Midnight Mammoth gave race winner Skippylongstocking a fuss in Monday’s Grade 2 Hollywood Gold Cup at Santa Anita before finishing second by three-quarters of a length.
The narrow defeat has left trainer Craig Dollase encouraged about Midnight Mammoth’s summer, and eager to start the 6-year-old gelding in the Grade 2 San Diego Handicap at 1 1/16 miles at Del Mar on July 26.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Trainer Bill Mott said the decision to skip the Preakness with Kentucky Derby winner Sovereignty doesn’t put any more pressure on him to win the Belmont Stakes than otherwise already exists.
“It would be the same,” Mott said Thursday morning outside his Saratoga barn. “I feel the normal pressure of wanting to win and just the pressure of keeping him out of trouble and keep him sound and hope he stays sound.”
The new Maryland Jockey Club and Maryland Thoroughbred Horsemen’s Association will increase purses by $25,000 for four stakes races at Laurel Park on June 28. The Frank J. De Francis Memorial Dash, the featured race on the card, will now be run for $175,000.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario - Longtime Ontario horseman Paul Buttigieg, a winner of 672 races as a trainer, died May 27 after a long illness at the age of 78.
Buttigieg owned and trained eight stakes winners, most notably Canadian champion male sprinter Phil’s Dream, who won the Grade 1 Nearctic and was the runner-up in 2013 Canadian Horse of the Year voting.
King of Gosford displayed a career-best performance to win Monday’s Grade 1 Shoemaker Mile on turf at Santa Anita. The effort has led trainer Phil D’Amato and the partnership that owns the 4-year-old colt to plan a limited campaign leading to an intended start in the Breeders’ Cup Mile at Del Mar on Nov. 1.
Four stakes races on the Friday card at Penn National, including the Grade 3, $400,000 Penn Mile, will be canceled due to inclement weather and rescheduled for June 20. This Friday’s card will be shortened to seven races without any stakes.
The original 11 races scheduled for Friday at the Grantsville, Pa., track were to include the Penn Mile and $150,000 Penn Oaks, as well as two $75,000 statebred handicaps, the Lyphard and Alphabet Soup. All four races were scheduled for turf and likely would have been taken off due to expected rain.
Hall of Fame trainer Steve Asmussen’s week got off to a strong start Monday, when he saddled Neom Beach to a 6 1/2-length win in the $200,000 Ouija Board Distaff at his home track of Lone Star Park.
This weekend, he will have more to celebrate.
The Texas Thoroughbred Association is awarding Asmussen the T.I. “Pops” Harkins Award for lifetime achievement. It will be given out during the organization’s annual awards luncheon on Saturday at Lone Star.
Nobals, the 2023 Breeders’ Cup Turf Sprint winner, set a course record while winning an allowance last Saturday at Churchill Downs, an effort that had trainer Larry Rivelli planning a return to the Breeders’ Cup.
“For him to do that, now I know he’s back,” Rivelli said. “He had no excuses. That was his race to win and he did it in the way that you want him to.”
GRAND PRAIRIE, Texas – The Japanese-bred Komorebino Omoide is developing into an older horse of significance, and while plans for his next move are still being determined following his Monday win in the Grade 3, $400,000 Steve Sexton Mile at Lone Star Park, a long-range goal is the Grade 2 Charles Town Classic.
Trainer Robertino Diodoro said Komorebino Omoide, a 5-year-old son of California Chrome who races for his breeder, Perry Martin, emerged from the Sexton in good order and will remain at Lone Star while plans for his next start are decided.
