Mon, 06/17/2013 - 16:02

Belmont Park notes: Verrazano on track for Haskell Invitational

David Owens/Equi-Photo
Verrazano won the Grade 3 Pegasus by 9 1/4 lengths Sunday and earned a 96 Beyer Speed Figure.

ELMONT, N.Y. – Though Sunday’s Pegasus Stakes became virtually a walkover for Verrazano once Itsmyluckyday was pulled up, trainer Todd Pletcher believes his 3-year-old got enough out of the race to set him up perfectly for a return trip to Monmouth Park for the Grade 1, $1 million Haskell Invitational Stakes on July 28.

Mon, 06/17/2013 - 15:35

Belmont Park: Doubles Partner finds soft spot in Wednesday feature

Tom Keyser
Doubles Partner comes into the Tampa Bay Stakes off a second-place finish in the Sunshime Millions Turf.

ELMONT, N.Y. – After competing in 11 consecutive stakes – 10 of which were graded – over the past 26 months, Doubles Partner has found some class relief in Wednesday’s $81,000 optional-claiming feature at Belmont Park.

Double Partner, winless since taking the Grade 3 Canadian Turf at Gulfstream in March 2012, meets five rivals in the one-mile race, scheduled for the Widener turf course. Five of the six entrants have combined to go 0 for 22 this year and the sixth, Ninety Schillings, hasn’t run since April 2012.

Mon, 06/17/2013 - 15:07

Woodbine: Ultimate Destiny proving a wise purchase for Fehr

Michael Burns
Ultimate Destiny (No. 6) beats Good Better Best by a head in the Steady Growth Stakes on Saturday.

ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Trainer Alec Fehr was looking to add to his stable last fall when he learned that Ultimate Destiny was up for sale.

Ultimate Destiny, trained at the time by Mike Keogh, had competed in all three legs of the Canadian Triple Crown, with his best effort a second-place finish in Fort Erie’s Prince of Wales Stakes.

“Looking at a Form , he was consistent on pretty much every surface and at a variety of distances,” said Fehr. “I thought I’d take a chance, and it’s really worked out well.”

Mon, 06/17/2013 - 13:17

Woodbine: Jimmy Chew Shoos taking a shot on grass

ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Jimmy Chew Shoos switches to the turf off an improved race in Wednesday’s Woodbine headliner, a seven-furlong allowance for Ontario-sired nonwinners of three.

Jimmy Chew Shoos, a 6-year-old trained by co-owner Richard Cadger, defeated lowly $12,500 maidens in his eighth outing last spring. He maintained good form through the summer and was victorious over a capable group of $20,000 conditioned claimers in August.

Mon, 06/17/2013 - 13:04

Northlands Park: Spanish Jazz, On the Key square off in Wednesday feature

Spanish Jazz and On the Key look like the main players in a first-level allowance race for 3-year-olds and up that headlines Wednesday’s 10-race card at Northlands Park. The one-mile race attracted seven horses and goes as the sixth race.

Also on the card is the $27,278 Alberta Stallion Stakes Derby Final for 3-year-old Quarter Horses. The 330-yard dash drew nine horses and goes as the first race. Post time is 6 p.m Mountain.

Mon, 06/17/2013 - 13:00

Hollywood Park: Mike Mitchell released from hospital

Trainer Mike Mitchell was released from a Southern California hospital on Sunday evening, hours after collapsing near the winner’s circle of an apparent seizure following the sixth race at Betfair Hollywood Park.

Mitchell was resting at home on Monday morning, according to Billy Koch, a friend of the Mitchell family who operates the Little Red Feather Racing partnership.

“He’s doing much better,” Koch said. “He wanted to go to the barn.”

Mon, 06/17/2013 - 09:22

Arapahoe: Jockey Don Frazier gets 2,000th win

The 53-year-old jockey Don Lee Frazier won the 2,000th Thoroughbred race of his career Sunday at Arapahoe Park in Aurora, Colo., when he guided Fast But Furious to a debut win in a maiden special weight race. The horse won by four and a half lengths, and paid $13.60.

Frazier’s first Thoroughbred win came on Aug. 13, 1977. He has had 20,396  Thoroughbred mounts, and they have earned $11,518,159.

“It’s a highlight to reach 2,000,” Frazier said in a release issued by Arapahoe. “It’s a great accomplishment and not many riders have done it.”

Sun, 06/16/2013 - 22:07

Emerald Downs: Jebrica scores upset in Budweiser Handicap

AUBURN, Wash. – Jebrica, a 10-1 outsider, raced to a hard-earned victory Sunday in the $50,000 Budweiser Handicap for older horses at Emerald Downs, rallying from midpack to collar the leaders in the final yards and holding off the fast-closing Stryker Phd to win by three-quarters of a length.

Sun, 06/16/2013 - 20:42

Hollywood Park: Include Me Out wins Desert Stormer

Benoit & Associates
Include Me Out gave jockey Joe Talamo his eighth stakes win of the Betfair Hollywood Park spring-summer meeting in Sunday's Desert Stormer Handicap.

INGLEWOOD, Calif. – Include Me Out, a multiple Grade 1 winner in 2012 who was third in the Breeders’ Cup Ladies’ Classic at Santa Anita last fall, had a successful start to her 2013 campaign with a victory in Sunday’s $77,070 Desert Stormer Handicap at Betfair Hollywood Park.

A 5-year-old mare owned by Samantha Siegel and trained by Ron Ellis, Include Me Out won the fifth stakes of her career in the Desert Stormer, run over six furlongs.

Sun, 06/16/2013 - 20:05

Monmouth Park: Verrazano romps in Pegasus; Itsmyluckyday injured

Bill Denver/Equi-Photo
Verrazano and jockey John Velazquez won the Grade 3 Pegasus Stakes by 9 1/4 lengths Sunday.

OCEANPORT, N.J. – Verrazano is back, rebounding from a 14th-place finish in the Kentucky Derby to easily win the Grade 3, $148,500 Pegasus Stakes for 3-year-olds Sunday at Monmouth Park.

Itsmyluckyday wasn’t as fortunate. The runner-up to Oxbow in the Preakness, Itsmyluckyday was pulled up on the backstretch with a left hind injury. He was vanned back to his stall in Eddie Plesa Jr.’s barn.

“There is nothing obvious we can pinpoint at the moment,” Plesa said. “We’re taking a series of X-rays. So far, no fractures are evident.”