SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Several hours before Triple Crown winner American Pharoah’s anticipated arrival at Saratoga Race Course, trainer John Terranova’s operation was bracing to be in the eye of the storm once again.
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The California Horse Racing Board has set the 2016 calendar for Northern California.
Golden Gate Fields will run from Dec. 26, 2015, through June 14, followed by three-week meetings at Pleasanton, Sacramento, and Santa Rosa. Golden Gate’s summer meet will be uninterrupted next year, running Aug. 17 to Sept. 20, followed by two-week meets at Stockton and Fresno. Ferndale will run in conjunction with Golden Gate the final two weekends in August. The Golden Gate fall meeting runs Oct. 19 to Dec. 20.
There won’t be a trainer three-peat in Sunday’s Humboldt County Marathon in Ferndale. Melanie McDonald, who won the 1 5/8-mile race with A Thousand Aces in 2013 and Mahogany Run last year, is not entering a runner this year.
“I did not have anything I thought was viable,” she said.
Mahogany Run is in training but not ready to go the marathon distance, McDonald said.
“Next year, I hope to have both Mahogany Run and A Thousand Aces ready,” she said.
McDonald uses old-school long gallops to prepare her runners for the Marathon.
A Maryland tradition for more than 125 years continues when Timonium opens for a seven-day meet in conjunction with the Maryland State Fair.
Timonium, which held its first meet in 1887, will offer live cards Friday through Sunday this weekend and Sept. 4 through Labor Day, Sept. 7.
Russell Baze never expected that doing something he loves would turn him into a world traveler. But on Friday, Baze flies to Japan to represent the United States in this weekend’s World All-Star Jockeys competition at Sapporo Racecourse.
“I’m looking forward to it,” said Baze, who also has gone to England and Brazil for similar competitions. “It’s been 25 years since I rode there. It’s always fun to go to different countries and be part of different cultures.”
DEL MAR, Calif. – Beholder wasn’t the only female who beat the boys here last week. The 2-year-old filly Miss Big Stuff won a maiden race Sunday in her debut after failing to draw in off the also-eligible list for a fillies race Saturday.
Owing to where she drew for the Saturday race, Miller entered her back in the open race Sunday, and when that race drew just eight runners, she was in.
“It just made sense if she wasn’t going to get in on Saturday to go Sunday in the small field,” Miller said. “Plus, at this time of year, fillies are as good as the colts.”
DEL MAR, Calif. – Del Mar has expanded the stakes schedule for its autumn meeting that runs from Oct. 29 to Nov. 29 to include three races run in recent years at Santa Anita.
Two $200,000, seven-furlong races for California-bred 2-year-olds – the Golden State Juvenile Fillies and Golden State Juvenile – will be run on the first two days of the meeting. The first Sunday of the meet, Nov. 1, is led by the $200,000 Goldikova Stakes for fillies and mares at a mile on turf, a prep for the $300,000 Matriarch Stakes for fillies and mares at a mile on turf on closing day, Nov. 29.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. -- Trainer Bob Baffert said he wasn’t surprised that nine horses were entered against his Triple Crown winner American Pharoah for Saturday’s Grade 1, $1.6 million Travers Stakes at Saratoga.
“I think the Travers is an important race, they’re already there, they’re not shipping,” Baffert said Tuesday by phone from Southern California. “A lot of crazy things happen. The horse hasn’t shipped yet. It’s a big deal. What if he doesn’t bring his ‘A’ game? What if something happens?”
Plans for Smack Smack, winner of the $175,000 Governor’s Cup at Remington Park on Aug. 15, are to be determined, trainer Don Von Hemel said. The horse rallied for a half-length win in what is the premier route race for older horses in Oklahoma City.
“I wasn’t here for the race,” Von Hemel said. “We had a death in the family, so I had to be out of town. I came back and watched the replays and everything, and he just ran a fantastic race. He put that horse away and was getting away from them at the end.”