DEL MAR, Calif. – With champion Unique Bella and what appears to be a bumper crop of 2-year-olds, trainer Jerry Hollendorfer comes into this meet at Del Mar looking as though he’s loaded for one of his best summer seasons ever. But he’s ever wary.
“There’s lots of folks that have potential before the first day,” he said with a smile while watching his horses train here Sunday morning.
DEL MAR, Calif. – Even as more and more horses have been gathered up by fewer trainers nationwide, the Del Mar Debutante has remained egalitarian, with 11 different trainers having won it over the past 11 runnings. The Del Mar Futurity has been taken down by four different trainers in the past five years, the lone double coming for Bob Baffert, who has won that race a record 13 times since 1996.
For the last three weeks, Flavien Prat has ridden primarily at Belmont Park, taking fewer mounts than he typically would have in the same span in Southern California.
But that may have been the last quiet period for Prat this year – on or off the track.
Trainers Vladimir Cerin and Matt Chew have been fined after each had a runner at Santa Anita in the spring test positive for two non-steroidal anti-inflammatories, according to recent rulings published by the Los Alamitos stewards.
Horses are allowed to be treated with one such medication at a time, according to California Horse Racing Board regulations.
Cerin was fined $1,000 after Roman Tizzy, who finished third in the first race on April 13, showed the presence of the analgesics bute and flunixin, also known as Banamine.
CYPRESS, Calif. - Once On Whiskey won his stakes debut in the Grade 3 Los Alamitos Derby on Saturday, and trainer Bob Baffert is considering sending the late-developing colt cross country for the Grade 3 West Virginia Derby at Mountaineer Park on Aug. 4. Like the Los Alamitos Derby, the $500,000 West Virginia Derby is at 1 1/8 miles.
“We could take a shot in the West Virginia Derby,” Baffert said. “I think distance-wise, he should handle it. He wasn’t that tired.”
The Downs at Albuquerque will put on a “doubleheader” Wednesday.
The track was forced to cancel Saturday night’s card because of inclement weather and is bringing those 10 races back as originally carded on Wednesday, including the $55,000 Budweiser Special Handicap that drew Sunland Park Handicap winner Oh So Regal. The races will form the first part of the doubleheader, with post set for 1:30 p.m. Mountain.
The second part of the doubleheader will be Wednesday’s regularly scheduled races, with a first post of 6:05 p.m. Mountain.
Monomoy Girl, the leader of the 3-year-old filly division, and Midnight Bisou, perhaps her top challenger, put in their final workouts Sunday morning for their showdown in next Sunday’s Grade 1 Coaching Club American Oaks at Saratoga.
DEL MAR, Calif. – An overflow field for the featured Oceanside Stakes, plus races for maiden 2-year-old fillies featuring some well-regarded newcomers, highlight the opening-day card at Del Mar on Wednesday, for which entries were taken and posts drawn on Saturday.
The Oceanside, at one mile on turf for 3-year-olds, includes Faversham, the full brother to California Chrome who won a maiden race last time out, as well as Desert Stone and Move Over. It goes as race 8 on the 10-race card.
Bravazo worked four furlongs in 48.20 over the Oklahoma training track at Saratoga on Saturday. Shortly afterward trainer D. Wayne Lukas confirmed the Preakness runner-up as a starter in the $1 million Haskell at Monmouth Park on July 29.
Bravazo has not started since finishing sixth after prompting the early pace in the Belmont Stakes. Bravazo, one of only two horses, along with Justify, to participate in all three legs of this year’s Triple Crown, finished sixth in the Kentucky Derby before rallying to be second, beaten just a half-length, in the Preakness.
ELMONT, N.Y. – After skipping a workout last week, Mind Your Biscuits picked up his preparation for next month’s Grade 1, $1.2 million Whitney Stakes by working five furlongs in 1:00.01 Friday morning over Belmont Park’s main track.
Working after the mid-morning renovation break, Mind Your Biscuits worked by himself under Joel Rosario, going his opening three furlongs in 36.42 seconds and getting his final quarter in 23.59. He proceeded to gallop out six furlongs in 1:12.62, seven furlongs in 1:26.43, and a mile in 1:41.79.
