Shared Belief, the champion 2-year-old male of 2013, has started a light exercise program of walking at the Pegasus Training and Equine Rehabilitation Center in Redmond, Wash., the first stage in a planned comeback after injuring his hip in the Charles Town Classic in West Virginia in April.
Prize Exhibit is the lone 3-year-old filly in the $200,000 Yellow Ribbon Handicap at Del Mar on Sunday and the only runner in the field of 12 with two stakes wins this year.
Triple Crown winner American Pharoah is scheduled to be paraded in the paddock and on the racetrack between races Sunday.
Baruta has been a busy mare at Del Mar this summer, wining an allowance race in the first week of the meet in July and finishing second in the Grade 3 Rancho Bernardo Handicap on Aug. 16. There is time for one more start and a potential first stakes win Sunday in the $80,000 C.E.R.F. Stakes for fillies and mares at six furlongs.
Trainer Jeff Mullins had an ideal start to the Del Mar summer meeting, winning with four of his first seven starters July 16-18. Mullins could finish the meeting Monday with an equally strong flourish.
Prospect Park already had proven in spring that he could perform admirably on dirt against the elite 3-year-olds on the West Coast, but his overpowering victory in the La Jolla has makes him a standout as he goes for a second straight grass win in the Grade 2, $250,000 Del Mar Derby.
The number of U.S. races held in August plummeted by 10 percent but handle on those races was up marginally, according to figures released on Friday by Equibase.
Favoritism in the $100,000 Sapling Stakes at Monmouth Park on Sunday should come down to Prairie Meadows Juvenile Mile winner Pinnacle Peak and locally based Full Salute.
Hammersly: How I'd play Del Mar for Saturday, Sept. 5
Trainer Francisco Bravo aims to cap his phenomenal season with wins by the 2-year-old gelding Pensador and the 2-year-old filly Stella’s Princess in two stakes for Minnesota-bred juveniles on Sunday’s Minnesota Festival of Champions card at Canterbury Park.
