Los Alamitos will begin its 12-day summer meeting Thursday with a relatively quiet four-day week of racing. There are no stakes scheduled during the opening week. The first stakes will be the $100,000 Bertrando Stakes for statebred milers July 4.
Racing will be on a Thursday-through-Sunday basis the first and third weeks. The second week will have racing on July 4, no racing on July 5, and three days of racing from July 6-8. The meeting concludes July 15.
ARCADIA, Calif. – Two years ago, Santa Anita ran the final three weeks of its spring-summer meeting on the main track while the turf course underwent a badly needed renovation.
This weekend, the spring-summer meeting ends with an emphasis on grass racing. On Saturday, six of 12 races were scheduled for turf, and six of the 11 Sunday races also are set for the turf course.
The course, a Bermuda Bandera grass, has handled significant use since late December, without showing wear-and-tear, such as a high number of divots or worn areas.
VANCOUVER, British Columbia – Trainer Phil Hall reported that Apalachee Bay came out of his impressive win in a maiden special weight race last Sunday in excellent shape and will soon be heading to Alberta where he will run in the $50,000 Count Lathum for 3-year-olds on July 14 at Northlands Park. He will be stretching out to a middle distance for the first time in the 1 1/16-mile race.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Shawn Davis has been on plenty of wild rides during his career as a three-time national champion saddle bronc rider. Now, Davis is embarking on a wild ride of a different nature with his graded stakes-winning speedster Chief Cicatriz, one that he hopes might ultimately land him a berth in the Breeders’ Cup Sprint later this year.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Trainer John Ross will have a starter in the $1 million Queen’s Plate for the first time since 2011 when Coronation Futurity winner Aheadbyacentury enters the starting gate for the first jewel of the Canadian Triple Crown on June 30 at Woodbine.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – The sky was the limit after Madison’s Luna followed an impressive career debut in February at Tampa Bay Downs with a five-length romp in the Grade 3 Hutcheson at Gulfstream Park six weeks later.
Alas, the gray Tapit colt was a far-back 10th in both subsequent starts, the Pat Day Mile and Woody Stephens.
“I was as surprised and disappointed as anybody,” said Phil Bauer, who trains Madison’s Luna for Rigney Racing.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Trainer Ian Wilkes still has the Nov. 3 Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile at Churchill as the year-end goal for McCraken, but he’ll be taking a slight diversion from his original plan for the standout 4-year-old by stretching him out in a longer race.
“We’re going to the Cornhusker,” Wilkes said.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Bravazo was the only horse besides Justify to compete in all three Triple Crown events this year, but apparently that wasn’t enough action. Ten days after the June 9 Belmont Stakes, Bravazo was back on the work tab at Churchill Downs, breezing a half-mile Tuesday in 47.80 seconds.
Trainer D. Wayne Lukas said Bravazo is ready for the second half of the racing season and will make his next start in either the July 29 Haskell at Monmouth Park or the July 28 Jim Dandy at Saratoga.
Golden Gate Fields was ordered by the California Horse Racing Board on Thursday to reach contractual agreements with Northern California offtrack satellite locations, as well as horsemen’s organizations representing owners and trainers, by July 2 to be granted a license for a six-week race meeting from late August to early October.
ARCADIA, Calif. – Top of the Game will be trainer Ryan Hanson’s first runner in a graded stakes in Saturday’s Grade 2 San Carlos Stakes at Santa Anita.
“For Thoroughbreds, not Quarter Horses,” Hanson was quick to point out Thursday.
Hanson, 36, has an extensive background in Quarter Horses in California and Idaho and won graded stakes for Quarter Horses at Los Alamitos in 2013. Lately, he has focused on a Thoroughbred stable at Santa Anita, which has grown from approximately three runners last summer to 11 this year.
