Mar Dec News Today

The front month corn market dropped another 4 to 5 ¾ cents on Thursday. The March contract was 1 ¾ cents off the low for the bell after an 11 ¼ cent range.…

Two-year-old turf runners take the stage Friday at Santa Anita in a pair of $100,000 events: the Eddie Logan and Blue Norther for fillies. 

Phil D’Amato’s Irish-bred Paris Secret is the horse to beat among a field of eight sophomores fillies in Saturday’s Grade 3 Honeymoon Stakes.

In his first try down Santa Anita’s unique hillside turf course, First Peace found room at the rail turning for home and prevailed by one length over longshot Mas Rapido in the $100,000 John Shear Stakes for 3-year-olds Sunday as owners Rancho Temescal LLC and Red Baron’s Barn LLC padded their meet-leading races-won number to 13.

Mandella said a good performance on Monday could put Coffee in Bed into the Santa Anita Oaks going 1 1/8 miles.

Mired in a career-worst slump and winless on the day, Flavien Prat found a way to win Saturday’s 10th and final race at Santa Anita, as he surged late aboard the Phil D’Amato-trained Earls Rock to win the $100,000 Thunder Road Stakes (G3) by a nose while getting a flat mile on turf in 1:34.05.

The $3 million Pegasus World Cup highlights this weekend's live racing action, with 12 horses expected to line up for the 1 1/8-mile contest at Gulfstream Park on Saturday.

Stablemates have occupied the top two spots in the $1-million Pegasus World Cup Turf Invitational (G1) for two years running and, if the local prep for one of the richest grass races in North America is any indication, a third year is not out of the question.

The Gulfstream Park Championship Meet goes into full swing this weekend, with five graded stakes on Saturday's 11-race New Year's Eve program.

Idle since mid-May, the Michael McCarthy-trained Queen Goddess, a Grade 1 winner a year ago on dirt, heads a wide-open field of 11 fillies and mares three going a mile and one eighth on turf Saturday in Santa Anita’s Grade 3, $100,000 Robert J. Frankel Stakes.