DEL MAR, Calif. – Mrazek, the winner of the Graduation Stakes for California-breds on Aug. 5, will miss the Grade 1 Hopeful Stakes at Saratoga on Monday because of body soreness.
Trainer Doug O’Neill said Mrazek was diagnosed after a half-mile workout last Sunday and will spend 30 to 45 days resting at Vessels Stallion Farm in Bonsall, Calif.
“We’ll have him back by the end of the year,” O’Neill said.
DEL MAR, Calif. – The California Thoroughbred Trainers group has pledged $150,000 to help fund a proposal to install portable cameras throughout the stables of California’s Thoroughbred tracks for race-day surveillance.
The issue is expected to be discussed at a California Horse Racing Board medication committee meeting Friday at Del Mar. The primary topic will be the administration of Lasix by third-party veterinarians. Trainers currently employ veterinarians to administer the medication, but the racing board has proposed hiring outside veterinarians to handle the task.
DEL MAR, Calif. – For $10,000, the stakes winners Right There and Swipe will each start in a $300,000, Grade 1 race for 2-year-olds at Del Mar this weekend.
That is the supplemental entry fee facing Matt Bryan, who owns both runners through his Big Chief Racing. Right There, bound for the Del Mar Debutante for fillies on Saturday, and Swipe, who will run Monday in the Del Mar Futurity, are trained by Keith Desormeaux, who said Wednesday the stout fees are worth the investment.
It has become a rite of September – horsemen doing double takes when noticing the size of the purses being offered at Kentucky Downs.
The purses come with asterisks, as Kentucky-breds compete for more than twice the money as horses bred elsewhere, but still, they’re gigantic: Maiden races are worth as much as $120,000, and allowance races as much as $135,000.
“We’ve got horses and trainers coming in from all over,” said C.J. Johnsen, Kentucky Downs racing manager. “This is going to be our biggest and best meet yet. It’s been pretty crazy in the racing office, really.”
ARLINGTON HEIGHTS, Ill. – Neither of the two decisions that trainer Ingrid Mason made with a pair of stakes runners last weekend was obvious, but in retrospect, both were good. The 3-year-old filly Sarah Sis was shipped to Saratoga for the Ballerina Stakes and finished a creditable fourth, just missing a valuable Grade 1 placing. Meanwhile, back home at Arlington, Mason sent out the 2-year-old filly Marquee Miss to make her career debut in the $75,000 Arlington-Washington Lassie, and she won it by three lengths.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Constitution, a multiple Grade 1 winner on dirt who has been away from the races since February, will make his return on Monday in the Grade 2, $250,000 Bernard Baruch Handicap on turf at Saratoga, trainer Todd Pletcher said Wednesday.
Running in the Bernard Baruch gives Constitution the chance to possibly run two times before a bid in the $5 million Breeders’ Cup Classic on Oct. 31 at Keeneland, Pletcher said. The Jockey Club Gold Cup on Oct. 3 at Belmont Park could be the target after the Bernard Baruch.
The Saturday broadcast on NBC of the Travers Stakes at Saratoga Race Course peaked at 3.4 million viewers as Triple Crown winner American Pharaoh was edged in the stretch by Keen Ice, the network said on Tuesday after releasing refined viewership figures for the race.
DEL MAR. Calif. – Trainer Gus Headley was fined $400 by Del Mar’s stewards Sunday for harassing a groom, specifically, according to the statement of decision, “throwing straw which contained dog feces” into the tack room of the groom, Alejandro Alvarez, while Alvarez was in the room.
There were several incidents alleged by Alvarez in February and March at Santa Anita that resulted in a hearing May 28.
DEL MAR, Calif. – While the immediate schedule for American Pharoah is certain, his itinerary between now and the Breeders’ Cup Classic is a work in progress.
American Pharoah returned to Del Mar from Saratoga on Monday afternoon, walked Tuesday at the barn of trainer Bob Baffert, and was scheduled to do so again Wednesday. He was scheduled to return to the track to jog Thursday, and on Sunday, between races here, the Triple Crown winner will be paraded for fans.
