Blame Jim comes into the Grade 3 Jersey Shore Stakes at Monmouth Park on Saturday off a sharp Belmont Park sprint try and will rule a solid favorite in the six-furlong race for 3-year-olds. Blame Jim earned a 91 Beyer Speed Figure for his runner-up effort in a second-level optional claiming race last out at Belmont.
Tom Amoss, one of the leading trainers in the U.S., has accepted a 45-day suspension from the Indiana Horse Racing Commission to settle a medication positive that turned up in one of his horses after a race in 2011.
Robert “Bobby” W. Hall died of natural causes Wednesday. Hall, 85, is best known as the owner and trainer of George Royal, the only British Columbia-bred to win what is considered a Grade 1 race.
Stephanie’s Kitten won the Grade 2 Lake George at Saratoga in 2012, but she has lost three other graded stakes here by a combined 1 1/4 lengths. That includes the last two runnings of the Grade 1 Diana, a race Stephanie’s Kitten will attempt to win on Saturday.
Kung Fu Mambo, a Group 1 winner in Peru in 2012 who won his only start in the U.S. at Santa Anita last month, has been retired because of a recurring tendon injury.
After an unsuccessful venture into graded stakes, Sheer Pleasure starts in her fourth stakes for California-bred 3-year-old fillies in Saturday’s $200,000 Fleet Treat Stakes at seven furlongs at Del Mar.
Three Louisiana jockeys were arrested on Thursday and charged with race-fixing following an investigation into a race run at Evangeline Downs in Opelousas in mid-June, the state police announced.
Triple Crown winner American Pharoah gave trainer Bob Baffert goosebumps with his work Thursday morning at Del Mar, a drill officially timed in 1:11 for six furlongs, with American Pharoah always into the bit, eagerly looking to do more in his penultimate work for the Haskell Invitational at Monmouth on Aug. 2.
Blaze to Glory and Dust Alert, a pair of 2-year-old fillies unbeaten after two starts, will clash Saturday in the $165,171 Rio Grande Senorita Thoroughbred Futurity for New Mexico-bred females at Ruidoso Downs.
Saturday’s Grade 3 Sanford Stakes at Saratoga will have a decided Midwest flavor to it, with most of the major contenders having begun their campaigns in Kentucky before shipping to New York for the summer.
