Imperial Hint wintering in Florida

Trainer Luis Carvajal’s stable has grown to 15 horses over the past year, 10 of whom, including his top sprinter Imperial Hint, are spending the winter at Tampa Bay Downs. Carvajal’s other horses are stabled at Parx.

“I wanted to continue training with the horses,” Carvajal said. “It is hard up north because of the weather and track conditions. I have a couple of new clients and some horses who want to run on turf. The turf course at Tampa is magnificent.”

A year ago, Carvajal kept all five of his horses at Parx. Imperial Hint was starting to come into his own but had yet to win a stakes.

Since then, the 4-year-old has gone 5 for 6, including four stakes scores. His only loss came in the Breeders’ Cup Sprint when Roy H rallied by him late to win by a length. Both are expected to be finalists for the Eclipse Award as top male sprinter.

Imperial Hint came out of the BC Sprint in good shape, but has been dealing with a minor foot injury.

“He came back from Del Mar fine, but one morning he was jogging at Parx, bucking and kicking like a happy horse, and he grabbed his front shoe and pulled it off along with a little bit of the wall of his hoof,” Carvajal said.

Carvajal said he plans to re-shoe Imperial Hint in the coming days and have him back in training in a week or so.

“The horse is fine,” he said. “We’ve just been letting the hoof grow back a little bit.”

Carvajal’s spring objective for Imperial Hint is the Grade 2 Churchill Downs, a sevenfurlong stakes on the Kentucky Derby undercard. To get Imperial Hint to that race, he is planning to run him twice at Tampa Bay Downs – in the $100,000 Pelican Stakes at six furlongs on Feb. 17, and the $100,000 Hilton Garden Inn Stakes, a six-furlong race for statebreds on March 25.

The purse for the Pelican includes $25,000 from the Florida Thoroughbred Breeders’ and Owners’ Association. Imperial Hint, a son of Imperialism, is eligible for the full amount since he was bred in Florida by the Shade Tree Thoroughbreds of Bert Pilcher Jr.

Salty group for feature

The Sunday races at Laurel Park are anchored by a salty third-level optional-claiming sprint, which has attracted the solid Maryland-bred Grandiflora, and the newly relocated runners Something Awesome and Irish Colonel.

The six entrants are closely matched ability-wise. The race is further complicated by the lack of a true front-runner. Hickory Hill, who is trained by Mike Geralis, is typically a stalker but could find himself on the lead.

While nobody in the field is particularly quick, Bodhisattva is devoid of early speed and regularly trails early while racing a route of ground. This is his first start at less than a mile since he finished last in the Dave’s Friend Stakes just under a year ago.

In addition to Bodhisattva, trainer Jose Corrales has Something Awesome in the field. A son of Awesome Again owned and bred by Stronach Stables, Something Awesome was transferred to Corrales from the Woodbine barn of Danny Vella in October and woke up with a big effort to win a second-level optional claimer at Laurel by a decisive four lengths on Nov. 5.

Something Awesome rallied from eighth that day, and while he likely won’t receive the same quick pace setup Sunday, he is one of the top contenders.

Irish Colonel will be making his first Laurel start. The 4-year-old has made his last 17 starts at Parx but was transferred from Ed Lehman to Cal Lynch for his most recent race, where he rallied to be second in a third-level optional-claiming sprint.

Irish Colonel won a secondlevel optional claimer in his prior start. Lynch has given the mount to Parx-based Jorge Vargas Jr., who won three races, including two stakes, at Laurel last Saturday.

Trainer Ann Merryman has entered Grandiflora for the $32,000 optional-claiming price for the second straight race. He rallied from a few lengths off the pace to win at this level in his last start, and could find himself closest to possible pacesetter Hickory Hill early.

If Hickory Hill and Grandiflora can slow the tempo down early, there’s a reasonable chance the late battle could come down to them.

Grandiflora was entered in last Saturday’s Howard Bender Memorial Stakes for Maryland-breds at Laurel but was scratched.

Two Charley’s, who is trained by Lynch, completes the field.

Blu Moon Ace disqualified

Blu Moon Ace, the secondplace finisher in the Sept. 16 Frank J. De Francis Memorial Dash at Laurel Park, has been disqualified from the Grade 3 race because of a positive test for an excessive level of cobalt, the mineral that has been used under the belief that it can have effects similar to expensive blood-doping drugs.

Blu Moon Ace had a cobalt concentration of 58 nanograms per milliliter of blood plasma in a post-race sample, according to a Nov. 12 ruling from the Maryland Racing Commission. Several years ago, the Maryland Racing Commission, along with other racing regulatory bodies, adopted a threshold of 50 ng/mL as being indicative of a deliberate attempt to raise a horse’s cobalt levels.

Blue Moon Ace’s trainer, Kevin Patterson, was handed a 15-day suspension for the positive and a $500 fine, according to the ruling. He was also assessed four points under Maryland multiple-medication violation system, which can lead to higher penalties for a trainer if additional medication violations are assessed within a 12-month period of the first infraction.

Blu Moon Ace was one of only four horses to run in the Dash, finishing second by a neck to the winner, Chublicious, as the third choice. The 4-yearold gelding won the Maryland Million Sprint Handicap five weeks later, but he broke down in his next start, the Fabulous Strike Stakes at Penn National, and was put down.

Patterson has 38 wins from 90 starts this year, with earnings of $625,046. Since 1992, he has won 348 races from 1,117 starts, a strike rate of 31.2 percent. Patterson did not immediately respond to a phone message.

Regulators around the world began cracking down on cobalt use several years ago following rumors that the mineral was being administered to horses in large doses for its purported blood-doping effect. While there is little evidence that the mineral works in such a way, a large number of Standardbred horses and a handful of Thoroughbred horses tested positive for large concentrations of the substance in the lead-up to the regulations being passed. Positives for the mineral have been few and far between in the past several years, however.