SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Malathaat, the undefeated winner of the Kentucky Oaks, will face only three rivals when she returns to the races in Saturday’s Grade 1, $500,000 Coaching Club American Oaks at Saratoga.
With only four runners, the CCA Oaks has been carded as race 5 on the 11-race card.
The Critical Way won for the sixth time in 10 starts since Jose Delgado took over his training when he got home by a half-length on June 17 in the $98,000 Wolf Hill Stakes on the Haskell undercard at Monmouth Park.
Delgado and Monster Racing Stables, The Critical Way’s owner, considered a trip to Saratoga, but Delgado said Wednesday that the $200,000 Parx Dash on Aug. 24 now seems the likely spot.
DEL MAR, Calif. – As Time Goes By, winner of two Grade 2 stakes for fillies and mares at Santa Anita in spring, worked a half-mile in 48.20 seconds on Wednesday at Del Mar for a potential start in the Grade 1 Clement Hirsch Stakes on Aug. 1.
Owned by the Coolmore syndicate and trained by Bob Baffert, As Time Goes By won the Grade 2 Santa Maria Stakes at 1 1/16 miles on May 22 by a nose over This Tea, who has since been retired because of injury.
DEL MAR, Calif. – General admission tickets will be available at Del Mar on Friday for the first time this summer.
On opening day, July 16, through Sunday, racegoers were required to purchase seats in advance and weren’t allowed to attend by walking up and buying a general admission ticket.
Track officials said the resumption of general admission will allow customers to make last-minute plans to attend racing through the end of the meeting on Sept. 6.
The stakes-placed filly Nimbostratus, claimed for a track-record $150,000 on May 22 at Santa Anita, was recently purchased by SF Racing in advance of Saturday’s Grade 2 San Clemente Stakes at Del Mar.
Nimbostratus was claimed in May by Mathilde Powell, wife of trainer Leonard Powell. Wednesday, Leonard Powell said SF Racing purchased Nimbostratus privately earlier this month.
Chris Pallas experienced the big-time with Mambo Meister and liked it. It has taken longer than he would have preferred, but Pallas might finally be primed for a return to major races with a mare named Shifty She.
“She’s special,” said Pallas, a longtime Fort Lauderdale resident and licensed pharmacist who has owned and bred horses in Florida for more than 20 years.
Shifty She has earned 88 Beyer Speed Figures in back-to-back stakes victories at Gulfstream Park in South Florida, where on Saturday she figures as a solid favorite in the $75,000 Monroe.
Jockey Leo Salles will not appeal a lengthy suspension for careless riding that bars him from competing at Woodbine for the balance of the meet, until Dec. 5.
Salles was on Arbeit when they impeded Bodie on the far turn in a maiden special weight route on the main track July 11. Keveh Nicholls was unseated but not seriously injured on Bodie, and then missed a week of riding engagements. The stewards took Salles off his remaining mounts on the July 11 card and then issued the suspension on July 15.
Next Sunday’s $500,000 Woodbine Oaks, a 1 1/8-mile test for Canadian-bred 3-year-old fillies, could have two unbeaten sprinters in the lineup, Lorena and Jilli Marie.
Lorena, by hot Ontario sire Souper Speedy, aced her stakes debut in the seven-furlong Fury here July 10, winning in front-running style over an anti-speed track.
“She’s just so genuine,” trainer Stu Simon said. “She’s the real deal. When you look at the schedule, you run in the Oaks, and then she runs back in the Bison City Stakes or the sales stakes. I honestly think there’s no doubt that she’ll two-turn.”
