ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Trainer Ian Black said Excaper is set for the Grade 2 Connaught Cup Stakes at Woodbine on Saturday after posting a bullet four-furlong work in 46.80 seconds on the turf training track here Sunday.
“That’s the plan,” Black said. “He worked well [Sunday] morning, and that’s what we’re going to do. Seven-eighths suits him pretty well.”
ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Canada’s champion juvenile filly of 2014, Conquest Harlanate, is getting close to making her 2015 local debut after breezing five furlongs in 59.80 seconds on the turf training track here Sunday.
Trainer Mark Casse said Conquest Harlanate likely will start in the $100,000 Alywow Stakes, an overnight stakes for 3-year-old fillies over 6 1/2 furlongs on turf June 14, the same day as the $500,000 Woodbine Oaks.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario – After running sixth in the Preakness Stakes at Pimlico on May 16, Danzig Moon will be pointed toward the $150,000 Plate Trial Stakes at Woodbine on June 14, trainer Mark Casse said.
Danzig Moon is expected to ship to Woodbine in the next week to begin training on Woodbine’s Polytrack, a surface that he has yet to race over. Casse said he’s concerned about whether Danzig Moon will handle the synthetic surface, and a start in the Plate Trial would allow him to get experience over the track before the $1 million Queen’s Plate on July 5.
ARCADIA, Calif. – The winners of the five six-figure stakes for California-breds Saturday at Santa Anita may reappear in stakes ranging from the $500,000 Gold Cup at Santa Anita on June 27 to lesser stakes at Santa Anita next month and at Los Alamitos and Del Mar later this summer.
Motown Men, who won Saturday’s $151,250 Tiznow Stakes at a mile, is a candidate for the Grade 1 Gold Cup at Santa Anita at 1 1/4 miles June 27, trainer Ted H. West said Sunday.
Belmont Park
Weather: Clear
Temperature: 58
Track: Fast
ELMONT, N.Y. - Not much activity on the Belmont Stakes front around here these days with only six potential starters on the grounds, four of whom are coming off five furlongs workouts on Friday.
ELMONT, N.Y. – For the third time in eight days, Belmont Stakes candidate Mubtaahij put in a timed workout, this time going five furlongs in 1:01.83, according to Daily Racing Form, in company with stablemate Umgiyo over the Belmont main track.
The move, which began at the half-mile pole and went to a furlong past the wire, came shortly after the 8:45 a.m. renovation break on an absolutely stunning late-spring morning in New York.
ELMONT, N.Y. – Hall of Fame trainer Shug McGaughey had an air of confidence about him Sunday morning when talking about Honor Code, several hours after watching his handicap star breeze five furlongs in 1:00.13 with jockey Javier Castellano aboard.
Working in company with Gold Shield, Honor Code readily pulled away from his partner coming to the wire without need of urging and, on the gallop out, getting six furlongs in 1:12.98 before pulling up seven-eighths in 1:26.91.
Lone Star Park near Dallas was forced to cancel its final three races Saturday night due to inclement weather, while its sister track, Remington Park in Oklahoma City, lost 10 of its races, also due to heavy rains. Both tracks are scheduled to resume racing Sunday.
Lone Star, which also experienced lightning, lost its seventh, eighth, and ninth races. It was the fourth partial-card cancelation this meet, according to track spokeswoman Diantha Brazzell. There was to be no training Sunday morning, according to racing officials at Lone Star.
Three-time Monmouth Park riding champ Elvis Trujillo is leaving California and will beging riding at Monmouth next Saturday, according to Danny Mellul, who said he would be Trujillo's agent.
Trujillo led the Monmouth standings in 2009, 2011, and 2012. He was runner-up in 2010 and 2013.
Trujillo, 31, has been riding out west for about a year. He was third in the Del Mar standings last summer and was second at the fall Del Mar meet. He is 5 for 48 at the current Santa Anita session.
