“If he doesn’t win or run well, we’ll just retire him,” Jones said. “If he doesn’t want to do it, we’ll stop on him.”
AUBURN, Wash. – Stryker Phd, a fast-closing second at long odds in each of his past two starts, will take another run at trying to notch his first career stakes victory when he starts Sunday in the $50,000 Mt. Rainier Handicap at Emerald Downs.
The final local stakes for older horses before the Grade 3 Longacres Mile on Aug. 18, the 1 1/16-mile Mt. Rainier attracted six entrants and will be run as the ninth race on a 10-race program that begins at 2 p.m. Pacific.
The improving Summer Hit ($4.60) rated nicely on an uncontested lead and scored his first graded stakes victory Monday at Golden Gate Fields with an impressive score in the $100,000, Grade 2 All American Stakes.
The Bertrando gelding, who began his career by winning a $12,500 maiden claimer, had run second in the Grade 3 San Francisco Mile on the turf in his last start. He won the Silky Sullivan Stakes on the turf here last year.
ALBANY, Calif. – Monday’s Grade 3, $100,000 All American Stakes at Golden Gate Fields looks like a mismatch on paper.
Millionaire Tres Borrachos drew the rail and has seven rivals, none of whom can match his credentials.
If two Grade 2 victories, a second and a third in Grade 1 events, and seven other stakes placings aren’t enough, handicappers may be swayed by the two straight 100 Beyer Speed Figures the 8-year-old Ecton Park gelding has earned in his most recent starts for trainer Martin Jones.
It almost seems too easy.
ARCADIA, Calif. – Guilt Trip left jockey Joe Talamo eager to see more after the colt’s win in the Grade 2 Strub Stakes at Santa Anita on Feb. 2.
The opportunity will come in a race at the highest level – Saturday’s $750,000 Santa Anita Handicap. The Big Cap will be Guilt Trip’s first start over 1 1/4 miles and first stakes against older horses this year.
The distance is not a concern for Talamo.
“I think the more, the merrier,” Talamo said. “The way he ran the other day, he impressed me.”
ARCADIA, Calif. – After starting in stakes in 13 of his last 14 starts, an allowance race at Santa Anita on Friday may be what the veteran gelding Tres Borrachos needs to end a lengthy losing streak and reach a career milestone.
Tres Borrachos has not won in 13 starts, since the Grade 2 San Diego Handicap at Del Mar in July 2011. If he runs first or second in Friday’s second race at Santa Anita, he will surpass $1 million in career earnings.
“He deserves it,” trainer Marty Jones said.
INGLEWOOD, Calif. – Tres Borrachos is based at Betfair Hollywood Park, but Saturday’s $250,000 Triple Bend Handicap will be only his second start on that track in the last year.
The winner of the Grade 2 Swaps Stakes here, way back in 2008, the 7-year-old Tres Borrachos makes his first start in the Grade 1 Triple Bend since a seventh-place finish in the Charles Town Classic in West Virginia in April.
“I think he wants to run fresh,” trainer Marty Jones said. “It’s going to set him up for the San Diego.”
So far, the most noteworthy race in the career of Thiskyhasnolimit was one he lost, a second-place finish to Lookin At Lucky in the 2010 Indiana Derby. But from the appearance he made winning the Louisiana Handicap on Jan. 21, his first start since July, Thiskyhasnolimit might not yet have hit his ability’s limit.
ARCADIA, Calif. – In his last two starts, Tres Borrachos has proven to be dangerous from the front and off the pace. The style of racing that will be employed in Saturday’s $150,000 San Pasqual Stakes at Santa Anita rest solely in the hands of jockey Joel Rosario.
In the Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile at Churchill Downs on Nov. 5, Tres Borrachos closed from last in a field of nine to finish third. In the Grade 3 Native Diver Handicap at Hollywood Park on Dec. 3, Tres Borrachos led to deep stretch, finishing a half-length behind Kettle Corn.
