Del Mar is offering a 43-race stakes program for its summer meeting that is similar to last year’s, with a slightly lower overall value.
The summer meeting, from July 16 through Sept. 7, has stakes worth $7,950,000, a decline of $100,000 from last year. The track has increased purses for two leading turf stakes, cut the purses of three graded stakes by $50,000 each, and reduced purses of 10 overnight stakes from $90,000 to $80,000.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Trainer Rick Violette said Wednesday that his Kentucky Derby contender, Upstart, continues to progress nicely after having a scheduled breeze canceled last Saturday at Palm Meadows.
Violette canceled the work, which was to be Upstart’s first since the Florida Derby, after discovering that Upstart had some discharge from his nostrils and was running a temperature just prior to sending him to the track to breeze. Upstart was subsequently diagnosed with a sinus infection.
The Friday card at Pimlico will get off to an interesting start as fan favorite Ben’s Cat will make his 9-year-old debut in the second race, a no-conditions, five-furlong turf sprint with a $55,000 purse.
Trained by King Leatherbury, Ben’s Cat ended 2014 on a high note, turning in what may have been his strongest performance of the year to win the $200,000 Fabulous Strike Handicap at Penn National in late November. He concluded the season with an 8-4-2-1 record and $458,000 in earnings.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. – His career is all of six weeks old, but already Eric Cancel has some convinced that he has a bright future as a jockey in North America.
Since riding his first mount in the U.S. on March 1, Cancel, 18, has won 10 races from 63 mounts, achieving success at the prestigious Gulfstream Park winter meet before moving his tack to New York two weeks ago. He is a seven-pound apprentice. He will become a five-pound apprentice after he wins his 40th race and will be able to ride with that weight allowance until next March.
When the gates open for the $1.5 million Charles Town Classic on Saturday, it won’t be difficult to find Moreno. He’s going to be the horse on the lead.
“If you are in front of us early, you are probably going too fast,” trainer Eric Guillot said.
Moreno’s two biggest wins have come in the Grade 1 Whitney at Saratoga last summer and the Grade 2 Dwyer at Belmont Park in 2013. Both were accomplished on the front end.
Shared Belief had a final breeze at Golden Gate Fields on Tuesday prior to his Saturday start in the $1.5 million Charles Town Classic. Shared Belief breezed a half-mile over the Tapeta main track in 51.80 seconds with Russell Baze aboard.
“We just gave him an easy half,” trainer Jerry Hollendorfer said. “Russell was very happy with the work.”
STICKNEY, Ill. – Two Saturdays ago trainer Bob Baffert ran one-two in the Santa Anita Derby with Dortmund and One Lucky Dane. This past Saturday, Baffert won the Arkansas Derby with American Pharoah while capturing an Oaklawn Park undercard 3-year-old stakes, the Northern Spur, with the maiden Wolf Man Rocket.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Trainer Jane Cibelli will be departing south Florida shortly for her summer home at Monmouth Park. She picked up a little extra cash to make the trip north over the weekend, parlaying a couple of mid-priced claims into a pair of five-furlong turf victories, including Sunday’s $60,000 Sunset Stakes with the veteran Aquinnah.
STICKNEY, Ill. - Recount ended his 2-year-old campaign winning the Grade 3 Arlington-Washington Futurity and started his 3-year-old season Saturday with a sharp victory in the Land of Lincoln Stakes for Illinois-bred 3-year-olds.
Recount ran favored Dom the Bomb into submission, pressing him through a torrid pace, and went on to a comfortable victory. His six-furlong time of 1:10.32 produced an 81 Beyer Speed Figure, which doesn’t quite do the performance justice.
STICKNEY, Ill. - Out of nowhere over the winter came apprentice jockey Vicente Gudiel, who has emerged from obscurity to lead the Hawthorne jockey standings entering this week’s racing.
Gudiel officially has 41 wins at the meet, but that total includes two days of racing in January before Hawthorne went dark during midwinter. The spring meet commenced Feb. 20, and since then Gudiel has gone 37-20-21 from 162 mounts, a 23 percent strike rate and a win total 10 greater than Tim Thornton, second in the standings.
