ELMONT, N.Y. – Code of Honor figures to be a heavy favorite in Saturday’s Grade 3, $250,000 Dwyer Stakes for 3-year-olds at one mile. But in Mihos, he will be facing a horse who’s already beaten him once.
Mihos won the Mucho Macho Man Stakes at Gulfstream Park in January, beating Code of Honor by 7 3/4 lengths. Mihos then finished fifth in the Grade 2 Holy Bull Stakes on Feb. 2 and hasn’t raced since.
ELMONT, N.Y. – Preservationist, a 6-year-old with only seven lifetime starts, will make his stakes debut in Saturday’s Grade 2, $700,000 Suburban Stakes at Belmont Park.
The Suburban drew a field of 11 headed by Catholic Boy, winner of last year’s Travers Stakes.
A son of Arch, Preservationist has had plenty of starts and stops due to injuries. On May 23, he came off a three-month layoff to win a third-level allowance after winning his second-level condition in February.
ELMONT, N.Y. – Trainer Aidan O’Brien shipped in four horses for Saturday’s Stars and Stripes card at Belmont Park – two colts for the $1 million Belmont Derby and two for the $750,000 Belmont Oaks.
For the Oaks, he shipped in Coral Beach and Just Wonderful to take on a trio of runners – Cafe Americano, Cambier Parc, and Newspaperofrecord – from the barn of Chad Brown as well as Concrete Rose, winner of the Grade 3 Edgewood Stakes at Churchill Downs two months ago.
Trainer J.R. Caldwell said that Flat Precious, who was a 5 1/4-length maiden special weight winner Sunday at Lone Star, will be pointed to the $100,000 fillies division of the Texas Thoroughbred Futurity on July 14 at Lone Star.
She will start as one of the top choices off a Beyer Speed Figure of 65. Flat Precious is a daughter of Flat Out who races for Keene Thoroughbreds. She was the fifth 2-year-old winner of the Lone Star meet for Caldwell.
Runaway Ghost is back home in New Mexico and pointing to the state’s richest race for 3-year-olds and up, the $200,000 Downs at Albuquerque Handicap on Aug. 3.
Runaway Ghost has won 5 of his 6 stakes starts in New Mexico, with his biggest scores coming in the Grade 3, $800,000 Sunland Derby in 2018 and the $150,000 Sunland Park Handicap on May 4. Following the Sunland Park Handicap, he traveled to Churchill Downs and ran eighth in the Grade 2 Stephen Foster on June 15.
“He came back good, had a good work this morning,” trainer Todd Fincher said Tuesday.
CYPRESS, Calif. – Los Alamitos will run seven races on Friday, one fewer than expected, and could have race cards of similar size before the meeting ends on July 14.
The track struggled to draw entries for Friday’s program, which has three five-horse fields, three six-horse fields and one race with 10 entrants. Racing secretary Bob Moreno said before the meeting began on June 29 that field size would be an issue that could affect the number of races run per day.
“It happened a little earlier than I thought it would,” Moreno said.
A five-person panel of veterinarians and racing officials will review the race, medical, and training records of horses entered at the Del Mar summer meeting, continuing a practice that began at Southern California tracks last month.
A panel reviewed the records of horses entered to race in the final two weeks of the Santa Anita spring-summer meeting, which ended on June 23. A similar program is in place at the Los Alamitos meeting, which runs through July 14. The Del Mar summer meeting begins July 17.
Santino is likely headed back to stakes competition after her allowance win last Sunday at Lone Star Park.
Trainer Matt Hebert on Wednesday was looking over options and said one race under consideration is the $100,000 Kentucky Downs Preview Ladies Turf at Ellis Park. The one-mile turf stakes for fillies and mares is Aug. 4.
“We’re eyeballing it,” said Hebert, who trains Santino for Susan Moulton. “Nothing’s set in stone.”
Mike Napoli’s major league baseball career got off to an auspicious beginning when he hit a home run in his first at bat for the Los Angeles Angels off no less an opponent than future Cy Young award winner Justin Verlander.
Napoli’s career as a racehorse owner has gotten off to a pretty fast start as well. The Florida native got into the business shortly after announcing his retirement from baseball last December, and is already celebrating his first owners’ title after registering 16 victories during Gulfstream Park’s recently concluded spring meet.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario – It’s not often that the breeder of a major winner gets some post-race credit from the horse’s owners, but that was the case in Saturday’s $1 million Queen’s Plate, when Greg Hall and Brooke Hubbard thanked the victorious One Bad Boy’s breeder, Ron Clarkson, for producing the speedy son of Twirling Candy.
Clarkson and his daughter Debra Ehrat were both invited into the walking ring and winner’s circle by the owners. Ehrat said the victory was the thrill of a lifetime for her 80-year-old father, who has been breeding horses in Ontario for 56 years.
