School Board Prez, a heavily backed first-time starter shipping in from Chicago, ran down pacesetter Ibelieveinmiracles in deep stretch to win Saturday’s $75,000 Miss Ohio Stakes for 2-year-old Ohio-bred fillies at ThistleDown.
DRF handicapper Peter Fornatale provides insight into a pick three play on Sunday's card at Saratoga.
Four potential contenders for the Grade 2 Jim Dandy Stakes – Texas Red, Frosted, Upstart, and Materiality – turned in their final works for the race on a busy and, for a short while, foggy Saturday morning at Saratoga.
Riker held off a persistent The Zip Zip Man in the stretch to take the $125,000 Colin Stakes for 2-year-olds under Jesse Campbell at Woodbine on Saturday.
Fog enveloped the track for the first hour of training Saturday morning at Saratoga, but three contenders for the Grade 1 Whitney Stakes on Aug. 8 put in workouts during that time.
Spring to the Sky had a relatively easy time when he defeated five rivals in last year’s Lucky Coin Stakes at Saratoga. Life won’t be as simple Monday when he seeks a repeat in the $100,000 stakes scheduled for 5 1/2 furlongs on Saratoga’s outer turf course.
Stellar Wind is running in a Grade 1 race in August at Del Mar, but a specific goal was not clear as of Saturday morning. Trainer John Sadler said the options include two $300,000 races – the Clement Hirsch Stakes against older fillies and mares at 1 1/16 miles next Saturday or the Del Mar Oaks for 3-year-old fillies at 1 1/8 miles on Aug. 15.
Big John B won his first stakes on dirt in Friday’s $100,000 Cougar II Handicap at 1 1/2 miles at Del Mar. The race is likely to have been a one-time surface change and not a new direction in the career of the 6-year-old gelding.
There would not be another coronation for Golden Horn on Saturday, as the star 3-year-old was scratched from the King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Stakes at Ascot because of soft ground, paving the way for Postponed to step forward and notch the most important victory of his career.
(5) MASOCHISTIC looks pretty solid in the Grade 1 Bing Crosby, and I am going to single him and then hope for bigger prices in the next two legs of the pick three that starts on Race 6.
