In Harness Racing, million-dollar races don’t exactly come around every day. Depending on the exchange rates between the U.S. and Canada, we have either one or two each year—North America Cup (Mohawk) and Hambletonian (Meadowlands). Well, you can add Yonkers Raceway and the International Trot into that mix.
Thoroughbred racing jumped the rails in a big way last Saturday with the triumph of American Pharoah in the Belmont Stakes. Suddenly, after 37 years of wondering which horse would be next, or if there ever would be another, the one thing everyone knew about horse racing was made flesh and blood once again. The Triple Crown.
It will be an afternoon of firsts for Fast Anna on Thursday at Gulfstream Park. He leads the $60,000 Sawgrass Handicap, which will be his first race since a close fifth in the Breeders’ Cup Sprint last November.
The $400,000 Shoemaker Mile on turf at Santa Anita on Saturday is expected to have a field of five, all stakes winners.
Lea, the likely favorite for the Stephen Foster Handicap, arrived Sunday at Churchill Downs on the same air charter that transported Triple Crown winner American Pharoah and already has settled into a routine for Bill Mott assistant Kenny McCarthy.
Triple Crown winner American Pharoah probably will return to light training Friday at Churchill Downs as his connections prepare to have him paraded in front of what surely will be a large and jubilant crowd Saturday night during the Stephen Foster program.
Santa Anita’s spring-summer meeting has shown a 9 percent increase in ontrack attendance over last year, a track official said. There is hope that figure could rise further before the meeting ends on June 28 with the interest created by American Pharoah’s Triple Crown win last Saturday.
Danzatrice lost her left front shoe and grabbed herself during last Saturday’s Grade 1 Acorn but came out of her fourth-place finish in good shape, according to Parx-based trainer Cathal Lynch.
Trevor McCarthy, who missed most of the winter meet at Laurel Park with a broken wrist, won the Pimlico riding title with 35 wins, one more than Victor Carrasco and two more than Jevian Toledo.
Paco Lopez isn’t dominating the Monmouth rider standings like he did a year ago, but he still leads with 16 wins.
