Due to the threat of a nearby wildfire Tuesday, the horses stabled at the San Luis Rey Downs training center in Bonsall, San Diego County, were evacuated and sent elsewhere, largely to Del Mar racetrack.
By Tuesday afternoon, the nearby Lilac Fire had burned through 80 acres and was 30% contained, according to Cal Fire.
“We are still at the same level 2 evacuation warning status so we will continue to monitor the situation and the wind,” Santa Anita general manager Nate Newby wrote in a text Tuesday afternoon, adding that he hoped the “wind stays away.”
In the morning as the first batch of San Luis Rey’s roughly 275 horses were being evacuated, Newby estimated the fire was roughly three to four miles away from the training center, which is owned by The Stronach Group.
Del Mar is currently in the middle of its off season. Tom Robbins, Del Mar’s executive vice president of racing and industry relations, said Tuesday morning he hoped the training track would be ready for use within 48 hours.
Daufuskie Island scored a wire-to-wire victory at Aqueduct to register our first win in 2025. Ruben Silvera got Daufuskie right out of the gate and battled for the early lead in the 6 1/2 furlong, $50,000 Claimer. The first quarter time was 22.50 and the half was 45.78 as he dug in and held safe to the finish, putting up a 92 Equibase speed figure for his 6th career victory. Trainer Ilkay Kantarmaci got the win along with fellow partner Diane Balsamo.
Our yearling Winnipeg Wonder colt by Yaupon sold at the Keeneland January Sale for $125,000. We claimed Winnipeg Wonder back in 2021 out of a $20,000 Maiden Claimer at Gulfstream Park. We fell just short multiple times trying to reach the Winner’s Circle as she had 2 seconds and a third in 13 lifetime starts. However, her strong pedigree and some patience paid off. Being bred by Shanghai Bobby our of Flowerette by Victory Gallop, she was bred to Yaupon (Uncle Mo-Modification, by Vindication). Yaupon has been a hot sire this year and we wish our Winnipeg Wonder colt the best with his new connections.
Having won a race on turf for us in 2023, this 5-year-old Bay Mare by Kitten’s Joy out of Smoke Signals discovered a new passion in 2024, running on dirt. With the turf course closed for the winter, Smokin’ Hot Kitty and Manny Franco finished 3rd on February 23rd at Aqueduct. From there Kendrick Carmouche took over and won back-to-back races on March 16th and April 14th at Aqueduct. When the turf course reopened, Smokin’ Hot Kitty led three quarters of the way, but tired in the stretch to finish 8th. It was then decided that she was a dirt horse and won back-to-back races again, this time May 25th at the Belmont at the Big A meet and again at Saratoga on July 18th. Then came the big step up, Smokin’ Hot Kitty’s first stakes race, the Johnstone Mile Handicap on August 7th at Saratoga. Said trainer Horacio De Paz going into the race: “She’s just in good form right now. I’d rather run her than train her. Her weight’s really good, her appetite’s been really good. We let her breeze an easy three-eighths. She ate up and was happy.” She ran valiantly, sitting just off the lead and made her move in the far turn, however the heavy favorite, Sterling Silver, who was a veteran of many graded stakes races and ran in the Breeder’s Cup, waited until the stretch run and hit a gear that we couldn’t match, as Kitty’s first stakes race didn’t result in victory, but did find a place on the tote board as we came home with a third place finish. Following that race it was back to Belmont at the Big A where we were back in the Winner’s Circle, scoring a victory on September 22nd. In 10 starts, Smokin’ Hot Kitty won a record 5 races and finished third twice picking up earnings of $231,350. Paired with the win she had the previous year, Smokin’ Hot Kitty’s 6 total wins surpassed Blue Paynt as the winningest horse our stable has ever had.
Last year Toni Tools sold at the Fasig-Tipton Night of Stars sale in Keeneland for $330,000, a record amount for any horse in or stable at that time. This year during the same sale, Sweet Dani Girl sold for $425,000, smashing our old record.
In partnership with Michael Dubb, Steven Bouchey and New Phoenix Stable, we acquired Sweet Dani Girl in the fall of 2023 at the Fasig-Tipton Sale for $350,000. Going to Christophe Clement’s barn, she instantly scored a victory in her first start for us in the Sunshine Filly and Mare Turf Stakes at Gulfstream Park on January 14. That race was followed by another win at Gulfstream in an Allowance Optional Claimer on February 24. Following that she ran 4th in the Pleasant Acres Stallions Distaff Turf Stakes at Tampa Bay Downs and 5th in the PTHA President’s Cup Stakes at Parx. In those 4 starts, Dani earned $120,690 and in 17 career starts earned 6 wins, 4 of them being stakes wins, 2 seconds and 2 thirds for $502,530 in earnings.
Sweet Dani Girl is a 5-year-old chestnut mare sired by Jess’s Dream out of My Sweet Dani Girl by Scat Daddy bred by J&J Stables, LLC & Carlo Vaccarezza.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – The pedigree suggests Smokin’ Hot Kitty should be a turf horse. The results say Smokin’ Hot Kitty won’t be seeing the grass again anytime soon.
A winner of her last four dirt starts, Smokin’ Hot Kitty goes for her first stakes victory in Wednesday’s $125,000 Johnstone Mile Stakes for New York-bred fillies and mares. Seven were entered in the one-mile race, but trainer Bruce Levine, who entered three, said Echo in Eternity would scratch.
Smokin’ Hot Kitty is by the prolific turf sire Kitten’s Joy out of the Street Sense mare Smoke Signals, who went 3 for 14 in her career – all on turf – and who has produced two turf winners. Smokin’ Hot Kitty has two wins on turf, but she has raised her game since March, when she won a nonwinners-of-three $25,000 claiming race at Aqueduct for fillies and mares.
Smokin’ Hot Kitty is running back three weeks after she won a New York-bred second-level allowance going 1 1/8 miles here July 18. She is 3 for 3 at the one-mile distance.
“She’s just in good form right now,” trainer Horacio DePaz said. “I’d rather run her than train her. Her weight’s really good, her appetite’s been really good. We let her breeze an easy three-eighths [in 38.89 seconds on Friday]. She ate up and was happy.”
Kendrick Carmouche rides Smokin’ Hot Kitty from post 3.
In Cupid’s Heart, Levine sends out a winner of an open first-level allowance race on June 30 at Aqueduct, her first start in almost nine months. Cupid’s Heart beat St. Benedicts Prep, who came back to win a first-level allowance here Saturday with an 89 Beyer Speed Figure.
“I thought it was a very big effort,” Levine said of Cupid’s Heart’s return race. “She’s trained really good since.”
Sunset Louise hasn’t won since she took an off-the-turf allowance in July 2023 against just two opponents. Despite her recent poor form – and her 0-for-7 record without Lasix – Levine likes what he’s seen from the mare since he got her up to Saratoga.
“She’s really doing good up here,” Levine said. “She was doing so-so last year and this spring she was doing so-so, but since I got her up here – I don’t know why – she’s really training good. She’s going to run a big race. She doesn’t get Lasix, but she’s really training good, that filly.”
Sterling Silver is a three-time New York-bred stakes winner, but those wins have come at distances shorter than one mile. She is coming out of a fifth-place finish, beaten three lengths, in the Grade 2 Honorable Miss here July 24.
Bill Mott, Sterling Silver’s trainer, said the one-mile distance “is better than six [furlongs] and it’s New York-breds.”
Bustin Bay, runner-up in three of the last four stakes in which she’s participated, and Maggy’s Palace, a recent first-level statebred allowance winner on June 30 at Aqueduct, complete the field.
The Johnstone goes as race 9 on a 10-race card that begins at 1:10 p.m. with the rescheduled Jonathan Kiser Novice Steeplechase.
