Free: How I'd play Del Mar for Saturday, July 25
DRF handicapper Brad Free outlines his top plays on Saturday's card at Del Mar.
Brad FreeJul 24, 2015
DRF handicapper Brad Free outlines his top plays on Saturday's card at Del Mar.
Trainer Roderick Rodriguez had never started a horse at Saratoga nor won a stakes of any kind anywhere coming into opening day of the 2015 meet. He accomplished both those milestones on Friday, thanks to the speedy 2-year-old filly Off the Tracks, a talented daughter of Curlin who rallied to an impressive 3 1/4- length victory over Banree and six others in the $150,000 Schuylerville Stakes.
There are no days off for Lava Man, the 2015 Hall of Fame inductee. At the age of 14, Lava Man thrives on activity. He is a pony for longtime trainer Doug O’Neill at Los Alamitos, guiding the stable’s young horses to and from the track.
Xtra Heat has earned her carrots many times over. The bargain-basement purchase became a Grade 1-winning multimillionaire, an Eclipse Award winner, and now a Hall of Famer. The Dixieland Heat mare will take her place in the National Museum of Racing’s Hall of Fame in an induction ceremony Aug. 7 in Saratoga Springs, N.Y.
Each week DRF Harness will bring you PA Harness Week. This 30-minute show highlights the best of Pennsylvania harness racing as well as what is happening on the national scene.
Frammento, the fifth-place finisher in the Belmont Stakes, worked a half-mile in 48.24 seconds here Friday. Frammento is being pointed to the Grade 2 Jim Dandy here on Aug. 1.
Back in Saratoga, where they finished noses apart when one-two in last year’s Travers Stakes, stablemates V. E. Day and Wicked Strong both worked this week for the Whitney.
Tom Proctor spends a lot of time criss-crossing the country between his Fair Hill base camp, the Glen Hill Farm in Florida, and his California outpost, but this weekend his concentration will be focused firmly on Saratoga where he will be running Include Betty in the $300,000 Coaching Club American Oaks on Sunday.
Through much of the 20th century, the name “Whitney” was synonymous with the very best of Thoroughbred racing.
Trainer Christophe Clement had John Velazquez work Tonalist for a second consecutive week on Friday, with Velazquez guiding him through a five-furlong move in 1:01.33 over the Oklahoma training track.