Queen’s Plate winner Shaman Ghost headlines the list of eight nominees for the $500,000 Prince of Wales Stakes, the second jewel of the Canadian Triple Crown at Fort Erie on July 28, and it appears the field could have anywhere from five to seven runners come entry day on Friday, pending any supplements that could enter.
Trainer Brian Lynch had also nominated Unbridled Juan to the 1 3/16-mile Prince of Wales, but said he will only be taking Shaman Ghost with him to Fort Erie.
DEL MAR, Calif. – The San Clemente remained on the turf at Del Mar, but two other grass races on Sunday came off the turf, the second straight day that some grass races were taken off the turf owing to heavy rain that resulted in off tracks both Saturday and Sunday. Del Mar officials said more than an inch of rain fell here, which is unusual for the summer.
DEL MAR, Calif. – Jockey Eswan Flores was taken off his two mounts on Sunday by Del Mar’s stewards, a day after Flores did not show up for his scheduled mounts and then later, through his agent, informed the stewards he was ill.
Flores on Sunday morning met with stewards Scott Chaney, Kim Sawyer, and Tom Ward and was ordered to be tested by the California Horse Racing Board.
DEL MAR, Calif. – Jockey Santiago Gonzalez might not be well known in Southern California just yet, but he’s starting to make a name for himself here, much as he did in his native Venezuela, where he won more than 2,000 races before deciding to remain in the United States after a couple of shorter visits.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – One of Todd Pletcher’s older handicap stars, Palace Malice, was back on the work tab Monday, going a half-mile in 49.45 seconds over the Oklahoma training track.
Palace Malice has started just once since finishing sixth as the odds-on favorite in the 2014 Whitney. Pletcher cited “foot issues and other stuff” as the reason for Palace Malice being sidelined during the spring.
“We’re hoping to make a race at the meet with him,” said Pletcher on Monday. “He took a step towards that today with a good half-mile breeze.”
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Trainer Mark Casse is back at Saratoga this summer after a three year hiatus, and he’s brought a barn full of runners with him, led by Noble Bird, who won the Grade 1 Stephen Foster in his last start and is on target for the Grade 1 Whitney here on Aug. 8.
Noble Bird got his first real feel for the racetrack on Sunday, working five furlongs over a dull strip in 59.96 seconds before galloping out six furlongs in 1:13.06.
Lone Star Park experienced a decline in handle on its live races, but an increase in attendance during its 50-date meet that closed on Sunday. The season that started in April ranked as the wettest in the history of the Grand Prairie, Texas, track. Lone Star’s inaugural meet was in 1997.
ELMONT, N.Y. – Javier Castellano didn’t have to share top riding honors this summer at Belmont Park.
Castellano won two races on Sunday’s closing-day program and finished the meet with 56 victories, two more than Irad Ortiz Jr., for his third straight Belmont spring-summer crown. Last year, Ortiz won the final race of the meet, which enabled him to tie Castellano for leading rider honors.
DEL MAR, Calif. – The past few months have been difficult ones for trainer Art Sherman as California Chrome was stabled eight time zones away, pointing for races Sherman thought inappropriate, but he got the call he hoped for over the weekend when Duncan Taylor of Taylor Made Farm in Kentucky informed Sherman that California Chrome would be sent back to Sherman with the intent of racing him next year at age 5.
“That picked my head up,” Sherman said Sunday.
With the Haskell Invitational two weeks away, Mike Dempsey, Monmouth Park’s director of racing, and stakes coordinator Dan Dufford are beating the bushes to round up rivals to take on Triple Crown winner American Pharoah.
It’s not an easy assignment.
Not only is American Pharoah the No. 1 ranked horse in the country, horsemen have other options that weekend besides the Grade 1, $1 million Haskell, which is a Win and You’re In for the Breeders’ Cup Classic.
