SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Trainer Todd Pletcher wanted to try Winning Cause on grass again this summer and was rewarded for that decision with a victory in the one-mile Sir Cat Stakes here four weeks ago. On Wednesday, Pletcher will give Winning Cause a second opportunity to pick up black type on turf when he goes postward as the favorite in the $100,000 Dance of Life Stakes.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Despite not being able to bring Preakness winner Oxbow to the race, trainer D. Wayne Lukas still will make his first Travers appearance in more than a decade with Will Take Charge, a sneaky longshot in Saturday’s $1 million race.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Willet got to the paddock in an unorthodox manner but found her way to the winner’s circle in a most conventional way, circling three wide from off the pace for a convincing 1 3/4-length decision over Clear Pasaj in Monday’s $100,000 Union Avenue Stakes at Saratoga.
The victory avenged Willet’s hard-luck nose setback at the hands of Clear Pasaj on July 25 in the Lotsa Talc Stakes.
DEL MAR, Calif. – Ever since he arrived at Del Mar this summer, Game On Dude has worked every six days. You could set your clock by it. On Monday, six days since his last work and six days in front of the Pacific Classic, he completed his serious training for the Grade 1, $1 million race with his sharpest drill of the summer, officially five furlongs in 59.60 seconds, but with a powerhouse gallop-out of another three furlongs.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – With rare exceptions, trainers are always hoping to catch the smallest field possible whenever entering a horse in a stakes race. One of those exceptions will be Wednesday’s $150,000 Albany at Saratoga, the final leg of the Big Apple Triple that offers a $250,000 bonus to the owner of any horse who can sweep all three legs of the series, provided a minimum of six horses start out of the gate in all three races.
DEL MAR, Calif. – Sweet Assay and Fine Assay share the same pedigree, same trainer and same owner. But when the full sisters race three hours apart Wednesday at Del Mar, their differences will be conspicuous.
Sweet Assay is a sprinter whose odds will be short in race 1, a first-level optional claimer. Fine Assay is a distance filly whose odds will be long in race 7.
Bosco will try and stay undefeated when he comes back from a long layoff in a second-level allowance race at Northlands Park on Wednesday. The six-furlong race for 3-year-olds and up drew six horses and goes as the second of eight races carded. Post time for the first race is 6 p.m Mountain.
DEL MAR, Calif. - Flashback, considered one of the best 3-year-olds in the country before being injured earlier this year, is back in training for trainer Bob Baffert. He had his first drill since returning on Monday at Betfair Hollywood Park, traveling three furlongs in 37.20 seconds.
Flashback, winner of the Robert Lewis Stakes in February, came out of his runner-up finish in the Santa Anita Derby in April with a knee chip.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Up With the Birds was up to the task here Sunday, stretching out to 1 1/2 miles on turf and coming home a convincing winner of the $500,800 Breeders’ Stakes, the final leg of the Triple Crown for Canadian-bred 3-year-olds.
Owned and bred by Sam-Son Farm and trained by Malcolm Pierce, Up With the Birds had finished a closing second to upsetter Midnight Aria in the 1 1/4-mile Queen’s Plate on July 7, then bypassed the second race in the series, the Prince of Wales over 1 3/16 miles on dirt at Fort Erie on July 30, with an eye toward the Breeders’ Stakes.
