OCEANPORT, N.J. – Wildcat Red turned in his final workout for the Grade 1 Haskell Invitational on Sunday at Monmouth Park, galloping seven furlongs, working a half-mile, and galloping out an additional eighth of a mile.
Skip to main content
Create Your DRF Account
New to DRF?
Everything you could possibly
need in one place
need in one place
Register
Don't have an account?
Register Here
Though he won his last race on the turf, Belmont Derby winner Mr Speaker will be given the chance to earn a start in the Travers Stakes by trainer Shug McGaughey.
McGaughey said he plans to give Mr Speaker several works on the dirt over the next few weeks and will evaluate how he trains before deciding between the Travers or the Grade 3, $300,000 Saranac on turf on closing day.
“I’ll give him an opportunity,” McGaughey said Saturday. “If he doesn’t act like that’s what we need to do, then that’s what we won’t do.”
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – In an attempt to change Wicked Strong’s luck, trainer Jimmy Jerkens will change equipment, putting blinkers on the 3-year-old colt for next Saturday’s Grade 2, $600,000 Jim Dandy Stakes at Saratoga.
On Saturday, Wicked Strong worked in blinkers for the first time, breezing six furlongs in 1:13.06 over Saratoga’s main track. Though exercise rider Kelvin Pahal was asking Wicked Strong to finish from the eighth pole to the wire, Wicked Strong proceeded to gallop out a solid six furlongs in 1:26.09 and seven furlongs in 1:39.21.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - Alpha, whose two shining moments came at Saratoga with his victories in the 2012 Travers and 2013 Woodward, inched closer to making a return appearance at the Spa by working a half mile in 47.54 seconds over the main track here Saturday morning.
DEL MAR, Calif. - Imperative, the winner of the $1.5 million Charles Town Classic in West Virginia earlier this year, earned a start in the $300,000 San Diego Handicap on July 26 after a five-furlong workout on Del Mar’s Polytrack on Saturday.
Imperative was timed in 1:01 under jockey Kent Desormeaux. The exercise left trainer George Papaprodromou eager for the San Diego.
“Kent said he never felt like that before,” Papaprodromou said. “The way he worked today was impressive. We’ll go for the San Diego and, hopefully, we can go from there to the Pacific Classic.”
DEL MAR, Calif. - Pure Tactics has the Breeders’ Cup Turf Sprint at Santa Anita in his long-term future.
On Friday, Pure Tactics won his second consecutive race in an optional claimer over five furlongs on turf. The victory, which came over five stakes winners, has left trainer Doug O’Neill thinking of running Pure Tactics in the $90,000 Green Flash Handicap on Aug. 13 and, later, the Breeders’ Cup.
DEL MAR, Calif. – Hours after My Fiona won Friday’s $100,000 California Thoroughbred Breeders Association Stakes at Del Mar, she was back at trainer Walther Solis’ base at Los Alamitos. The next time she is sent to Del Mar, she will try to confirm her status as the leading 2-year-old California-bred filly.
On Saturday, Solis said My Fiona will be pointed for the $150,000 Generous Portion Stakes over six furlongs for statebred fillies Aug. 27.
“If everything goes the way it is now, that’s what we’ll do,” he said.
OCEANPORT, N.J. - Several of the contenders for the Grade 1, $1 million Haskell at Monmouth Park on July 27 tuned up on Saturday morning.
Irish You Well and Just Call Kenny, the 1-2 finishers in the Long Branch Stakes, both worked at Monmouth.
Irish You Well went five furlongs in 1:00 for trainer Wayne Catalano.
Just Call Kenny turned in a six-furlong drill in 1:14.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Jeremiah Englehart had to wait a long time for his first Saratoga victory. Not so for Frankie Dettori.
The two horsemen were like little kids on Christmas morning Friday as Saratoga opened its 146th meeting under pristine conditions. Englehart, the 37-year-old trainer from upstate New York, and Dettori, the 43-year-old jockey based in England, both got the presents they wanted.
DEL MAR, Calif. – Oceanside winner Enterprising will have two or three starts at the Del Mar meeting, trainer Tom Proctor said on Friday. The $300,000 Del Mar Derby at 1 1/8 miles on turf on Aug. 31 is a likely spot, but Proctor has not ruled out a start in the $150,000 La Jolla Handicap at 1 1/16 miles on turf on Aug. 9.
“We’ll see how he comes out of it,” Proctor said. “I could wheel him back in the La Jolla or wait.”