DEL MAR, Calif. – Rail Trip, the millionaire 8-year-old gelding, needs a start in Wednesday’s $90,000 Pirate’s Bounty Stakes at Del Mar to stay on schedule for a fall campaign at Santa Anita. and a start in the Breeders’ Cup.
He is not the only runner in the six-furlong race in that situation.
DEL MAR, Calif. – Diamond Bachelor has had a lofty reputation since he walked out of the Barretts March sale of 2-year-olds in training this year after selling for $570,000. He did little to dampen the expectations when he beat maidens in his debut over a mile on turf at Del Mar on Aug. 8.
Toss out Count the Change’s most recent race, where she was overmatched in a $35,000 optional claimer Aug. 16, and she looks like the one to beat in Wednesday’s feature at Northlands Park.
The one-mile, $25,000 optional claimer for fillies and mares drew five horses and goes as race 2 on an eight-race card that begins at 6 p.m. Mountain.
DEL MAR, Calif. – Paynter, who finished a well-beaten last of five as the favorite in Saturday’s $735,000 Woodward Stakes at Saratoga, will start in the $250,000 Awesome Again Stakes at Santa Anita on Sept. 28, trainer Bob Baffert said Sunday.
DEL MAR, Calif. – The Labor Day pick six at Del Mar on Monday will begin with $297,538 already in the till, the result of a carryover from Sunday, when all tickets were dead after the first five legs of the wager.
The Monday card has 11 races, so the pick six will begin with race 6. Post time for that race is about 4:30 p.m. Pacific. The day's first race is at the usual 2 p.m.
There are at least 10 runners in all six legs of the pick six, including the featured Grade 2, $150,000 Yellow Ribbon Handicap, in which course specialist Halo Dolly will defend her title.
DEL MAR, Calif. – Ethnic Dance did not show much in his first four starts on synthetic and dirt, but he has completely turned it around since moving to turf, and he displayed just how far he’s come when leading an accomplished group of stakes horses on a merry chase to capture the $251,250 second division of the Grade 2 Del Mar Derby on Sunday.
AUBURN, Wash. – Vodka With Ice raced to a mild upset Sunday in the $54,000 Bank of America Emerald Downs Challenge Championship for Quarter Horses, snapping 3-5 favorite Chicks Special Angel's 10-race winning streak while covering 440 yards in a track-record 21.667 seconds.
With his victory, Vodka With Ice, an 8-year-old Stoli gelding, earned a berth in the Grade 1, $350,000 Bank of America Challenge Championship on Nov. 9 at Los Alamitos.
DEL MAR, Calif. – She’s a Tiger, the winner of Saturday’s Grade 1 Del Mar Debutante, will take a familiar path this fall toward a potential start in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies at Santa Anita on Nov. 1.
SHAKOPEE, Minn. – Trainer Mac Robertson sent out four stakes winners on Minnesota Festival of Champions Day at Canterbury Park on Sunday – three with jockey Alex Canchari in the saddle and two for owner Malkerson Stables – but the star of the day was Heliskier.
DEL MAR, Calif. – Gabriel Charles answered a nearly year-old question with his win in the $251,250 first division of the Del Mar Derby on Sunday: He most certainly is capable of winning top races around two turns.
With only a sprint stakes win on turf to his credit, Gabriel Charles won for the first time beyond 6 1/2 furlongs in the first division of the Grade 2 Del Mar Derby, closing from eighth in a field of 10 to win by 1 1/4 lengths over Gervinho.
Trainer Jeff Mullins described the win as “gratifying.”
