ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Nipissing probably punched her ticket to the prestigious Queen’s Plate when she outran the favored Spring in the Air to win the $500,000 Woodbine Oaks on Sunday.
Nipissing ($7.10) rated kindly in fifth on the backstretch under Steven Bahen. Her stablemate, Original Script, set moderate splits of 23.89 seconds, 48.49, and 1:13.01 in the 1 1/8-mile route for Canadian-bred 3-year-old fillies.
INGLEWOOD, Calif. – Sarach, who won the $150,750 Honeymoon Handicap for 3-year-old fillies Saturday, will have a familiar list of rivals when she starts in the $350,000 American Oaks on July 14.
The second- through fourth-place finishers in the Grade 2 Honeymoon Handicap – Scarlet Strike, Macha, and Becky Lou – are candidates for the Grade 1 American Oaks, which is run over 1 1/4 miles on turf. The American Oaks is California’s richest race for 3-year-old fillies.
INGLEWOOD, Calif. – At 5, Tale of a Champion has a new career.
His win in Saturday’s $200,250 Charles Whittingham Memorial Handicap over 1 1/4 miles on turf at Betfair Hollywood Park confirmed trainer Kristin Mulhall’s opinion that longer races should be the focus for Tale of a Champion for the rest of 2013.
“He just wants to go a distance,” Mulhall said Sunday. “When you gallop him, he’ll run off for two miles, and you still can’t pull him up. He’ll work in 1:01, and he’ll gallop-out a mile in 1:40 with you trying to pull him up. He’s got a lot of blood in him.”
ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Dynamic Sky closed five wide under Joel Rosario and caught 12-1 shot His Race to Win late to win Sunday’s $150,800 Plate Trial Stakes, an important prep for the July 7 Queen’s Plate at Woodbine.
Dynamic Sky ($8.60) bided his time near the back of the 10-horse field in the 1 1/8-mile route, as Midnight Aria and Holy Whirl Wind vied through honest fractions. Dynamic Sky commenced his rally on the far turn in unison with a four-wide His Race to Win, who hit the front in midstretch before Dynamic Sky nailed him on the wire to prevail by a nose in 1:50.59.
INGLEWOOD, Calif. – Paynter, who won the Grade 1 Haskell Invitational last July and then fought through severe bouts with colic and laminitis, has been entered in a $62,000 allowance race at Betfair Hollywood Park on Friday.
Paynter is part of a field of eight for the seven-furlong race, which will be the seventh on an eight-race program. The race will be run at about 4 p.m. Pacific.
ELMONT, N.Y. – There are not many trainers who can win the Belmont Stakes early Saturday evening and then work 18 horses the following morning, including a trio of Grade 1 winners.
But there aren’t many trainers blessed with the stock of Todd Pletcher, who, the morning after winning the Belmont with Palace Malice, watched as Verrazano, Dreaming of Julia, and Princess of Sylmar topped a loaded work tab at Belmont Park for upcoming stakes.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Inglorious, Canada’s champion 3-year-old filly of 2011 and a close second to Never Retreat in that year’s voting for Canada’s Horse of the Year honors, has been retired.
Owned by the Donver Stable of Donna and Vern Dubinsky and trained by Josie Carroll, Inglorious finished last of seven in Saturday’s Trillium Stakes at Woodbine after trailing the field of six in Keeneland’s Grade 3 Doubledogdare on April 19.
ELMONT, N.Y. – Palace Malice, who won the Belmont Stakes on Saturday, came out of the race in good condition and is likely headed to Saratoga for the Jim Dandy Stakes on July 27 and the Travers on Aug. 24, trainer Todd Pletcher said Sunday at Belmont Park.
Both Preakness winner Oxbow, who was second in the Belmont, and Kentucky Derby winner Orb, who was third, also could point to the Travers, making that race potentially a pivotal showdown for the 3-year-old male title.
ELMONT, N.Y. – Point of Entry emerged from his victory in the Manhattan Handicap on Saturday at Belmont Park with a “slight condylar fracture” of his left hind cannon bone, trainer Shug McGaughey said Sunday morning at Belmont.
McGaughey said Point of Entry was to leave Sunday for the Rood & Riddle Equine Hospital in Lexington, Ky., where noted surgeon Dr. Larry Bramlage would perform surgery this week. McGaughey said he believed only one screw might be needed to close the fracture, leading to hope that Point of Entry could return to racing.
ALTOONA, Iowa – Ice Hockey, under a determined effort from jockey Israel Ocampo, wore down 29-1 pacesetter Beware the Devil to garner a head victory in Saturday night's featured $75,000 Cyclones Handicap at Prairie Meadows.
