Star of Seville, the winner of the Group 1 French Oaks at Chantilly on June 14, will have her stakes debut against older fillies and mares in Saturday’s $934,860 Nassau Stakes at about 1 1/4 miles on turf at Goodwood Racecourse in England.
In examining the past performances of Saturday’s Grade 2 Amsterdam at Saratoga, some might conclude March and Barbados are the classiest runners in the field. The former is a multiple graded winner, and the latter is a graded winner who also boasts another stakes triumph and a graded placing.
There are only seven entered in Saturday’s $200,000 Amsterdam for 3-year-olds at Saratoga, but a good case can be made for almost any member of the field in the Grade 2 test, which serves as the major prep for the Grade 1 King’s Bishop later in the meet.
The 2015 Keeneland September yearling sale will feature a catalog of 4,164 offerings, keeping consistent with the size of last year’s edition. The 12-day bellwether yearling sale will be held Sept. 14-26, and will feature a new format for the coming renewal, condensing Book 1 from four days to three.
New York’s five offtrack betting corporations have terminated a simulcasting contract with Churchill Downs Inc. and dropped the signals from the tracks controlled by the company, officials for the corporations said on Thursday.
The aftermath of a record five-win day by trainer Doug O’Neill at Del Mar on Wednesday may be the long-term potential of one of the winners.The stable considers the 2-year-old filly Land Over Sea to be the sort of runner capable of starting in a Breeders’ Cup race at Keeneland on Oct. 30-31.
Saturday, in the Grade 1, $350,000 Alfred G. Vanderbilt Handicap at Saratoga, Rock Fall will get a chance to prove he belongs in the upper echelon of sprinters when he faces an accomplished group which includes multiple stakes winners Salutos Amigos, The Big Beast, Clearly Now and Favorite Tale.
There are several indications Beholder will be difficult to beat in Saturday’s $300,000 Clement Hirsch Stakes for fillies and mares at Del Mar.
Saratoga’s opening weekend this year may be best remembered for the highly unusual disqualification of horses who finished first in graded stakes on consecutive afternoons: the takedowns of Magna Light in the Grade 3 Sanford Saturday, and of I’m a Chatterbox in the Grade 1 Coaching Club American Oaks Sunday.
Monkey Business, a daughter of U.S. sire and record-priced juvenile The Green Monkey, clinched the 2015 Panamanian filly Triple Crown on July 12 when she won the Group 2 Clasico Raúl (Lul) Arango, Raúl (Baby) Arango y Roberto (Bob) Arango Chiari at Hipodromo Presidente Remon.
