Handicappers must decide whether the 5-year-old Disco Barbie is ready to rebound when she makes her second start of the Presque Isle Downs meet in Sunday’s $100,000 Satin N Lace. The 5 1/2-furlong sprint for fillies and mares, which goes as race 5 at 7:05 p.m. Eastern, drew a full field of 12, plus an also-eligible.
Calvin Borel always takes every December off, but this year, he’s taking most of the summer off – and even more time if he feels like it.
A pair of pick threes offers price potential Saturday at Santa Anita. Both bets (races 3-5; races 7-9) will single longshots in turf sprints. At $1 per, the total cost is $20.
Enriched by off-season revenues accrued from Instant Racing machines, purses at the five-day September meet at Kentucky Downs are expected to be worth a record $7.5 million.
In his first day back training as a newly minted Triple Crown winner, American Pharoah went out for a routine jog Friday at Churchill Downs shortly after 7 a.m. Eastern, much to the satisfaction of his Hall of Fame trainer Bob Baffert.
The California Horse Racing Board is enacting tougher whip rules for jockeys, effective next month.
The winner of the fourth race at Hastings on Sunday likely will make his next start in the $50,000 Chris Loseth for 3-year-olds July 1. However, it’s hard to predict which of the eight sophomores entered in the first-level allowance race will win the 6 1/2-furlong dash.
The 13 Ohio-bred horses entered in Sunday’s $75,000 Sydney Gendelman Memorial Handicap are a collective 4 for 50 on turf. Seven of the runners have either zero or one start on grass. It may not matter, however. Although the Gendelman is scheduled for 1 1/16 miles on turf, Belterra has yet to run a race on its new course that was scheduled to open nearly a month ago.
Trainer Mark Casse and owner Gary Barber combined to win the Woodbine Oaks last year with Lexie Lou and will look to repeat in Sunday’s $500,000 Oaks, Woodbine’s premier race for Canadian-bred 3-year-old fillies.
Danzig Moon, a refugee from the American Triple Crown, will experiment on Woodbine’s Polytrack in Sunday’s $150,000 Plate Trial Stakes, a major prep for the $1 million Queen’s Plate here July 5.
