Actor Dick Van Patten, well known for his role on the television series “Eight is Enough” in the late 1970s and early 1980s and a fixture in the clubhouses of Southern California racetracks, died on Tuesday after an illness.
For Saturday’s Grade 1 Gold Cup at Santa Anita, trainer Bob Baffert will run the three-time stakes winner Hoppertunity, who was third in the Grade 1 Stephen Foster Handicap at Churchill Downs on June 13.
The classy Iowa-owned Sugar Shock heads a field of 10 female sprinters in Friday’s Saylorville Stakes at Prairie Meadows.
Bred and owned by a partnership led by Randy Bloch, Thatcher Street will have Brian Hernandez Jr. back aboard when part of an oversubscribed field in the eighth of nine Friday races, a $56,300, first-level allowance scheduled for 1 1/16 miles on the turf.
A 40 percent chance of rain early Friday may or may not affect the second of three Party at the Park programs with a first post of 3 p.m. Eastern. One thing’s for sure: Whether on the Widener turf as scheduled or on the main track, the featured third race will have a relatively short field.
With Louisiana Legends Night at Evangeline Downs a little more than a week away, the connections of some of the major players are making final preparations for one of the state’s biggest racing days. Eight stakes restricted to statebreds and worth a combined $775,000 should provide some real fireworks the evening of July 4.
Spanish Queen, the top 3-year-old turf filly in California, posted a sharp dirt workout Wednesday at Santa Anita as she prepares for her first road trip. The Grade 1, $1 million Belmont Oaks and a showdown with undefeated Lady Eli is next for Spanish Queen, who worked five furlongs for trainer Richard Baltas and jockey Brice Blanc.
Only 10 days after a solid runner-up finish to Beholder in the Grade 3 Adoration Stakes, Warren’s Veneda worked a snappy five furlongs Tuesday at Santa Anita in 58.80 seconds and will wheel back July 11 in the Grade 2 Great Lady M Stakes at Los Alamitos.
The seventh race at Santa Anita on Friday is a final chance to run a 3-year-old on the hillside turf course this summer, and assess whether a runner belongs in the $100,000 Oceanside Stakes on Del Mar’s opening day, July 16.
Friday’s $125,000 Iowa Sprint Handicap, the featured event on opening night of the Iowa Festival of Racing, presents another opportunity for Delaunay to get an elusive first win here.
