In the end, trainer Todd Pletcher only went with one runner, Liam’s Map, in the Grade 1, $1.25 million Whitney on Saturday. In looking ahead to the $600,000 Woodward, the other Grade 1 stakes race for older horses at the meet, Pletcher is already considering having multiple runners. The Woodward is run Sept. 5.
A big field appears likely for the 33rd Arlington Million after 14 older horses were pre-entered for the 1 1/4-mile turf race Saturday at Arlington Park in suburban Chicago.
Trainer Charlton Baker is hoping to find another dimension to the already-potent arsenal of his multiple stakes-winning 3-year-old New York-bred when he puts him on turf for the first time Monday at Saratoga in the $100,000 New York Stallion Stakes.
Stuart Janney III, The Jockey Club’s vice chairman since 2010, was elected the chairman of the organization at a board meeting Saturday, filling the spot vacated by Ogden Mills “Dinny” Phipps, who announced his resignation earlier this year, effective with the Saturday meeting.
In January, Hard Aces joined trainer John Sadler’s California stable with the goal of starting in the major stakes on the circuit for older horses. The acquisition proved to be successful when Hard Aces won the $500,000 Gold Cup at Santa Anita on June 27. Sadler recently added another runner for the older horse division to his stable in Class Leader, the winner of the Sir Barton Stakes at Pimlico in 2014. Class Leader is scheduled to make his California debut in the $1 million Pacific Classic on Aug. 22.
Spanish Queen, the winner of the Grade 1 American Oaks at Santa Anita on May 30, will miss the $300,000 Del Mar Oaks on Aug. 15 because of a bruised foot.
In the summers of her youth, she hung around the Saratoga barn of Hall of Fame trainer Allen Jerkens, for whom her father, Bill, worked. Her great-uncle on her mother’s side was the legendary trainer Charlie Whittingham.
American Pharoah, the Triple Crown winner, merely jogged again Saturday morning at Del Mar, the second straight day he has jogged since returning to the track following his victory last Sunday in the Haskell Invitational at Monmouth Park.
I’ve written elsewhere about my ongoing fascination with, and allegiance to, Honor Code. I’ll be rooting for him down the stretch. As a practical, parimutuel matter, however, I can’t single him in my pick-anythings. He’ll win this with a repeat of his jaw-dropping Met Mile victory, but there is legitimate doubt, even in his own connections’ minds, about whether he can be as effective at two turns as one. He won the Remsen at 2, but that race was run so slowly early that this deep closer was on the pace all the way.
Just call it a “sproute.” The $50,000 Dine Stakes at SunRay Park on Tuesday brings together eight 3-year-olds at a sprint distance of 6 1/2 furlongs going a route configuration of two turns. It’s a bit of a handicapping puzzle, with none of the entrants proven at the distance and Picasso’s Bro the lone member of the field who has won at two turns. In addition, just two starters have had success at the stakes level, Southern Fire and Atillas Gift.
