DEL MAR, Calif. – The California 2-year-old division has gained new members from Florida and the Caribbean in advance of Saturday’s Grade 2 Best Pal Stakes at Del Mar.
Dia de Pago, a maiden race winner at Gulfstream Park on June 18, and Master Ruler, the winner of two races in Puerto Rico, were recently bought privately and sent to California-based trainers.
Dia de Pago was acquired by David and Holly Wilson and has been with trainer Vladimir Cerin for more than a month.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - Gun Runner didn’t just collect $650,000, his third career Grade 1 victory and the plaudits that go along with the dominant performance he put forth in winning Saturday’s $1.2 million Whitney Stakes at Saratoga.
He also took home a lucky rabbit’s foot.
The shoe that flew off Cautious Giant and landed in Gun Runner’s tail with a half-mile remaining in the Whitney is now in the possession of his connections, who shelled out $100 for the souvenir after initially discarding it.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Sassy Little Lila was scratched from Saturday’s $100,000 De La Rose Stakes at Saratoga and now might make her next start against males in next Saturday’s Grade 1, $500,000 Fourstardave here, trainer Brad Cox said.
“We’re going to look at the Fourstardave right now. It’s nothing definite, but it’s a possibility,” Cox said Saturday morning. “I think it depends on the weights and the pace scenario.”
DEL MAR, Calif. – Songbird worked five furlongs in 1:00.80 on Saturday morning at Del Mar, but trainer Jerry Hollendorfer said he and owner Rick Porter had yet to pick out a next race for the two-time champion filly, saying that three scenarios are still in play.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Kiaran McLaughlin won two races on Friday’s card at Saratoga, giving the veteran trainer a brief reprieve from what has been a difficult week.
In a 36-hour span, McLaughlin had two horses suffer fatal injuries here. In Thursday’s $100,000 Birdstone Stakes, Munjaz was pulled up on the second turn and was later euthanized with an injury to his left rear leg. On Wednesday, the 3-year-old Marshall Plan came out of a half-mile workout over the main track with an injury that resulted in him having to be euthanized.
Who would best know how to assess the 48.40-second half-mile breeze turned in by Proctor’s Ledge inside the dogs over the Oklahoma turf course at Saratoga on Friday: the man who trains the recent Grade 3 winner or the exercise rider who was on her back for the drill?
Well, in this case, they are the same. Trainer Brendan Walsh was aboard Proctor’s Ledge for the bullet work that he described as little more than a “maintenance trip” just two weeks removed from her come-from-behind, 1 3/4-length victory in the Lake George Stakes on July 21.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – American Patriot, who finished 11th in the Grade 1 Queen Anne Stakes at Royal Ascot in June, turned in a solid five-furlong workout Friday over the Oklahoma turf course and will run in next Saturday’s Grade 1, $500,000 Fourstardave Handicap at Saratoga.
American Patriot worked in company with Adorable Miss, a two-time stakes-winning filly. The move was the second-quickest among 18 works at the distance Friday over the Oklahoma turf.
“Not that that matters, I thought he did it well,” trainer Todd Pletcher said.
DEL MAR, Calif. – Del Mar has enacted a two-tiered purse structure for California-bred optional-claiming races at its summer meeting, with allowance-class horses running for much greater prize money than claimers.
The new format will be used for Sunday’s first race, an optional claimer at one mile that drew a field of five. Que Chistoso, Senator Robert, and Plain Wrap are entered under the allowance race conditions and will run for a purse of $62,000. Old Man Lake and Freddies Dream are entered for $20,000 claiming prices and will run for a $35,000 purse.
DEL MAR, Calif. – Gormley, the winner of the $1 million Santa Anita Derby in April, is tentatively scheduled to have his first start of the summer in the $100,000 Shared Belief Stakes at Del Mar on Aug. 26, trainer John Shirreffs said on Friday.
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