Chapter 2 in the career of the much-ballyhooed Rachel’s Valentina will take place Saturday at Saratoga, where the regally bred 2-year-old filly makes her stakes debut against five others in the Grade 1, $350,000 Spinaway.
Mr Notorious had barely walked out of the sale ring at the Barretts Paddock Sale at Del Mar on July 25 when new owner Deron Pearson and trainer Jim Cassidy announced plans to point their $200,000 purchase to Saturday’s Del Mar Juvenile Turf.
Gulfstream Park will offer a stakes program worth a record $11.61 million in purses during the 2015-16 Championship Meet, which begins on Dec. 5.
Retiring American Pharoah after his Travers defeat would have been a disservice to the horse, his connections, and his legion of fans – and it all would have been due to an erroneous, though widespread, view of what happened in the Travers.
The Pennsylvania’s Day at the Races card at Parx on Saturday will include five $100,000 statebred stakes as planned – just not the five originally scheduled.
It was like a family reunion at Suffolk Downs Thursday as horsemen began shipping horses into the 80-year-old racetrack in preparation for the first of three Thoroughbred Racing Festival days on Saturday.
Belladiva looks like the one to beat in a $25,000 conditional-claiming race for fillies and mares that serves as the feature Saturday at Emerald Downs. Not counting maiden wins, the 6 1/2-furlong sprint is restricted to horses who have not won two races. It drew seven horses, and Belladiva will appreciate the class relief after running in three straight $25,000 optional-claiming races.
DRF handicapper Joe DeVivo provides strategy for a pick three play on Friday's program at Saratoga.
No fewer than the first six finishers from the Dr. Fager Stakes will be rematched when a second leg in the 2015 Florida Sire Stakes series, the $300,000 Affirmed Stakes, is run Saturday at Gulfstream Park. A promising colt named Tribal Drama will add to a deep lineup of 2-year-olds in the seven-furlong Affirmed.
Trainer Oscar M. Gonzalez saddles Sora (#5, ML 12-1) in Thursday's eighth race at Gulfstream Park, a 5 1/2-furlong claiming race. Since Jan., 1, 2014, Gonzalez is winning at a 31 percent clip when saddling a horse coming off a 31-60-day layoff, for a return on investment of $4.87. Check out the Positive ROI report as part of DRF Plus. Sign up for DRF Plus here.
