SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Gun Runner completed preparations for his role as the expected odds-on favorite in Saturday’s Grade 1, $750,000 Woodward Stakes by working a half-mile in 50.28 seconds early Monday morning over the Oklahoma training track at Saratoga.
Under exercise rider Angel Garcia, Gun Runner went his first quarter in 25.56 seconds and his second quarter in 24.72, with a five-furlong gallop-out time of 1:04.31.
“The big horse is doing well,” trainer Steve Asmussen said.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Believing that last Saturday’s Grade 2 Ballston Spa had come up too tough, trainer Jimmy Toner scratched Time and Motion from that race and now likely will supplement her to Saturday’s Grade 3, $200,000 Glens Falls at Saratoga.
“All the horses coming back from the Diana came,” Toner said. “I didn’t think they’d all come back, and Lady Eli, I think she puts a different dimension on things. I didn’t want to run against her.”
Lady Eli won the Ballston Spa.
DEL MAR, Calif. – Paradise Woods, who finished sixth of seven as the heavy favorite in the Torrey Pines Stakes at Del Mar on Sunday after stumbling at the start, was “stiff and sore” Monday morning, trainer Richard Mandella said.
“She scrambled pretty badly leaving the gate,” Mandella said. “It was her own fault. She freaked out in the gate. She looks fine other than being a little stiff, and her back’s a little sore.”
DEL MAR, Calif. – The Del Mar Debutante and Del Mar Futurity are the richest and most significant of the seven stakes that will be run over the final three days of the Del Mar meet, which ends Monday, and there will be multiple stakes all three days.
Supporting the Debutante on Saturday is the Grade 2, $200,000 John C. Mabee Stakes. The Mabee is a 1 1/8-mile grass race for females that could have a maximum field of 14, including Cambodia, Pretty Girl, and Amboseli, the top three in the Grade 2 Yellow Ribbon on Aug. 5.
DEL MAR, Calif. – Simon Callaghan has put himself in position to sweep the Grade 1 races for 2-year-olds at Del Mar the final weekend of the meet, something only three trainers have done in the past 25 years.
“It’s why we do it, isn’t it?” Callaghan said Monday morning. “We have [horses] that are good enough, obviously top contenders in their divisions.”
Jose Pinchin gave a rich Jamaican laugh.
The question had been this: Could one compare Highborn, who starts Saturday at Gulfstream in the $200,000 Affirmed division of the Florida Sire Stakes, with Three Rules, whom Pinchin trained to win the 2016 edition of that race.
“No, no, I don’t think so,” Pinchin said. “Highborn is a nice little gelding, hopefully as good as any of the others this year, but not Three Rules.”
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Golden Orb, one of the better 2-year-old filly turf maiden winners of the Saratoga meet, will skip the P.G. Johnson Stakes at Saratoga on Thursday as trainer Christophe Clement monitors her development.
“She needs a little more time before her next race,” Clement said.
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SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Classic Empire, last year’s champion 2-year-old male whose 3-year-old season has been interrupted by infirmity and immaturity, will not run in the Grade 1, $1 million Pennsylvania Derby at Parx on Sept. 23, trainer Mark Casse said on Monday.
Casse said he is still not totally satisfied with how Classic Empire is training at Winding Oaks Farm in Ocala, Fla., adding that inclement weather there has interrupted his training schedule. Casse said Classic Empire will remain in training but is not pointing to any particular race.
Trainer Bob Baffert said Sunday that he will wait to see how Drefong trains following his victory in Saturday’s Grade 1 Forego Stakes at Saratoga before deciding whether to train him up to the Breeders’ Cup Sprint or run him once more beforehand.
Last year, Drefong won the King’s Bishop on Aug. 27 at Saratoga and didn’t run until the BC Sprint, a race he won as part of a 4-for-4 campaign that culminated with an Eclipse Award as champion sprinter.
