ARCADIA, Calif. – Vodka Vodka, a gelding who is a two-time stakes winner and older sibling to Grade 2 Santa Margarita winner Om N Joy, remains possible for the Bertrando Stakes on June 20 at Los Alamitos, trainer Aggie Ordonez said.
Vodka Vodka won the $250,000 Sunland Park Stakes on April 5, but a foot bruise prevented a start in the Grade 2 Hollywood Gold Cup on May 25 at Santa Anita. Ordonez still hopes to make the Bertrando, but Vodka Vodka will need to work soon.
ARCADIA, Calif. – The California summer filly and mare dirt division is gaining support from an unlikely origin – turf.
Om N Joy’s last-to-first victory in the Grade 2 Santa Margarita Stakes on Saturday at Santa Anita, seven days after she finished last in a turf stakes, earned a 93 Beyer Speed Figure and a start in the Grade 1 Clement L. Hirsch Stakes on Aug. 1 at Del Mar.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – The big discussion surrounding Emerging Market entering the Kentucky Derby was his lack of experience. With only two starts under his belt, Emerging Market was attempting to become the first horse since Leonatus in 1883 to win the Derby in just his third career start.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Undefeated and virtually untested in races at seven furlongs or less, Solitude Dude will face by far his toughest test yet at one turn when taking on a stellar field next Saturday at Saratoga in the Grade 1 Woody Stephens.
Solitude Dude is perfect in four starts at distances ranging between six and seven furlongs, having won those races by a combined 23 1/4 lengths. Three of his victories have come in stakes, including the seven-furlong Bay Shore at Aqueduct as a prohibitive 1/9 favorite on April 18.
The multiple stakes winners Gaming and Sweet Azteca worked at Santa Anita on Friday in advance of expected summer campaigns.
Gaming, a 4-year-old colt trained by Bob Baffert, worked a half-mile in 48.40 seconds, his fourth workout of the month. Gaming has won 3 of 10 starts and is best known for winning the Grade 1 Del Mar Futurity in September 2024. Later that year, Gaming was second to stablemate Citizen Bull in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile at Del Mar.
A $20,000 claim submitted for the 5-year-old gelding Tom Seaver at Santa Anita on April 17 has been voided because of a medication violation, according to a recent ruling published by the Horseracing Safety and Integrity Authority.
Tom Seaver tested positive for the anti-inflammatory diclofenac, according to the ruling.
Santa Anita Derby winner So Happy, who finished ninth in the Kentucky Derby at Churchill Downs on May 2, is in the midst of a 60-day rest, trainer Mark Glatt said on Friday.
“He’ll take a little bit of a sabbatical,” Glatt said. “He’ll be back before you know it. We’ll gear him back up.”
Glatt said he hopes to have So Happy back to his stable during the Del Mar summer meeting.
“I think we’ll let him get off the track a little bit and let him be a horse,” Glatt said.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – She has only run three times, but Always a Runner, the Kentucky Oaks winner, has already advanced to near the top of the list of fillies Chad Brown has ever trained.
“She’s one of the best fillies I’ve had with that saddle towel on her,” Brown said.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Disruptor, runner-up to T O Elvis in the Grade 1 Churchill Downs Stakes on May 2, will miss the Grade 1 Metropolitan Handicap due to an illness, trainer Todd Pletcher confirmed on Friday.
“He got sick after his race at Churchill. We ended up missing a week of training, he’s just not ready in time,” Pletcher said.
Disruptor, who before the Churchill Downs won the Grade 3 Challenger Stakes at Tampa Bay Downs, has resumed galloping. Pletcher isn’t sure exactly where Disruptor would run next.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Trainer Miguel Clement had originally planned on putting Deterministic on the Oklahoma turf course Friday for his final work in preparation for a defense of his title a week from Saturday in the Grade 1 Manhattan. But after taking a little run over the turf himself on Thursday evening, Clement opted to call an audible, instead breezing his Eclipse Award finalist on the Oklahoma dirt, going five furlongs in a very impressive 1:01.92 per Daily Racing Form.
