet, but then we had quite a lot of speed in front of us. So he sat really nicely behind the speed and made a really nice run around the turn. And after that it was done.”

The seven furlong race was the first start of the year for the Kentucky-bred son of Jimmy Creed, and his owners hinted he is likely to tackle longer distances in the near future.

“This feels great,” said Jeff Lifson of West Point Thoroughbreds. “It never gets old. … He responded well in the stretch and we knew he tries really hard, and he lived up to what we thought he could do. So we’re really happy. We’re hoping he can stretch out. We’ll find that out, but I have a feeling we’ll try two turns and will see how it goes.”

Nero finished second by a nose and was followed by Restoring Hope, Ax Man, All Out Blitz and Majestic Eagle.