ETOBICOKE, Ontario – The Canadian town of Grand Falls, New Brunswick, will hold a public ceremony Sunday to unveil a monument and statue of Canadian-born jockey Ron Turcotte, who won the 1973 Triple Crown aboard Secretariat.
“It’s a great honor,” Turcotte said. “I didn’t expect everyone to recognize my achievements like they’re doing by putting up a monument. It’s really something. It’s very heartwarming that your own people do things like that for you.”
DEL MAR, Calif. – Led by a field of 12 in the featured Oceanside Stakes, the entry box was overflowing Sunday at Del Mar, where entries were taken and post positions drawn for the opening-day card Thursday.
A 10-race card is slated, and all 10 races drew at least 10 runners, with fields of 12 in five of the 10 races.
First-post time is 2 p.m. Pacific for the first of 40 days of the summer meeting, which will last through Labor Day, Sept. 7.
CYPRESS, Calif. – Jockeys Cayetano Chaparro, Aaron Gryder, and Ramon Guce were fined $200 each by Los Alamitos stewards Sunday for excessive use of the whip in races Saturday.
On July 1, the California Horse Racing Board enacted tougher whip rules, stating riders could strike a horse only three times in succession before pausing to allow the horse to respond. In the first seven racing days after the rule went into effect at Los Alamitos, 10 riders were fined for 11 infractions.
ELMONT, N.Y. – It took a little prodding from the outrider to get Honor Code to begin his half-mile work early Sunday morning at Belmont Park, but it took very little prodding from his rider, once under way, for Honor Code to turn in an extremely impressive drill as he continues to prepare for the Grade 1 Whitney at Saratoga on Aug. 8.
Fantastic Style and Living the Life, the first two finishers of Saturday’s $200,750 Great Lady M. Stakes for female sprinters at Los Alamitos, will be pointed for the Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Sprint at Keeneland in late October.
Should they get there, they will arrive via different paths.
ARCADIA, Calif. – American Pharoah worked at Santa Anita on Sunday, going five furlongs in 59.20 seconds. The workout left trainer Bob Baffert assured the Triple Crown winner is on course for the $1 million Haskell Invitational at Monmouth Park on Aug. 2.
Monmouth Park has announced some of the activities scheduled for Haskell weekend, including ontrack giveaways Friday, Saturday and Sunday.
The three-day event runs from July 31-Aug. 2, when the Haskell will be run. It is being called Pharoah Phan Phest in honor of Triple Crown winner American Pharoah, who is being pointed to the Haskell by trainer Bob Baffert and owner Ahmed Zayat.
The California Retirement Management Account, which finds homes for retired Thoroughbreds, is hosting its annual fundraiser, a poker tournament and casino night at the Del Mar Hilton on July 18.
“Cards 4 CARMA” is a Texas hold’em poker tournament, casino night and silent auction which begins that evening at 6:30 p.m. The grand prize for the poker tournament is a two-night stay at Mandalay Bay hotel in Las Vegas.
CYPRESS, Calif. - Rocko’s Wheel and Smack Talk, the winners of optional claimers at Los Alamitos on Friday, are likely to start in the $200,000 Real Good Deal Stakes at Del Mar on Aug. 2.
Rocko’s Wheel, owned by the Little Red Feather Racing syndicate and Jimmy Ukegawa and trained by Phil D’Amato, won an optional claimer at a mile for his third win in six starts. Joe Talamo has been aboard for all three wins.
Bal a Bali, the winner of the Grade 3 American Stakes in his United States debut on May 9 but last of five in the Grade 1 Shoemaker Mile at Santa Anita on June 13, will be pointed for the $200,000 Del Mar Mile on turf on Aug. 23.
Trainer Richard Mandella said on Saturday that Bal a Bali emerged from the Shoemaker Mile with a wrenched ankle that will prevent a start next Saturday in the $400,000 Eddie Read Stakes, the richest turf race of the Del Mar summer meeting.
“It was not a big deal,” Mandella said of the ankle injury. “We backed up and gave him more time.”
