Ervedya and Muhaarar won Group 1 races for 3-year-olds at Royal Ascot on Friday, a day in which five American-trained runners failed to finish in the top three in their respective races.
The 2-year-old filly Uptown Twirl lived up to advance billing as the 1-2 favorite by winning a maiden special weight race by a half-length over Tiz a Tommy Town at Santa Anita on Thursday.
Commercial breeders did not expect a great deal from 2004 Belmont Stakes winner Birdstone when he retired to Gainesway in 2005, and as a result, his first crop included only 67 named foals. When two of those 67 foals turned out to be 2009 Kentucky Derby winner Mine That Bird and 2009 Belmont Stakes winner and champion 3-year-old male Summer Bird, however, perception of Birdstone’s potential as a sire and patronage by breeders changed somewhat.
Three-year-old New York-breds provide a Father’s Day stakes doubleheader at Belmont Park, with divisions of the New York Stallion Series scheduled for the Widener turf at seven furlongs.
California Chrome has shown improvement from a foot abscess in recent days that prevented a start in Wednesday’s Prince of Wales’s Stakes at Royal Ascot in England, and is tentatively scheduled to return to the United States in early July for a potential start in the Arlington Million.
Saturday’s card at Belmont features the Grade 3 Bed o’ Roses Handicap for fillies and mares traveling seven furlongs.
With several would-be contenders taking a pass, the Grade 2, $200,000 Firecracker on closing night of the 38-day Churchill Downs spring meet is taking on a wide-open look.
Trainer Peter Miller calls the current roster of 2-year-olds his “best group ever.” Trainer John Brocklebank would call it his first ever. They meet Sunday at Santa Anita in the $125,000 Landaluce Stakes.
Monmouth Park will be buzzing Sunday and not just because of the day’s two stakes. Father’s Day has become the second-most heavily attended card of the season behind Haskell Day.
The Ocala Breeders’ Sales Co. June sale of 2-year-olds in training and horses of racing age wrapped up an active juvenile auction season in central Florida. Now, the Ocala Training Center can get back to being what its name implies.
