DEL MAR, Calif. – Long Hot Summer, unbeaten in two starts after winning her stakes debut in Wednesday’s $150,500 Generous Portion Stakes for 2-year-old California-bred fillies, may not stay in the statebred division for long this fall.
On Thursday, trainer Phil D’Amato said she could run in the $200,000 Golden State Juvenile for fillies over seven furlongs Oct. 31 at Santa Anita, but he is anxious to try her in graded stakes.
DEL MAR, Calif. – More than a year has passed since Blue Tone beat maidens as a 4-year-old at Hollywood Park, winning so well that trainer Bob Hess Jr. was convinced the gelding was a stakes prospect.
The opportunity finally arrives in Saturday’s $90,000 Harry Brubaker Stakes over a mile. The Brubaker will be Blue Tone’s second start of the year. He won an optional claimer over a mile Aug. 3, his first start since late October.
Owned by a partnership, Blue Tone has won 3 of 8 starts.
DEL MAR, Calif. – Skyway, the winner of the Grade 2 Best Pal Stakes on Aug. 3, will have a new rider Wednesday for the $300,000 Del Mar Futurity.
On Thursday, trainer Mark Casse said Corey Nakatani will ride Skyway, replacing an injured Stewart Elliott.
Elliott fractured a rib when he was kicked by a horse in the stables in early August. Although Elliott was named on horses this week at Del Mar, he is not ready to resume riding, according to his agent, Nelson Arroyo, who added that Elliott is targeting a late-September comeback at Santa Anita.
DEL MAR, Calif. – Goldencents, the winner of the Grade 2 Pat O’Brien Stakes last Sunday and four other stakes in his career, will make his turf debut Oct. 4 in the $1 million Shadwell Turf Mile at Keeneland, co-owner Glenn Sorgenstein said Thursday.
Goldencents will be retired to stud at Spendthrift Stud in Kentucky at the end of the year. A 4-year-old colt, Goldencents earned a fees-paid berth to the Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile at Santa Anita on Oct. 31 by winning the seven-furlong Pat O’Brien. Goldencents won the 2013 BC Dirt Mile.
OCEANPORT, N.J. – Just Call Kenny was on a tight schedule to make the Haskell Invitational on July 27, but the five weeks since have allowed him to settle into a more relaxed training pattern.
On Monday, Just Call Kenny will make the third start of his current form cycle in the Grade 3, $300,000 Smarty Jones at Parx Racing. Trainer Patrick McBurney has given Just Call Kenny four works since the Haskell, including an easy half-mile in 51 seconds at Monmouth Park on Thursday.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Few people can tell a story quite like Tom Durkin.
Asked to recall one he had yet to tell on his retirement media tour, Durkin harkens back to 1978, when he was the racetrack announcer at Cahokia Downs in East St. Louis, Ill. Jack Weaver, then the general manager of the track, came to Durkin’s booth after having received a call regarding a potential bomb scare at the track.
Horsemen and fans accustomed to a basic one-day blowout of stakes at Kentucky Downs need to take a second look at the 2014 schedule. The track is taking advantage of accrued monies from its “historical racing” machines and will be hosting three multistakes dates at the upcoming five-day meet: Sept. 6, Sept. 13, and Sept. 24.
The final four-day week of the 29-day summer meet at Ellis Park kicks off Friday with an eight-race card highlighted by a $35,000 allowance (race 5) with eight well-matched filly-mare sprinters.
Apprentice Juan Saez, with 43 wins, has the jockeys’ race locked up, but the trainers’ race is tight. Into Friday, Buff Bradley led with nine wins, followed by Dale Romans (7) and three others with six wins each.
Plans for recent Remington Park stakes winner Bim Bam are to be determined, said Ron Moquett, who trains the horse for Chuck and Ella Lou Hagaman. Bim Bam won his third straight race in the $75,000 DeBartolo Memorial, in which he closed for a half-length win Saturday.
“He likes to try hard, and I was happy he was in a spot where his best could win,” Moquett said Wednesday. “I’m going get him back to Kentucky, look for something at the end of September at Churchill Downs or Remington.”
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – With opening night of the September meet at Churchill Downs right around the corner, fields for the four stakes to be run on opening weekend already are taking shape.
The 12-day meet starts next Friday, Sept. 5, with a Downs After Dark program featuring a pair of two-turn graded stakes for 2-year-olds. Both the Grade 2, $200,000 Pocahontas and Grade 3, $100,000 Iroquois not only carry Win and You’re In bonuses toward the Breeders’ Cup, but they’re also the first designated points races toward the Kentucky Oaks and Derby next spring.
