A.C. Avila hopes Great Hot ends an 11-race losing skein in Saturday’s
$75,000 Kalookan Queen Handicap for fillies and mares, three and up, at
about 6 ½ furlongs on turf.
“She bled in the Breeders’ Cup,” said A.C. (Antonio Carlos) of
the Brazilian-bred daughter of 2002 sprint champion Orientate. “She has
issues. Sometimes she’s normal and sometimes she bleeds like crazy.”
Great Hot’s last win came in the Grade II Raven Run at Keeneland
last Oct. 22. Since then she has raced 11 times, all in stakes, four of
them Grade I’s, including twice in the Breeders’ Cup Filly & Mare
Sprint, so been facing heavyweights.
The field for the Kalookan Queen: Pink Lollipops, Joe Talamo;
Sizzling Gold, Agapito Delgadillo; Great Hot, Alonso Quinonez; Going for
a Spin, Rafael Bejarano; Teddy’s Promise, Victor Espinoza; Givine,
Martin Garcia; Snow Fall, Tyler Baze; and Journaliste, Garrett Gomez.
At press time, Santa Anita morning line maker Jon White planned
to make Teddy’s Promise the favorite, with Pink Lollipops the second
choice.
BLACKER, HOOVER LEND EXPERTISE TO HRTV TEAM
HRTV will present something old and something at Santa Anita
during its 71-day winter/spring meet. Newcomer Christina Olivares
Blacker and veteran Kurt Hoover will be part of HRTV’s ace announcing
team--with Olivares Blacker, due to contractual commitments with TVG,
making her first appearance on Jan. 1.
Olivares-Blacker, who recently married trainer Dan Blacker, and
is the daughter of retired top jockey Frank Olivares, started her career
with HRTV before moving to TVG. Hoover, one of the sport’s most
knowledgeable spokesmen whose smooth on-air presence puts viewers
readily at ease, starts his 26th campaign at The Great Place but his
first as a full-fledged member of the HRTV team.
HRTV’s Millie Ball points out that this will be 10th year HRTV has covered the Santa Anita winter-spring meet.