ALTOONA, Iowa – Beat the Blues, the 9-5 morning line favorite for Friday’s $100,000 Saylorville Stakes at Prairie Meadows, was not on a Wednesday flight from Louisville to Des Moines and will miss the race, which kicks off the two-card Iowa Festival of Racing.
Beat the Blues, the 2011 Saylorville champ and winner of the Grade 3 Winning Colors at Churchill Downs on May 27t, was “too sore” to get on the van to the airport from trainer Bret Calhoun’s Churchill stable.
Short Round came from far back in the field of 3-year-old Indiana-breds to win the $85,000 The Snack, one of two stakes run at Indiana Downs on Wednesday evening.
Originally scheduled for a mile on the turf, The Snack was moved to a sloppy main track and contested at a mile and 70 yards.
After overcoming a bad start, Short Round was eighth early in the field of 11. Jockey Orlando Mojica went to work on Short Round in the stretch and he got up in time to win by three-quarters of a length.
Colonial Downs in New Kent, Va., was forced to cancel its Wednesday evening card following the third race due to a thunderstorm that resulted in a power outage at the facility. The track had been scheduled to run eight races Wednesday.
Racing at Colonial Downs is scheduled to resume with Thursday’s card. First post Thursday is 6 p.m. Eastern.
Unlike last Saturday and Sunday, when no one hit the pick six at Belmont Park and a double carryover of $248,140 was the result, a series of fairly predictable results on Wednesday led to a wide distribution of riches.
With a fresh $1,984,034 diving into the pool, the pick six paid $6,152 to 229 winners who correctly tabbed the 3-8-4-10-3-10 combination of Longfor the City ($4.20), Crackerjack Jones ($2.90), Wholelottashakin ($8.90), Delightful Dawn ($8.20), Strapping Groom ($11.20), and Antone Suavey ($8.90).
AUBURN, Wash. – The speedy 4-year-old fillies Daisy Clover and Hot N Sauci headline the feature at Emerald Downs on Friday, a $12,500 claiming race for fillies and mares that have never won two races. The six-furlong feature attracted six entrants and will go as the sixth race on a seven-race program beginning at 6:45 p.m. Pacific.
Daisy Clover has yet to finish worse than second in three starts for trainer Blaine Wright, who began the week with 12 winners from 37 starters at the meeting – a strike rate of 32 percent that has made him Emerald Downs’s most efficient trainer.
Havelock remained in England after finishing 11th at 33-1 under Frankie Dettori in the Group 1 Diamond Jubilee last Saturday at Royal Ascot and likely will run back July 13 in the Group 1 July Cup, a six-furlong race at Newmarket, Churchill-based trainer Darrin Milller said.
Havelock, a multiple graded stakes winner in the United States, is in the care of Miller’s 19-year-old son, Chase, at the same yard, Abington Place, used by such well-known trainers as Michael de Kock and Jane Chapple-Hyam.
Stephanie’s Kitten, arguably the top female turf runner in North America this year, has not worked since her victory in the Grade 1 Just a Game on the June 8 Belmont Stakes undercard but continues to train forwardly at Churchill, according to trainer Wayne Catalano.
Another Grade 1 race – the July 27 Diana at Saratoga or the Aug. 17 Beverly D. at Arlington Park – is next, Catalano said.
“We were thinking about a prep in between, but it doesn’t look like we’ll do that,” he said. “We’ll just go straight into one of those big ones.”
Jimmy Creed may be favored in Saturday's Triple Bend Handicap, which has a projected field of nine, including defending champion Camp Victory as well as Centralinteligence, Comma to the Top, Cyclometer, Drill, Morning Line, Rail Trip, and Tres Borrachos.
A couple of horses expected to participate in Calder’s Summit of Speed turned in sharp workouts over the track Wednesday.
Close It Out, the runner-up in the June 8 Ponche Handicap, sizzled four furlongs in 46.82 seconds and galloped out five-eighths in 59.73 under jockey Manoel Cruz in preparation for the Grade 2 Smile Sprint Handicap, a Win and You’re In event for the Breeders’ Cup Sprint.
ARLINGTON HEIGHTS, Ill. – Saturday’s Chicago Handicap at Arlington has landed a plum entrant in Aubby K, winner of the Grade 1 Humana Distaff at Churchill Downs in her most recent start.
Trained by Ralph Nicks, the 4-year-old Aubby K won the Grade 2 Inside Information at Gulfstream Park to start her season before capturing the May 4 Humana Distaff by 1 1/2 lengths. The Gulfstream win came on fast track, the Churchill win in slop, and on Saturday, Aubby K, a daughter of Street Sense, will try an all-weather racetrack for the first time.
