ELMONT, N.Y. – After watching Tonalist lose the Jim Dandy and Travers stakes last summer at Saratoga, trainer Christophe Clement removed the blinkers from the colt’s equipment, and Tonalist responded with a 1 3/4-length victory in the Grade 1 Jockey Club Gold Cup, a 1 1/4-mile race at Belmont Park.
Clement will hope for a similar result in Saturday’s Grade 2, $500,000 Suburban Handicap, in which he again removes the blinkers from Tonalist’s equipment in a 1 1/4-mile race at Belmont.
Trainer Bret Calhoun could have a couple of 2-year-olds targeting the Grade 3, $150,000 Sanford at Saratoga. He said discussions are ongoing with the owners of He’s Comin in Hot and Bravura about the next move for the quality runners by Early Flyer, who leads all North American sires in wins by 2-year-olds this year.
He’s Comin in Hot, who races for Doug Scharbauer, won the Grade 3 Bashford Manor at Churchill Downs last Saturday. Bravura, owned by Victoria Ashford, was an impressive debut winner at Lone Star Park on June 18.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Reigning sprint champion Work All Week and winning Triple Crown rider Victor Espinoza will be the marquee names on Sunday’s Summit of Speed program at Gulfstream Park.
Work All Week will top a field of nine older horses in the Grade 2 Smile Sprint, which shares top billing on Sunday’s card with the Grade 2 Princess Rooney for fillies and mares. The stakes, both at six furlongs, are designated as Win and You’re In races for the Breeders’ Cup.
American Pharoah was jogged at Santa Anita on Wednesday, two days after he worked three furlongs in 36.40 seconds. The workout was the first for American Pharoah since his win in the Belmont Stakes.
Trainer Bob Baffert said the colt has been energetic in recent training, unlike after the Belmont, when he was paraded at Churchill Downs and Santa Anita.
“I could tell that was getting to him a little bit,” Baffert said.
CYPRESS, Calif. – Poor Bob Baffert. Since American Pharoah won the Triple Crown in the Belmont Stakes on June 6, his stable has won only two races in Southern California, including the Grade 3 Affirmed Stakes at Santa Anita on June 7 with Gimme Da Lute.
“Times are tough right now,” Baffert said on Wednesday. “I got beat a nose in the Gold Cup.”
CYPRESS, Calif. – Moreno, who finished eighth in the $501,500 Gold Cup at Santa Anita last Saturday as the 4-1 third choice, will be pointed for the $1,250,000 Whitney Stakes at Saratoga on Aug. 8, a race he won in 2014.
Trainer Eric Guillot said on Wednesday that he would like to start the 5-year-old multiple stakes winner in a race in which he might be the lone speed.
“He loves that track,” Guillot said. “It sounds like a good plan of attack.”
Racing resumes in Maryland after a four-week break as the sport shifts 28 miles south from Pimlico Race Course to Laurel Park.
This will be the first time Laurel has held more than a single card in July in more than a decade. Earlier this year, an agreement was renegotiated that left these racing dates to Colonial Downs, which has not raced since 2013.
Laurel had been scheduled to open Aug. 1 but modified its original dates request and will race three days a week until Timonium opens at the Maryland State Fair on Aug. 28.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Work All Week not only won the Breeders’ Cup Sprint and a division championship last year, he also has the distinction of not finishing worse than second in his last 15 starts coming into Sunday’s Grade 2 Smile Sprint.
But the champion sprinter won’t be the only member of the Smile Sprint lineup able to boast about such a remarkable record of consistency. Like Work All Week, Grande Shores has finished first or second in each of his last 15 starts, a skein that extends back to January 2014.
