By DRF.com
ARCADIA, Calif. (Dec. 15, 2023) — California-bred Closing Remarks had the best season of her career in 2023, winning four graded turf stakes at Del Mar and Santa Anita.
With career earnings only $180 short of $1 million, the 5-year-old mare’s career is not done.
Trainer Carla Gaines said on Friday that Closing Remarks will remain in training next year at the insistence of owner and breeder John Harris.
“He’s very much a racing fan,” Gaines said. “He wants to continue running her.”
Closing Remarks has won 7 of 25 starts and earned $999,820. In 2023, she won 4 of 10 starts and earned $601,000.
The stakes wins were all at the Grade 2 level – the Royal Heroine Stakes at Santa Anita in April, the Yellow Ribbon Handicap and John C. Mabee Stakes at Del Mar in the summer, and the Grade 2 Goldikova Stakes at Santa Anita on Nov. 5. The wins ranged in distances from a mile to 1 1/8 miles.
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In her final start of 2023, Closing Remarks closed from 10th in the final furlong of the Grade 1 Matriarch Stakes to finish sixth by two lengths behind Surge Capacity in the one-mile turf race for fillies and mares at Del Mar.
“Once she was able to get going, she certainly finished very strongly and galloped out tremendously,” Gaines said.
Gaines said that Closing Remarks recovered from the race rapidly. Closing Remarks was not showing signs of exertion when Gaines met the mare while she was being unsaddled trackside.
“When I went down there, she wasn’t hardly blowing,” Gaines said. “I don’t know if she was mad or hadn’t done enough. When she was cooling out, she was kicking out and she was acting like she wasn’t tired.”
Gaines said two races at a mile on turf at the Santa Anita winter-spring meeting – the Grade 3 Megahertz Stakes on Feb. 3 and the Buena Vista Stakes on March 3 – may figure in early season plans for Closing Remarks.
The Grade 3 Robert Frankel Stakes at 1 1/8 miles on turf for fillies and mares on Dec. 30 is not part of plans for Closing Remarks, Gaines said.
Santa Anita opens its winter-spring meeting on Dec. 26 with a program that includes six graded stakes. From Dec. 26 through Jan. 1, the track has scheduled 12 stakes.