ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Trainer Ricky Griffith, known for sending out precocious juveniles, entered No Fruit Degroote and Ba Ba Brett in the first 2-year-old stakes of the Woodbine meet on Saturday, the $150,000 Victoria.
Griffith captured last year’s five-furlong Victoria with Ray’s Away, who was subsequently sold for a pretty penny. Ray’s Away was owned then by Debmar Stable, which owns both Griffith runners in Saturday’s renewal.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Pender Harbour has been one of the most consistent horses on the grounds through his three campaigns, winning a total of seven stakes while racing on turf and Polytrack here at Woodbine and on the dirt at Fort Erie.
On Sunday, Pender Harbour will be making his first appearance as a 5-year-old and is returning from an eight-month layoff for trainer Mike DePaulo in the Grade 2, $600,000 King Edward Stakes at one mile on turf.
Travelin Man and Candyman E were beaten favorites in sprint stakes last time out. In March, both horses won stakes with Beyer Speed Figures within five points of each other. So, why is Travelin Man the 3-1 morning-line favorite and Candyman E a 10-1 outsider in the track program for Saturday’s $100,000 Donald LeVine Memorial Handicap at Parx Racing?
ELMONT, N.Y. - Souper Speedy, who was put up to first in the Jaipur Stakes when stablemate Big Screen inhibited him during the stretch run, worked four furlongs in 50.03 seconds Wednesday morning over the Belmont main track.
The Jaipur, a race scheduled for the turf, was rained off to the main track and Souper Speedy won as a main-track only entrant.
Trainer Tom Albertrani said he may enter Souper Speedy as a main-track only entrant in the Grade 3, $150,000 Poker on July 4 and hope for more rain.
ELMONT, N.Y. - Flat Out, who suffered his first loss in five career starts at Belmont Park when he was third in the Grade 1 Metropolitan Handicap, will make his next start in the Grade 2, $300,000 Suburban here on July 6, trainer Bill Mott said.
Before the Met Mile, Flat Out was 4 for 4 at Belmont with wins in the last two Jockey Club Gold Cups, the 2011 Suburban and this year’s Westchester.
“No sense waiting. He likes Belmont,” Mott said.
ELMONT, N.Y. - While Dreaming of Julia will strut her stuff this Saturday in the Mother Goose, her stablemate Kauai Katie will return in next Saturday’s Grade 3, $150,000 Victory Ride Stakes here at six furlongs.
Kauai Katie finished third in the Grade 1 Acorn on May 27, and while trainer Todd Pletcher’s major summer targets for the filly are the Prioress and Test – both Grade 1 sprints at Saratoga – he plans to utilize the Victory Ride as well.
Correction: An earlier version of this story stated that Paynter had not started on a synthetic track. He raced on a synthetic track when winning an allowance race at Betfair Hollywood Park on June 14.
Paynter, who was severely ill with colitis and laminitis last summer and fall and then returned to win his comeback in an allowance race at Hollywood Park on June 14, is not expected to start again at the current meeting.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. - Tammy Fox, a key employee in the far-flung Dale Romans stable, will be out of action in the coming weeks after suffering an ankle fracture in a recent morning training accident.
Fox was thrown from a horse June 11 and “landed on her feet,” said Romans, the 2012 Eclipse Award winner for top trainer. “But she landed in an awkward position and broke the ankle.”
Fox, a former jockey, is the life partner of Romans. They have two children together.
Goldencents, the winner of the Santa Anita Derby in April, will revert to sprints later this summer after disappointing performances in the Kentucky Derby and Preakness Stakes.
Earlier this spring, trainer Doug O’Neill said that the $500,000 King’s Bishop Stakes over seven furlongs for 3-year-olds at Saratoga on Aug. 24 is a long-term goal for Goldencents. O’Neill is now planning for a potential prep race for Goldencents in the $300,000 Bing Crosby Stakes over six furlongs at Del Mar on July 28.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. - Trainer Tom Amoss said he is unsure of the next start for Free World, a wire-to-wire winner of the $207,600 Centaur Stakes on the Indiana Downs turf last Saturday evening.
Owned by Maggi Moss, Free World now has won four straight races, all of them in front-running fashion, and 5 of his last 6. A son of Stormy Atlantic, he was the 8-5 favorite in the one-mile Centaur and finished two lengths clear of another Churchill Downs-based 3-year-old, War Dancer.
“All I know is we’ll keep him on the grass,” Amoss said.
