SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - The Grade 2, $300,000 Troy Stakes, scheduled for Aug. 2, has been moved to Aug. 3, the New York Racing Association announced Friday.
The Troy was one of three graded stakes scheduled for Aug. 2 along with the Grade 1 Fourstardave and Grade 1 Saratoga Derby. The Troy and Derby would be run on the Mellon turf course while the Fourstardave would be run on the inner course.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - Grande, the runner-up in the Wood Memorial who was scratched out of the Kentucky Derby due to a foot issue, underwent surgery to remove an ankle chip and will be out until fall, trainer Todd Pletcher confirmed Thursday.
Grande was in training after he was scratched from the Derby, but then developed a temperature and missed some training time, Pletcher said.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - Trainer Whit Beckman’s 2025 Saratoga meet did not get off to an auspicious start.
Flying Mohawk, who Beckman was planning to return to turf in Friday’s Grade 1 Belmont Derby at Saratoga, had to be scratched from the race after undergoing emergency colic surgery on Wednesday, Beckman said.
“He did flip his colon,” Beckman said. “They didn’t have to remove anything, just untwist it.”
Beckman said Flying Mohawk would be out of training for three months, but the plan is to bring him back to the races next year.
It could be a big summer for Stay Hot.
The son of Summer Front opened his 4-year-old campaign with a decisive win in the $250,000 Texas Turf Classic last Saturday at Lone Star Park and could make his next start at Del Mar.
Trainer Peter Eurton said Tuesday that Stay Hot would be considered for the Grade 2, $250,000 Eddie Read on July 27 at Del Mar.
ARCADIA, Calif. – There was a time in the not-too-distant past when Kopion, who will be heavily favored to win Saturday’s Grade 2 Great Lady M. Stakes at Los Alamitos, was ranked as the second-best filly or mare in the stable of Spendthrift Farm and trainer Richard Mandella.
In December, Kopion was a late addition to the Grade 1 La Brea Stakes for 3-year-old fillies at Santa Anita in her first start in more than eight months. The Spendthrift-Mandella team also had the impeccably bred Tamara entered in the $300,000 La Brea at seven furlongs.
Trainer Brad Cox questioned the strength of the competition that Verifire beat in his first two starts, a Colonial Downs maiden race in March and a Pimlico first-level allowance in May. The field that Verifire comfortably handled Sunday at Churchill in the $250,000 Maxfield clearly had more heft.
“Probably not a killer group but a well-balanced group, and he ran good,” Cox said.
The 2-year-old colt Dazzle d’Oro sent his trainer, Tom Amoss, traveling back in time. Amoss thought about when he first came to Churchill Downs in the early 1990s, and a conversation with the late Kentucky Derby-winning trainer Lynn Whiting.
“He told me if you ever have a horse work five-eighths from the gate in under a minute, you’ve got a runner,” Amoss said.
Dazzle d’Oro, who had breezed through the spring at Keeneland, moved to Churchill and had his first work there June 11, going five-eighths from the gate in 59.80. And, yes, he is a runner.
It’s not only that Percy’s Bar is winning big, but how she’s winning big that makes trainer Ben Colebrook appreciate what the 2-year-old filly already has done and what she might get done the rest of this season.
Percy’s Bar doesn’t fit the mold of many sharp early-season 2-year-olds, who show a lot of speed and might run fast but merely are running more than racing with intention.
While Dorth Vader won the Grade 1 Ogden Phipps for George Weaver on June 6, the veteran trainer would like to forget the rest of June.
During the month, Weaver had barns at Belmont and Saratoga placed under quarantine for separate cases of strangles, a highly contagious disease that affects a horse’s respiratory system. Thankfully, the horses who tested positive seem to be improving.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Mindframe, who may have vaulted to the head of a deep older male dirt class with his victory in Saturday’s Grade 1 Stephen Foster at Churchill Downs, arrived back in Saratoga on Monday morning and will be strongly considered for a start in the Grade 1, $1 million Whitney Stakes here Aug. 2, trainer Todd Pletcher said Monday.
