SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – The ranks have thinned considerably among 3-year-olds to the point where the two stakes in the division scheduled for Saratoga next week are likely to attract small fields.
Next Friday’s $100,000 Curlin Stakes has only three horses that, as of Friday, are considered definite – Hofburg, Bourbon Resolution, and Zing Zang.
DEL MAR, Calif. – Moonshine Memories, a two-time Grade 1 winner in 2017, on Thursday won for the first time in three starts this year, taking an allowance race for 3-year-old fillies at 6 1/2 furlongs at Del Mar.
The win confirmed plans to send her to Saratoga for the Grade 2 Prioress Stakes on Sept. 3. The $250,000 Prioress is run at six furlongs, a distance Moonshine Memories may prefer at this stage of her career, trainer Simon Callaghan said.
“I think six furlongs might be better for her than 6 1/2,” he said. “The way she is, she’s definitely more of a sprinter.”
DEL MAR, Calif. – Axelrod, the winner of the Grade 3 Indiana Derby at Indiana Grand on July 14, is scheduled to have his Grade 1 debut in the $1.25 million Travers Stakes at 1 1/4 miles at Saratoga on Aug. 25.
Trainer Michael McCarthy said on Friday that the purse and distance of the Travers Stakes make it an appealing race for Axelrod, who races for Slam Dunk Racing.
“He was surging the other day,” McCarthy said of the Indiana Derby. “It will be a new dimension if we choose that.”
DEL MAR, Calif. – Summer vacation ended for jockey Mike Smith with the start of the Del Mar meeting on Wednesday.
The Hall of Famer won Wednesday on Shivermetimbers, his first mount in more than two weeks. He did not have another mount scheduled until Friday.
“I’ve been gone so long that I didn’t have much business,” Smith said in the stables on Thursday.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Southern Phantom has certainly caught people’s attention because of his looks. Saturday, we’ll find out if there’s more to the story.
Southern Phantom, the 2-year-old with the all-white face and two different colored eyes, makes his career debut in the sixth race at Saratoga going 5 1/2 furlongs.
“He’s been famous since he came out of the womb,” trainer Eric Guillot said Thursday. “He’s got a good mind because of that.”
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Awesome Slew won a first-level allowance race at Monmouth Park on May 21, 2016. Since then, he’s competed in 17 consecutive stakes races, winning a trio of Grade 3 events.
Following an eighth-place finish in the Grade 1 Metropolitan Handicap last month, Awesome Slew will run in a stakes-caliber allowance race Saturday at Saratoga.
“It’s a lot easier than what he’s been running in,” trainer Mark Casse said.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Jockey David Cohen, who was refused a jockey’s license by the New York State Gaming Commission on July 12 due to failure to comply with licensing requirements, was granted a valid receipt on Thursday and is cleared to ride.
Cohen, who was unable to be named on horses for either Friday or Saturday’s cards at Saratoga, was expected to be named on horses for Sunday and Monday’s Saratoga programs. Entries for those cards were taken Thursday.
Trainer Mark Casse entered two of his more promising juveniles, Dream Maker and Strike Silver, in Saturday’s Grade 3 Sanford, but with the intent to run only one. In the end, he made the choice to start Strike Silver while holding Dream Maker out for the Grade 2 Saratoga Special on Aug. 12. Both colts are owned by John Oxley.
“I was going to make the final decision based on if one of them drew a bad post, but neither did,” said Casse. “Dream Maker is a little lighter-made horse, so I just decided to give him a little extra time and wait for the Saratoga Special.”
DEL MAR, Calif. – Restrainedvengence upset Wednesday’s Oceanside Stakes at a mile on turf, and is unlikely to start again until the Grade 2 Del Mar Derby on Sept. 2.
Trainer Val Brinkerhoff said the six-week gap between races gives Restrainedvengence ample time to recover from his first stakes win in the Oceanside. Brinkerhoff, 61, frequently gallops Restrainedvengence and has worked for several months to teach the gelding to not be as eager early in races.
DEL MAR, Calif. – Doug O’Neill set the foundation for a serious bid for the Del Mar summer meeting training title with four wins on Wednesday’s opening program.
O’Neill nearly equaled his own Del Mar record of five wins in a single day, set in 2015. Five other trainers have had four-win days at Del Mar.
O’Neill, who turned 50 in May, has won four training titles at summer meetings here, most recently in 2010. He won 31 races that year, and may need that many this season to claim the title.
