DEL MAR, Calif. - Three races into his career, the 2-year-old colt Mackinnon may have found his niche in one-mile turf races.
On Saturday at Del Mar, Mackinnon, a colt by American Pharoah, was tried at that distance for the first time and won a maiden special weight race by 1 3/4 lengths.
Earlier this year, Mackinnon was fourth in a maiden race on dirt at 4 1/2 furlongs at Santa Anita on May 9 and a well-beaten second in a maiden race at five furlongs on turf there on June 11.
DEL MAR, Calif. - The Chosen Vron, a three-time stakes winner this year, was found to have bled after a second-place finish in the $175,500 Real Good Deal Stakes last Friday at Del Mar, and will be given a rest.
Trainer Eric Kruljac said over the weekend that The Chosen Vron will have “a few months off.” During that time, The Chosen Vron will undergo treatment in a hyperbaric chamber, he said.
DEL MAR, Calif. - Dr. Schivel is likely to have one more start before the Breeders’ Cup Sprint on Nov. 6 after winning his 2021 stakes debut in Saturday’s Grade 1 Bing Crosby Stakes at Del Mar.
The six-furlong Bing Crosby was run on the same track and at the same distance as this year's BC Sprint.
Trainer Mark Glatt said Sunday morning that the 3-year-old Dr. Schivel emerged from the race “full of himself.”
“He pulled up very well,” Glatt said.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - Trainer Jack Sisterson had a career-defining moment last summer at Saratoga when Vexatious upset the mighty Midnight Bisou in the Personal Ensign to give him the first Grade 1 victory of his training career. Unfortunately for Sisterson, a back issue kept him from being here to celebrate the occasion.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - Essential Quality may not have blown away the competition or the speed-figure makers with his half-length victory in Saturday’s Grade 2 Jim Dandy Stakes at Saratoga, but he continued his winning ways, reminding trainer Brad Cox of another horse in his care.
“He reminds me of Monomoy,” Cox said, referring to the two-time filly champion Monomoy Girl who could attempt another comeback this fall. “They have a will to win. I wouldn’t say they do it the flashiest way, but they make it count.”
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - Trainer Ken McPeek accepted that he couldn’t race horses for 21 days at Saratoga after the barn he is stabled at was quarantined because a horse there was found on July 11 to have case of equine herpesvirus.
As the quarantine is set to be lifted on Barn 86 Sunday, McPeek is beyond frustrated that he can’t race his horses here until Friday.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - Fiya, a multiple-stakes-winning Maryland-bred gelding, suffered a fractured right hind leg during a workout Saturday morning over Saratoga’s main track and had to be euthanized.
Fiya was working toward a start in Friday’s Grade 3, $200,000 Troy Stakes on the turf.
The Illinois Racing Board’s application period for 2022 Illinois racing dates closed Friday with nothing submitted by Arlington International Racecourse or its parent company, Churchill Downs Inc.
Barring an entirely unforeseen development there will be no racing at Arlington next year. And unless CDI accepts a bid on the Arlington property from a development group intent on continuing racing at the suburban Chicago site, Arlington will shut its doors forever at the end of the 2021 season.
Del Mar has restored the purses of the Grade 1 Pacific Classic and Grade 2 Del Mar Derby to pre-pandemic levels, the track announced in a statement on Friday.
The Pacific Classic, run at 1 1/4 miles on dirt on Aug. 21, will be worth $1 million, the same prize money level as the 1991 to 2019 runnings. The race was worth $500,000 in 2020 when the track slashed stakes purses because of the pandemic and was originally advertised with a purse of $750,000 this year.
Del Mar has restored the purses of the Grade 1 Pacific Classic and Grade 2 Del Mar Derby to pre-pandemic levels, the track announced in a statement on Friday.
The Pacific Classic, run at 1 1/4 miles on dirt on Aug. 21, will be worth $1 million, the same prize money level as the 1991 to 2019 runnings. The race was worth $500,000 in 2020 when the track slashed stakes purses because of the pandemic and was originally advertised with a purse of $750,000 this year.
