The Louisiana Cup Day card of six stakes for Louisiana-breds will return to Louisiana Downs on Aug. 21 after a collective effort among the Bossier City, La., track, the Louisiana Thoroughbred Breeders Association, and the Louisiana Horsemen’s Benevolent and Protective Association.
Louisiana Downs announced the return of the card Monday.
:: Get Daily Racing Form Past Performances – the exclusive home of Beyer Speed Figures
While Coolmore took the final Grade 1 races at the Belmont meet on Saturday, its international rival, Godolphin Racing, will look to take the first Grade 1 of the Saratoga season with Althiqa and Summer Romance in Saturday’s $500,000 Diana Stakes.
Althiqa beat Summer Romance by three-quarters of a length when they ran 1-2 in the Grade 1 Just a Game going a mile at Belmont Park on June 5. Summer Romance beat Althiqa when they finished 1-3 in the Group 2 Balanchine at Meydan in February. That race was at 1 1/8 miles, the distance of the Diana.
ELMONT, N.Y. - Bolshoi Ballet and Santa Barbara, the two Coolmore-owned horses that won Saturday’s Belmont Derby and Oaks, respectively, emerged from their efforts “like they never had races,” according to assistant trainer T.J. Comerford. While they shipped back to trainer Aidan O’Brien’s Ballydoyle yard in Ireland on Sunday night, it is likely they will return to the U.S. at some point, with the year-end goals being the Breeders’ Cup.
Mean Mary, one of the leading older female turf-route horses, won’t run in the United Nations Stakes next Saturday. Trainer Graham Motion said several weeks ago he would consider the mare for the U.N., and she was nominated to the race, but Motion on Friday said her connections would take a pass and instead aim for the Glens Falls, a 1 1/2-mile turf stakes on Aug. 7 at Saratoga, or point for the Beverly D. at 1 3/16 miles the next Saturday at Arlington.
ELMONT, N.Y. – Art Collector, the Grade 2 Blue Grass Stakes and Ellis Park Derby winner for trainer Tom Drury, is now in the barn of Bill Mott and is targeting the $120,000 Alydar Stakes on Aug. 6 at Saratoga.
On Thursday, Art Collector worked a half-mile in 49.66 seconds over a Saratoga training track labeled wet fast.
“He was well on the bridle, he traveled well,” Mott said. “We just wanted to get him started and see.”
ELMONT, N.Y. – Wesley Ward enjoyed a fabulous Belmont Park spring/summer meeting and appears in good shape to get his Saratoga meet off to a strong start.
Ward looks to be well represented in both opening-day stakes Thursday at the Spa, as he will run Happy Soul in the Grade 3, $150,000 Schuylerville Stakes for 2-year-old fillies, and Golden Pal in the $120,000 Quick Call Stakes at 5 1/2 furlongs on turf.
Trainer Chad Brown has won the Grade 1 United Nations Stakes three times and will have three chances to get his fourth win July 17 in the 1 3/8-mile turf fixture.
Brown on Friday said he expects to enter Tribhuvan, Master Piece, and Serve the King in the U.N. Serve the King is based at Monmouth and finished fourth in the June 5 Monmouth Stakes, his first race after a long layoff. Master Piece and Tribhuvan will ship from New York. Both last started in the Manhattan, Master Piece finishing sixth, Tribhuvan second.
The field for the $1 million Haskell Invitational is holding steady, with a second Todd Pletcher-trained runner now in the mix and a decision on the participation of California-based Rombauer pending following a Friday workout.
Los Alamitos is eliminating racing on Fridays effective July 16 during its ongoing Quarter Horse and lower-level Thoroughbred meeting due to a shortage of available horses, track owner Ed Allred said Thursday.
The track will race on Saturday and Sunday evenings.
“We’ve been thinking about this for a long time,” Allred said. “It’s difficult to conduct an everyday program.
“The horse population is kind of skewered. We have very few older, cheap Quarter Horses. We have plenty of 2-year-olds. By the time they are 3, they are upper-level allowance horses or better.”
