DEL MAR, Calif. – Triple Crown winner American Pharoah galloped 1 1/2 miles Friday at Del Mar, two days before a scheduled workout Sunday.
The winner of the Haskell Invitational at Monmouth Park on Aug. 2, American Pharoah was ridden Friday by exercise rider Manny Avila, who was substituting for regular exercise rider Jorge Alvarez. Trainer Bob Baffert said Alvarez was away because of a death in the family.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Valid looked good blowing out three furlongs from the quarter pole in 35.60 seconds here Friday. The question is: What does trainer Marcus Vitale do with him next?
Valid finished second behind his nemesis, Bradester, in the Grade 2 Monmouth Cup on Aug. 2. He also was third behind that rival in the Grade 3 Salvator Mile four weeks earlier at Monmouth Park.
Vitale said he could run Valid at Monmouth Park in the Cliff Hanger or Iselin, but he’d rather run him at Saratoga.
Fair Grounds will jump right into its Quarter Horse meet on Saturday with 10 trials for its richest race of the season, the Louisiana Quarter Horse Breeders Association Sale Futurity. The finale, which last year was worth $286,560, will close out the meet Sept. 5.
Fair Grounds has packed much into its 10-date meet. The trials have drawn 93 horses on a card that begins at 4 p.m. Central. Trainer Kenneth Roberts will have horses in eight of the 10 trials, while trainer Michael Taylor will be represented in seven of the trials.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Hammers Vision, a debut winner on turf on closing day of the Belmont Park spring-summer meet, will try dirt for the first time in the Grade 2, $200,000 Saratoga Special at 6 1/2 furlongs. Hammers Vision, a son of Court Vision, was one of six 2-year-olds entered Friday for Sunday’s Saratoga feature.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – He didn’t make it to the races until almost midway through his 4-year-old season, but Boot Scootn Daddy has been worth the wait.
A 4-year-old gelding by Scat Daddy, Boot Scootn Daddy has won both of his starts, both this year at Monmouth Park, and now he tries Saratoga in a $90,000, second-level allowance race at a mile that goes as Saturday’s eighth race.
Hardly a well-kept secret, Boot Scootn Daddy won his debut May 17 in a nine-horse field as the even-money favorite.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Wedding Toast, the five-length winner of the Grade 1 Ogden Phipps in her last start, will not make the Grade 1 Personal Ensign on Aug. 29 and instead will point to the Grade 1 Beldame at Belmont Park on Sept. 26, trainer Kiaran McLaughlin said Thursday.
McLaughlin said Wedding Toast has had some little issues – “mainly a foot” – and although she’s been in training, she hasn’t had a timed workout since July 17.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – It was at Saratoga last summer that Top Decile began her career with a victory before going on to finish second in a pair of Grade 1 races, including the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies.
On Saturday, Top Decile returns to Saratoga to jump-start her 3-year-old season in a first-level allowance race for fillies and mares going seven furlongs on the dirt.
Top Decile hasn’t raced since finishing sixth in the Silverbulletday Stakes on Jan. 17 at Fair Grounds.
DEL MAR, Calif. – Trainer Mark Casse removed his small stable of approximately 12 runners from Del Mar on Wednesday and said Thursday he might not have runners in Southern California until next summer.
Casse had one win from six starters in the first half of the 40-day summer meeting at Del Mar. Last year, for the entire meeting, Casse had a larger stable that won five races from 34 runners. Casse had a regular presence at Del Mar in 2014 but left the stable’s day-to-day operations to an assistant this summer.
DEL MAR, Calif. – Spanish Queen, the winner of the Grade 1 American Oaks at Santa Anita in May and a notable absentee from Saturday’s $300,000 Del Mar Oaks, is out of training until 2016.
On Thursday, trainer Richard Baltas said a recent nuclear scan revealed an injury that will keep Spanish Queen out of training “for three to six months.” He declined to discuss the injury in detail.
“She’s got something going on,” he said. “She’ll be back. She will race again.”
DEL MAR, Calif. – Pretty N Cool began to impress trainer Bob Baffert in workouts before the stable left Santa Anita for Del Mar in mid-July. When the stable heads back to Santa Anita next month, Pretty N Cool might be an undefeated Grade 1 winner.
On Wednesday, Pretty N Cool won her stakes debut in the $200,000 Sorrento Stakes for 2-year-old fillies at 6 1/2 furlongs. She is likely to be favored Sept. 5 in the $300,000 Del Mar Debutante at seven furlongs, the top race of the summer meeting for juvenile fillies.
