There was never going to be an attempt at the Ruidoso Quarter Horse Triple Crown this year, even before a terrible flood forced the cancellation of the second of the three races, the $1 million Rainbow Futurity on July 13.
People get labeled “turf trainers.” Chad Brown pushed back against the term for years. The late Christophe Clement – that’s another one on the East Coast.
Not many think of Shug McGaughey as a turf trainer, right? Easy Goer, a dirt horse through and through, was McGaughey’s most famous charge. Personal Ensign, a dirt champion, ranks near the top of his best-horse list.
A critical component to becoming a turf trainer: Having turf horses.
The little town of Rumson, which sits across Shrewsbury Bay from Monmouth Park, wedged between the bay and the Navesink River, had, as of the last census, a median household income of more than $250,000. The place is long on wealthy folks, but the $100,000 Monmouth race that bears its name is short on distance.
Wesley Ward trained the winner of the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf Sprint three years in a row, from 2019 through 2021. But over the last three years, no trainer has found more success with 2-year-old turf sprinters than George Weaver.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – There’s a brown wooden box with a slit in it on his desk that reads Stakes Nominations. It may be the only thing that has been in the racing office at the New York Racing Association longer than Andrew Byrnes.
“I said to myself in March, I’m taking that with me,” said Byrnes, NYRA’s stakes coordinator since 1999, who announced his retirement in January.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – In a span of eight weeks, Mindframe became a multiple Grade 1 winner sprinting and routing, doing so while beating some of the best horses in training.
But in this rarest of years, when the older male dirt division has talent and depth, there are more challenges to meet. Sunday’s Grade 1, $1 million Jockey Club Gold Cup at Saratoga exemplifies that.
Rezasrolex, a 4-year-old gelding trained by Joe Orseno, has been a rare but brilliant sight in the past year. Despite making just one start in that span, he maintains a four-race winning streak and will be hard to dismiss in the sixth at Gulfstream Park on Sunday, a starter allowance.
“He’s a very talented, fast horse,” Orseno said. “I’ve got some pretty good five-eighths sprinters, and I think he’s right up there with all of them. He’s just a young horse that’s going to get better and better.”
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Friday’s workout tab over the Oklahoma turf course was a limited one, with many trainers canceling scheduled breezes due to morning showers. But there still was some star power amongst the approximately two dozen horses who did work, a list that included Grade 1 Arlington Million winner Fort Washington for trainer Shug McGaughey.
When Iron Man Cal finished a troubled second in the Oceanside Stakes on July 18 at Del Mar, trainer Phil D’Amato thought the loss was both a missed opportunity and proof of the colt’s ability.
Iron Man Cal, the 1-2 favorite in a field of 10, stumbled at the start of the Oceanside Stakes and recovered to lose by a half-length.
“I thought I had him ready to go and for him to recover after almost throwing the jockey off, I thought it was a miraculous performance,” D’Amato recalled Friday.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – A significant scratch of Doncho from Sunday’s $135,000 Disco Partner Stakes figures to change the complexion of the 5 1/2-furlong turf sprint at Saratoga.
Doncho, coming off a course-record performance at Ellis Park on Aug. 8, loomed as the main speed in the Disco Partner. Michelle Lovell, the trainer of Doncho, said the 4-year-old gelding got cast in his stall Friday morning, the day he was supposed to ship here from Churchill Downs, so she kept him home.
“He’s okay, but I couldn’t do it,” Lovell said. “It was a hard decision.”
