Country Grammer to point to Whitney
ELMONT, N.Y. – Country Grammer, the Grade 1 Hollywood Gold Cup winner recently transferred to Todd Pletcher from Bob Baffert, will skip Saturday’s Grade 2 Suburban and instead point to the Grade 1 Whitney on Aug. 7 at Saratoga.
Elliott Walden, president and CEO of racing operations for WinStar Farm, part-owner of Country Grammer, said the horse came out of his most recent workout “with a little snot.”
Walden said Pletcher didn’t want to run in the Suburban “off not knowing the horse fully.”
Walden said Improbable won the 2020 Whitney having not raced since winning the Hollywood Gold Cup.
Vargas serving suspension
In horse racing’s regulatory world, it will take two weeks for jockey Jorge A. Vargas Jr. to serve a five-day riding suspension.
Vargas, who dropped his appeal of a suspension handed him for a February careless riding infraction at Aqueduct, technically began his five-day suspension last Friday. The next day, Vargas returned from a three-month injury-related absence to win a race on 57-1 shot Back Channel at Belmont.
The suspension continued this Thursday and Friday. Vargas will be permitted to ride in Saturday’s Grade 3 Delaware Oaks at Delaware Park and one in Puerto Rico on Sunday. He will serve another day on Monday.
Since Wednesday is not a NYRA racing day, Vargas will be permitted to ride at Indiana Grand that day, when he is scheduled to ride Pirate’s Punch in the $85,000 Michael G. Schaefer Stakes.
Vargas will serve the final day of his suspension on July 9.
Once off suspension, Vargas plans to ride this summer at Parx Racing and Colonial Downs before returning to New York for the Belmont fall meet, according to agent Jimmy Riccio Jr.