Eleven horses were entered Wednesday for the $200,000 Mystic Lake Derby, a one-mile turf race for 3-year-olds that headlines a three-stakes card Saturday at Canterbury.
From the rail out, the field, which lacks standouts, includes Siem Riep, Line Judge, Sakonnet, Red Corvette, Witt’sdollarnight, Mongolian Greywold, My Bariley, Diamondmaze, Giant Payday, Jack Snipe’s, and Hot Shot Kid.
Mr. Jagermeister, a Minnesota-bred, is the second-fastest 2-year-old to race so far this summer at Canterbury. After finishing second as the heavy favorite last out in the Prairie Gold Juvenile at Prairie Meadows, Mr. Jagermeister dominated Minnesota-breds for the second time this summer winning the $85,000 Northern Lights Futurity by 15 1/2 lengths this past Sunday.
Amy’s Challenge, the promising 2-year-old filly based at Canterbury Park with trainer Mac Robertson, had her first work Wednesday since a sharp debut win, and her connections have plotted the outline of a late-summer and fall campaign.
Amy’s Challenge officially worked five furlongs in 1:00.13, though Robertson said the work was set up more as a half-mile drill. Robertson said he timed Amy’s Challenge’s first furlong in about 13 seconds and that she had gotten her last eighth in roughly 11 seconds, a flashy come-home time for what was not intended to be a strong breeze.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Robby Albarado thought he had it won. Charging down the center of the Saratoga main track aboard Mambo in Seattle in the 2008 Travers Stakes, Albarado hooked up with Colonel John and Garrett Gomez inside the eighth pole, and the horses were inseparable for the last sixteenth of a mile.
After the two colts hit the wire, Albarado raised his whip triumphantly, thinking he had nailed Colonel John on the money. The photo showed a different result.
The Timonium race meet at the Maryland State Fair begins a seven-day run Friday with higher purses and, for the first time in years, a stakes race.
Racing will be offered over the five-furlong track this Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, and from Friday to Monday next week. The meet closes on Labor Day.
Purses will average $185,000 per day, up from $160,000 a year ago, an increase of 16 percent. The suburban Baltimore-area track will hold the $75,000 Coalition Stakes on Saturday, a 6 1/2-furlong race for 3-year-olds and upward.
DEL MAR, Calif. – Saturday’s Shared Belief Stakes for 3-year-olds at 1 1/16 miles at Del Mar is likely to draw two Grade 1 winners in Gormley and Klimt as well as Battle of Midway, who was third in the Kentucky Derby back in May.
The quality of the projected field does not match the prize money. The Shared Belief is worth $100,000 and has a first-place prize of $60,000.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Alex Canchari has ridden races from coast to coast while establishing himself as a capable journeyman. Now, he’ll ride regularly in Kentucky for the first time.
Canchari will team with one of the top agents on this circuit, Terry Miller, starting Sept. 1 at Ellis. The intent is to ride at the rich Kentucky Downs meet that starts the following day, then through the September meet at Churchill, the 17-day Keeneland meet, and the Churchill fall meet.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Trainer Kenny McPeek said Ten City lost a front shoe at the start of the Ellis Park Juvenile last Sunday, perhaps partially accounting for the colt incurring his first defeat. Dak Attack won the Juvenile, with Ten City finishing 4 3/4 lengths back in third as the odds-on favorite.
“It couldn’t have helped,” said McPeek. “But we’re good. The colt is fine, and I wasn’t overly disappointed. It should serve us well toward the next race.”
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Kelsey Danner bounced between barns and press boxes as a young girl. When it came time to choose a career on the racetrack, well, it was a walkover.
“I always liked the horse side of things,” Danner said. “They’re easy. People can be hard.”
More than 15 years since she began galloping horses at her hometown track, Churchill Downs, Danner will make her debut as a trainer when saddling Nan’s Pierce Arrow for the sixth race Saturday at Ellis Park in western Kentucky.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - Though Tapwrit hasn’t run in 11 weeks, he was installed as the 7-2 morning-line favorite for Saturday’s Grade 1, $1.25 million Travers Stakes at Saratoga, which for the first time since 1982 includes all three separate winners of the Triple Crown races.
