Jockey Ramon Vazquez, who leads the Lone Star Park colony with 50 wins through Thursday, is considering riding at Del Mar following the close of the Texas meet on Sunday, according to his agent, Cody Autrey.
“We’re discussing going to Del Mar over the break between Lone Star and Remington,” said Autrey. “Nothing’s set in stone yet.”
Autrey said Vazquez plans to ride this fall at Remington. Vazquez has a 16-win lead in the Lone Star standings over David Cabrera.
Trainer Abel Ramirez-Rodriguez has a lot at stake during the final week of the Lone Star Park, which closes Sunday.
Ramirez-Rodriguez, 45, is battling Lone Star’s all-time leading trainer, Steve Asmussen, for the title. It would be a first for Ramirez-Rodriguez, who began training on his own last August after serving as a longtime assistant to trainer Karl Broberg.
“We’re trying to beat the main man at Lone Star,” Ramirez-Rodriguez said. “So, all we can do is just try, just keep trying. We’ve got some live shots this week, but you never know.
Trainer Tom Proctor is back in Saratoga for the first time in eight years, and his barn of 16 is top-heavy with 2-year-olds for his primary client, Glen Hill Farm.
Proctor hasn’t summered in Saratoga since 2017, when he went just 1 for 15. The year before, however, Proctor won six races from 14 starts.
The impetus for coming to Saratoga is that Glen Hill Farm, operated by Craig Bernick, is focusing on East Coast racing instead of California.
For the second time in less than a year, massive floods have led to the cancellation of the Ruidoso Downs race meeting in New Mexico.
On Tuesday, the track and its stable area were inundated with runoff from a massive rainstorm that struck mountains near the track. The flood was so severe that the racing surface and infield were covered in water. The single-story jockeys’ room, located on the infield, was flooded briefly to its roof line.
Track owner Johnny Trotter said Wednesday morning that the damage was too significant to continue the racing season.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Victor Espinoza said he came to Saratoga about a month ago for a vacation. Now, the 53-year-old jockey said he is working as hard as ever in an attempt to revitalize his Hall of Fame career.
One call to trainer Wesley Ward and one visit to the Saratoga backstretch has reinvigorated Espinoza, who plans to ride the meet here this summer instead of Del Mar, where he has spent the last few decades.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Aside from a scrape on his right hind pastern, all was well with Donegal Momentum following a bad-looking stumble during the running of Saturday’s Grade 3 Kelso Stakes, trainer Tom Morley said.
“Thank God, everyone in the race – horses and people – came back in one piece,” Morley said.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – White Abarrio, who had a run of good races come to an end when he finished fourth in the Grade 1 Metropolitan Handicap on June 7, remains on target for a start in the Grade 1, $1 million Whitney at Saratoga on Aug. 2, trainer Saffie Joseph Jr. said.
White Abarrio won the Whitney in 2023.
On Sunday, White Abarrio worked a half-mile in 48.87 seconds in company with Neoequos, who is coming off a ninth-place finish in the Grade 1 Woody Stephens.
“He went good,” Joseph said. “Second work, let him pick it up a little bit.”
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Chad Brown’s stranglehold on the Grade 1 Diana Stakes figures to get severely tested on Saturday at Saratoga.
Brown has won the 1 1/8-mile Diana on turf eight of the last nine years and he’s won nine runnings overall. While he does send out two top contenders in the field of six, neither Dynamic Pricing or Excellent Truth are likely to go favored. That role figures to go to She Feels Pretty, a winner of four consecutive graded stakes, including the Grade 1 New York here on June 6.
After two week-long festivals – one last month, one last week – the traditional 40-day carnival known as the Saratoga summer meet starts Thursday. There are reasons to believe it could be a tremendous season.
