SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – If you’ve watched a Fox Sports broadcast of the races from Saratoga Race Course this summer, you’ve undoubtedly seen the commercial promoting a $100,000 bonus offered by James McIngvale to the owners of a 2-year-old by his stallion Runhappy should the horse win a maiden race at select meets, including Saratoga.
On Saturday, there is a legitimate chance that bonus may have to be paid out for the first time.
The two-time stakes winner Big Sweep will have her turf debut in an allowance race with an $80,000 claiming option for 3-year-old fillies in the seventh race at Del Mar on Saturday.
The one-mile race might as well be a minor stakes. Aside from Big Sweep, five of the other seven fillies have run in stakes.
Attorney Brenda Davis has been appointed to the California Horse Racing Board and consultant Wendy Mitchell, who joined the board in the summer of 2019, has been reappointed, according to a statement released earlier this week by the office of Gov. Gavin Newsom.
Davis, 65, resides in Sacramento and has had a law firm there since 2007.
Trainer Luis Mendez admits that Dr. Schivel is a better colt than Mendez is an exercise rider.
Monday, Mendez worked Dr. Schivel a half-mile in 48.60 seconds in preparation for the Grade 1 Runhappy Del Mar Futurity on Sept. 7.
“I had hoped for 49 and change and he did 48 and change,” Mendez said. “I don’t have a good clock in my mind.
“He covers more ground than you think.”
ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Trainer Sid Attard has won a number of big races at Woodbine in his career, including the Grade 1 Atto Mile with Numerous Times in 2001 and the Grade 1 Northern Dancer Turf Stakes with Interpol in 2015. The one race that has eluded Attard so far is the Queen’s Plate, but the Canadian Hall of Fame trainer is back on the trail this year with contenders Dotted Line and Olliemyboy.
Monmouth Park in New Jersey will ask state racing regulators to approve nine additional live racing dates this year, the track said on Wednesday.
The dates will all be added in October -- on Oct. 3-4; on the next three Wednesdays and Saturdays; and on Monday, Oct. 12, which is Columbus Day. The Preakness Stakes, which this year is the last leg of the Triple Crown due to the disruption caused by the coronavirus pandemic, is scheduled for Oct. 3.
Tonalist’s Shape will be making a notable equipment change Friday night, when she takes on Hopeful Growth and Wicked Whisper in the Grade 3, $200,000 Charles Town Oaks.
The race is one of seven stakes on a card led by the Grade 2, $600,000 Charles Town Classic. It’s the first time the West Virginia track has run two graded races on one program, according to a press release. The dates of both races had to be moved earlier this year due to the coronavirus pandemic.
A total of 47 people working at Churchill Downs in Louisville have been told to quarantine according to CDC and local guidelines after the track completed a round of coronavirus testing on the track’s backside and frontside, according to figures provided by the track on Wednesday.
According to Darren Rogers, Churchill conducted 1,823 tests of staff and backstretch workers from Aug. 19 to Aug. 24. The 47 total positive tests represented a positivity rate of 2.83 percent, compared to an approximate average of 5 percent in Kentucky over the past month.
Hall of Fame jockey Mike Smith will ride his final program of the current Del Mar meeting on Saturday, more than a week before the conclusion of the season on Sept. 7.
Smith was given a three-day suspension on Sunday for causing interference in the first race last Saturday. The suspension covers racing days on Sunday, Monday, and Sept. 4.
:: DRF's Del Mar headquarters – Stakes schedule, previews, recaps, past performances, and more
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Dr Post, runner-up to Tiz the Law in the Belmont Stakes and third to Authentic in the Haskell, is likely to bypass the Kentucky Derby on Sept. 5 and could run either in the Jim Dandy that same day at Saratoga or perhaps wait for the Preakness on Oct. 3.
Todd Pletcher trains Dr Post for Vinnie and Teresa Viola’s St. Elias Stable. Pletcher said Viola seems to be leaning more toward Dr Post taking his next shot against Tiz the Law in the Preakness.
