TODAY'S SIMULCAST SCHEDULE Gulfstream Park, 11:35 a.m.; Fair Grounds, 1:25 p.m.; Golden Gate, 2:45 p.m.; Santa Anita, 3 p.m.; Penn National, 5 p.m.; Turfway Park, 5:15 p.m.; Delta Downs, 5:40 p.m.; Charles Town, 6 p.m.
SANTANA TO RIDE AGAIN FRIDAY
Four-time Oaklawn riding champion Ricardo Santana Jr. is scheduled to resume riding Friday after being cleared by a specialist, said the jockey's agent, Ruben Munoz. Santana, 24, hasn't ridden since suffering a separated shoulder in a two-horse spill during the second race March 2. Munoz originally was targeting March 18 for Santana's return, but the jockey was getting on horses for the first time since the accident Wednesday morning, the agent said. Santana, who has had his left arm in a sling, was examined Monday morning in Hot Springs. "Did a strength test on him and passed with flying colors -- unbelievable," Munoz said in a text message. "I couldn't believe what I was seeing. I was in NO rush for him to come back." Santana will ride Swing and Sway in Friday's featured eighth race. Among his mounts Saturday is Whitmore in the $125,000 Hot Springs Stakes. Both horses are trained by Ron Moquett.
OSORIO'S RECOVERY CONTINUES
Jockey Didiel Osorio, who suffered a back injury in the March 2 spill with Santana, continues to recover in Hot Springs, his agent, Joe Santos, said Wednesday morning. Santos said CT scans sent to a specialist in South Florida confirmed the jockey fractured his T5 and T7 vertebrae in the collision, but no surgery was suggested. Santos said Osorio will travel to Florida for an MRI on April 14. Santos said March 2 that Osorio, who had five winners at the meet, was expected to miss 6-8 weeks.
MILLION DOLLAR MAN
Geovanni Franco ($992,790) is poised to become the third jockey at the meet to surpass $1 million in purse earnings. Franco, third in Oaklawn's standings with 26 victories, is named on five horses today, including Castletown in the eighth race for main client Robertino Diodoro. Franco rode at Oaklawn for the first time last year and finished with 16 victories and purse earnings of $376,696. He blew past those totals more than a month ago in a meet highlighted, thus far, by his first two career Oaklawn stakes victories, the $125,000 King Cotton Stakes aboard the Diodoro-trained Storm Advisory on Feb. 4 and Saturday's $125,000 Gazebo Stakes aboard Rockshaw. Four-time defending riding champion Ricardo Santana ($1,257,277) and Ramon Vazquez ($1,168,435) are the only riders to reach $1 million in purse earnings through the first 33 days of racing. Santana and Vazquez each have a meet-high 30 victories.
FINISH LINES
• Elate arrived Tuesday for Saturday's $200,000 Grade III Honeybee Stakes for 3-year-old fillies. Trained by Hall of Famer Bill Mott, Oaklawn's leading trainer in 1986, Elate was flown from South Florida to Little Rock on Tuesday morning, then vanned 57 miles to Oaklawn. She is coming off a runner-up finish in the $100,000 Suncoast Stakes on Feb. 11 at Tampa Bay Downs, her second lifetime start. ... Terra Promessa worked 5 furlongs over a fast track in 1:02 Wednesday morning in preparation for the $350,000 Grade II Azeri Stakes for older fillies and mares March 18. Trained by Hall of Famer Steve Asmussen, Terra Promessa is 5 for 5 at Oaklawn, including the $125,000 Pippin Stakes on Jan. 14 and $150,000 Bayakoa Stakes on Feb. 18. ... Multiple Oaklawn stakes winner Far Right worked a half-mile in :49.2 Wednesday morning for trainer Wayne Catalano, who said the ridgling could make his 5-year-old debut before the meet ends April 15. ... Equator ($8.40) represented the first Oaklawn winner sired by Bodemeister in Sunday's eighth race, a starter optional claimer at a mile. Equator is from the first crop of Bodemeister, the runaway winner of the $1 million Arkansas Derby in 2012.
Information for this article was contributed by Oaklawn media department
Sports on 03/09/2017