ELMONT, N.Y. – Cavorting, who earned a career-best 100 Beyer Speed Figure in winning the Jersey Girl Stakes here June 5, likely will make her next start in the Grade 1 Test at Saratoga on Aug. 8, trainer Kiaran McLaughlin said Wednesday.
McLaughlin said Cavorting ran terrific in the Jersey Girl off a 104-day layoff, so he is not concerned about giving the filly 64 days between races in the Test.
“She got a big sheet number, and she did well off a little time,” McLaughlin said.
ELMONT, N.Y. – Stopchargingmaria, the winner of the Allaire duPont Distaff at Pimlico in her last start, missed the Ogden Phipps on June 6 due to a temperature. Trainer Todd Pletcher said she would be pointed to the Grade 3, $200,000 Shuvee Handicap at Saratoga on Aug. 2.
Several of Pletcher’s horses came up with a temperature, including Blofeld and Protonico. Pletcher said he’s not really sure who else was affected, although some of his horses ran inexplicably poor races, such as Competitive Edge, who finished last as the favorite in the Grade 2 Woody Stephens.
ELMONT, N.Y. – Having missed a Grade 1 opportunity when she got sick before the $1 million Ogden Phipps two weeks ago, Dame Dorothy will have to settle for a Grade 3 chance when she runs in Saturday’s $150,000 Bed o’ Roses Handicap at Belmont Park.
Dame Dorothy, undefeated at the seven-furlong distance of the Bed o’ Roses, including a victory in the Grade 1 Humana Distaff last out, likely will be favored in an eight-horse field that includes three-time graded stakes winner La Verdad and the improving Room for Me.
ARLINGTON HEIGHTS, Ill. – After cutting back racing weeks to three days so far at this meet and paring down cards to eight races per day, Arlington was hit with a handle decline in May and could face further problems when its racing week expands to four days in July and August.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Victor Espinoza, the jockey of 2015 Triple Crown winner American Pharoah, will accept mounts at Gulfstream Park on the Summit of Speed program July 5.
“I’m very much looking forward to a return to south Florida and Gulfstream Park,” said Espinoza, who completed the Triple Crown sweep aboard American Pharoah with a convincing victory in the Belmont Stakes. “If I remember right, my last time there was the Breeders’ Cup of 1999.”
ARCADIA, Calif. – Stellar Wind, fourth in the Kentucky Oaks on May 1, is part of a projected field of nine in Saturday’s $200,000 Summertime Oaks for 3-year-old fillies at 1 1/16 miles.
Trained by John Sadler for Pete and Kosta Hronis, Stellar Wind is one of two stakes winners expected in the field, along with Sheer Pleasure, who won consecutive stakes for California-bred 3-year-old fillies at Santa Anita earlier this year. Sheer Pleasure won the Evening Jewel for sprinters in April and the Melair Stakes at 1 1/16 miles on May 23.
Overnight purses for the summer meeting at Del Mar will start lower than at last year’s summer meet because of a seven-figure debt carried forward from the purse pool last year.
Del Mar released its first condition book this week, listing races to be offered in the first weeks of the summer meeting. The across-the-board cuts reflect a reduction of approximately 8 percent for all overnight races during the meet, which runs from July 16 to Sept. 7.
“Everybody got a little bit taken off,” said Del Mar executive vice president of racing Tom Robbins.
OPELOUSAS, La. – You know you are having a great season when it is news when you don’t win. Just three times in the first 40 nights of the current Evangeline Downs stand have leading trainer Karl Broberg and leading jockey Colby Hernandez been shut out. Their individual numbers are staggering. When they team up, they are almost otherworldly.
“We can hardly believe it ourselves,” said Broberg, who has sent out 62 winners from 112 starters this season for a remarkable strike rate of 58 percent and a $2.85 ROI. “We made some changes to begin the season, and it has really paid off.”
