ELMONT, N.Y. – Belmont Stakes runner-up Gronkowski missed a scheduled workout over the weekend, but trainer Chad Brown has not ruled him out of still making the Grade 2, $600,000 Jim Dandy at Saratoga on July 28.
“Gronkowski had a minor setback out of his work last week that’s just a week-to-week deal,” Brown said. “He missed his work this week, I’m just taking it week to week and seeing when I can get him back on the work tab.”
On June 23, Gronkowski worked a half-mile in 49.24 seconds.
ELMONT, N.Y. – Elate, a multiple Grade 1 winner at 3, will make her 4-year-old debut in the Grade 2, $750,000 Delaware Handicap on July 14, trainer Bill Mott said Sunday.
Elate, who won the Grade 1 Alabama at 1 1/4 miles last summer, has not raced since finishing fourth as the favorite in last November’s Breeders’ Cup Distaff at Del Mar.
ELMONT, N.Y. – Stablemates Oscar Performance and Heart to Heart will both be in action on Aug. 11, but it won’t be in the same race.
Though trainer Brian Lynch initially said he would concentrate on one-mile races for Oscar Performance this year, he is pointing the recent Grade 3 Poker Stakes winner to the Grade 1 Arlington Million at 1 1/4 miles at Arlington Park on Aug. 11.
Heart to Heart remains on schedule for the Grade 1, $500,000 Fourstardave at Saratoga the same day.
ELMONT, N.Y. – If there is to be a showdown at Saratoga between top 3-year-old fillies Monomoy Girl and Midnight Bisou, it would more likely happen in the Grade 1, $300,000 Coaching Club American Oaks on July 22 than the Grade 1, $600,000 Alabama on Aug. 18.
In one of the tightest finishes to a jockey race at Gulfstream Park in recent memory, Tyler Gaffalione edged Emisael Jaramillo, 63-62, to defend his title at the spring meeting, which ended Saturday. It was the sixth Gulfstream Park riding title for Gaffalione, who won an Eclipse Award as leading apprentice in 2015.
How much time Gaffalione and his agent, Matt Muzikar, will spend at Gulfstream during the summer remains to be seen.
Trainer Kathleen O’Connell fully expected Stormy Embrace to run a big race in Saturday’s Grade 2 Princess Rooney at Gulfstream Park. After all, the steadily improving filly had posted a career-best 93 Beyer Speed Figure two starts back winning an overnight handicap at Tampa Bay Downs before capturing the restricted Musical Romance five weeks later at Gulfstream Park despite jockey Wilmer Garcia having misjudged the finish line and easing her up 100 yards from the wire.
Hall of Fame trainer Bill Mott believes he has helped New York horsemen win the war, but he will surrender his personal battle with the New York State Gaming Commission over a positive drug test regarding one of his horses dating back nearly four years.
On Thursday, Mott will begin serving a seven-day suspension for the finding of the therapeutic medication Flunixin (banamine) in the horse Saratoga Snacks, who finished last in a race at Belmont Park on Sept. 20, 2014. Mott also will pay a $1,000 fine.
Jockey Jon Court is expected to be sidelined at least until late August after suffering a fractured collarbone in a motorcycle accident last week.
Court, 57, is a six-time leading rider at Ellis Park in western Kentucky. He told Ellis publicity that surgery to repair the affected area involved the insertion of a plate and seven screws.
Court, a winner of more than 4,100 races, has suffered a multitude of injuries in a career dating to 1980, including fractured ribs in a water-tubing accident that forced him to miss the 2016 Ellis meet.
Trainer Al Stall Jr. is thinking about the Nov. 3 Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile at Churchill for C Z Rocket after the colt earned a career-high 103 Beyer Speed Figure with a four-length victory Saturday in the seven-furlong Kelly’s Landing.
The Kelly’s Landing was a return to form for C Z Rocket, who had finished sixth in the Grade 1 Malibu on Dec. 26 at Santa Anita and third in an optional claimer June 1 at Churchill.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – The remarkable victory by Restless Rider on closing day of the Churchill Downs spring meet had the filly’s trainer, Kenny McPeek, reaching for superlatives nearly 48 hours later.
“I don’t think I’ve been as excited about a young filly since Take Charge Lady,” said McPeek, referring to the only horse to win the Alcibiades, Ashland, and Spinster at Keeneland, his home track.
