It took a couple of tries but the $75,000 Mecke Stakes will finally take center stage, five days later than originally planned, when it tops Sunday’s 11-race program at Gulfstream Park. The Mecke drew a field of seven 3-year-olds and up and will be decided at 1 1/8 miles on the turf.
The Mecke failed to attract sufficient entries when originally scheduled to be run on Wednesday’s Fourth of July card
CYPRESS, Calif. – The popular 10-year-old stakes winner Soi Phet may have as many as two starts at the Del Mar summer meeting following his nose win in Wednesday’s Bertrando Stakes for California-bred milers at Los Alamitos.
Trainer Leonard Powell said he is considering the $150,000 California Dreamin’ Stakes for Cal-breds at 1 1/16 miles on turf and the $75,000 Harry Brubaker Stakes at a mile on dirt Aug. 22 for Soi Phet. If one race is chosen, the Brubaker is more likely, he said.
ELMONT, N.Y. – The Grade 1-winning 2-year-old filly Separationofpowers makes her 3-year-old debut in Sunday’s Grade 3, $150,000 Victory Ride Stakes going 6 1/2 furlongs at Belmont Park.
Separationofpowers, who won the Grade 1 Frizette last October here, has not run since she finished fourth behind Caledonia Road in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies. She finds a difficult spot for her return, facing Mia Mischief, the dominant winner of the Grade 2 Eight Belles last out at Churchill Downs.
ELMONT, N.Y. – When Noble Indy runs in Saturday’s Grade 3, $300,000 Dwyer Stakes at Belmont Park, he will do so as the sole property of Mike Repole, who bought out WinStar Farm as his partner on the Grade 2 Louisiana Derby winner.
“I made WinStar an offer for 50 percent, and Elliott and WinStar gladly accepted,” Repole said, referring to Elliott Walden, president and chief executive of WinStar.
WinStar Farm owns Triple Crown winner Justify with China Horse Club, Sol Kumin’s Head of Plains Partners, and Jack Wolf’s Starlight Stable.
ARLINGTON HEIGHTS, Ill. – Trainer Mike Stidham is having his quietest Arlington race meet this millennium. With the bulk of his stable at Fair Hill in Maryland this summer, Stidham through last weekend had run only 15 horses at Arlington. At his local peak, in 2016, he had 222 Arlington runners.
But that does not mean the 2018 Arlington season won’t be memorable for Stidham. He has sent the excellent grass horse Synchrony here to run Saturday in the Arlington Handicap, a stepping-stone to what his connections hope will be a start next month in the Arlington Million.
ELMONT, N.Y. – Trainer Jimmy Jerkens was expected to be released from a Long Island hospital Thursday following surgery to put in two stents to clear blocked arteries, according to his wife, Shirley.
Jerkens, 59, had a stress test Monday morning and then underwent surgery later that afternoon, according to Shirley Jerkens.
“He had some blockage, they put two stents in, he’s doing a lot better,” she said Wednesday.
Shirley Jerkens said she expects her husband to be at his Belmont Park barn Friday morning.
ELMONT, N.Y. – Hoppertunity, winner of the 2016 Jockey Club Gold Cup, and Diversify, winner of the 2017 Jockey Club Gold Cup, head a field of 11 entered Wednesday for Saturday’s Grade 2, $750,000 Suburban.
Hoppertunity, trained by Bob Baffert, is 2 for 2 at Belmont Park, having also won the Grade 2 Brooklyn last month. He has won 9 of 32 starts and earned $4.6 million. He will break from post 8 under Flavien Prat.
ELMONT, N.Y. – Trainer Aidan O’Brien will be represented in the Grade 1, $1 million Belmont Oaks by Athena, who is running back six days after finishing third in the Group 1 Pretty Polly Stakes at The Curragh in Ireland.
“Personally, it doesn’t bother me,” T.J. Comerford, the traveling assistant to O’Brien, said of the quick turnaround. “I’m sure she’s fine.”
Athena, a daughter of Camelot, has one win from eight starts.
Comerford believes “the mile and a quarter is her trip.” In the 1 1/4-mile Pretty Polly, Comerford said, “she finished up really well.”
ELMONT, N.Y. – In the three runnings of the Belmont Derby in which he has participated, trainer Aidan O’Brien has a win, a second, and a third from five starters.
Saturday, O’Brien is back for another crack at the Grade 1, $1.2 million Belmont Derby with Hunting Horn, who is coming off an eye-catching 4 1/2-length victory in the Group 3 Hampton Court Stakes on June 21 at Royal Ascot.
Hunting Horn drew post 4 in a field of nine 3-year-olds entered Wednesday for Saturday’s Belmont Derby, one of five graded stakes on an 11-race card that begins at 1:30 p.m.
