LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Trainer Dale Romans said his three stable stars likely will stay put at Churchill Downs pending their next races while he takes the rest of his better horses to Saratoga for the summer.
Romans said he has yet to determine a next race for Silver Max, the 5-year-old turf star who won the Grade 2 Firecracker Stakes on closing weekend of the Churchill Downs meet when making his first start in almost eight months.
Jockeys Don Simington, Fabio Arguello Jr., and apprentice Vanessa Fry are all in different stages of healing after sustaining riding injuries in the Mid-South region over the past several months. Simington is hopeful he will be back in action soon at Louisiana Downs, while Arguello said he is targeting a fall return, and Fry underwent surgery last Sunday.
CYPRESS, Calif. - Summer seems to be the ideal season for Soi Phet, who won Thursday’s $101,000 Bertrando Stakes for California-breds on the opening day of the Los Alamitos Thoroughbred meeting.
Last summer, after being claimed for $16,000, Soi Phet won four consecutive races at Hollywood Park and Del Mar.
Thursday’s Bertrando Stakes was Soi Phet’s second consecutive win. He won a starter handicap at Santa Anita on June 8 in his previous start. Soi Phet will run next in the $200,000 San Diego Handicap at Del Mar on July 24, trainer Leonard Powell said.
“If he doesn’t win or run well, we’ll just retire him,” Jones said. “If he doesn’t want to do it, we’ll stop on him.”
CYPRESS, Calif. – The $500,000 Los Alamitos Derby on Saturday will determine whether Top Fortitude is a late-running sprinter or a factor in rich two-turn races this summer.
The Grade 2 Los Alamitos Derby is run over 1 1/8 miles and will be the longest race in Top Fortitude’s career.
EAST BOSTON, MASS. – Like father, like son.
Jorge L. Vargas Sr. was always known as a good gate rider and a strong finisher while notching many of his 3,093 career wins at Suffolk Downs. Apprentice Jorge L. Vargas Jr. just turned 20, and now he’s the one turning heads here.
“Everyone is happy with the way he’s riding, and we’re getting a lot of calls from just about every trainer here,” said Vargas the elder, who hung up his tack at the end of May to take his son’s book. “He’s good leaving the gate, and he’s a good finisher.”
ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Hall of Fame trainer Sid Attard has had an accomplished career, winning more than 1,800 races and 84 stakes, but he’ll be searching for his first Queen’s Plate victory Sunday, when he starts Cap in Hand for the Tucci Stable.
Ruler On Ice, the 2011 Belmont Stakes winner, has been retired from racing, according to trainer Kelly Breen. As a gelding, Ruler On Ice will reside at the farm of his owners, George and Lori Hall, in Versailles, Ky.
Breen said Ruler On Ice retires sound, but that he and the Halls didn’t feel Ruler On Ice could be competitive at the graded-stakes level anymore. “He just didn’t have it,” Breen said.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Flashy Margaritta hasn’t done much wrong for trainer Ralph Biamonte, and the speedy gelding seeks his fourth stakes score Saturday at Woodbine in the $150,000 Achievement, a six-furlong dash for Ontario-bred 3-year-olds.
Flashy Margaritta prevailed in two Ontario-sired stakes in the fall, the Bull Page and Frost King. He tired to fourth after setting a rapid pace when returning from a winter layoff May 23, and then won the restricted Bold Ruckus Stakes in his turf debut June 14.
ELMONT, N.Y. - Wicked Strong, the Wood Memorial winner and fourth-place finisher in both the Kentucky Derby and Belmont Stakes (in a dead heat with California Chrome), breezed a half-mile in 49.23 seconds Wednesday over the Belmont Park training track.
It was his first move since the Belmont, and he is being pointed to the Jim Dandy Stakes at Saratoga on July 26, according to trainer Jimmy Jerkens.
