DEL MAR, Calif. – Remember when field size for 3-year-old dirt stakes dwindled to just 4.6 runners per race this winter and spring in California?
Seasons change, but field size struggles continue in summer. The $125,000 Shared Belief Stakes, for 3-year-olds at a mile on dirt, attracted only five entrants Sunday at Del Mar. It’s standard fare. The biggest field for an open 3-year-old dirt stakes this year in California is five runners.
If Miguel Hernandez finishes atop Emerald Downs’s owner standings, it will be thanks in no small part to a 10-year-old English-bred gelding by the name of Move Over, who goes for his fourth win in seven tries this year at the Auburn, Wash., track on Sunday in a $4,000 starter allowance at 1 1/16 miles.
Hernandez launched his training career in 2014, mainly saddling horses at Turf Paradise and Zia Park. In 2021, Hernandez began training his own purchases as the head of Miguel H. Racing LLC, and in 2023, he landed Move Over in a private sale and welcomed him into his Phoenix barn.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Sunday’s Woodbine headliner could set up for Botta Swing, who consistently comes from off the pace and who will be making her third start off an 11-month layoff. The conditioned allowance/optional claimer has a field of seven and is scheduled for five-eighths on the inner turf.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Mythical is undefeated, virtually untested, and is already a Grade 3 winner, but it is Tommy Jo who may go postward the favorite and ultimately prove the one to beat amongst a very promising field of 10 juvenile fillies entered to go seven furlongs in Saturday’s Grade 1 Spinaway at Saratoga.
Beginning with Monday’s closing-day card at Saratoga, the New York Racing Association will implement penny breakage, a horseplayer-friendly measure that will result in all wagers placed on NYRA races being paid to the penny instead of the tiered breakage model that was previously in place.
The law permitting this was passed in the New York State budget signed by Gov. Kathy Hochul in May, with an effective date of Sept. 1.
Hades, a disqualified winner last time out for trainer Joe Orseno, has the chance to remove all doubt when he breaks from the rail in the $70,000 Black Diamond Cat Handicap at Gulfstream Park on Saturday. Though the stewards saw fit to take him down last time out, Orseno could not have been happier with the 4-year-old gelding.
“He ran a great race other than the outcome of getting taken down,” Orseno said. “We were pretty pleased with his effort anyway, and he has no idea he lost. Other than not getting the money, and the money is secondary, we have big hopes for this horse.”
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Though Aye Eye is entered in Saturday’s $100,000 Sapling Stakes at Monmouth Park, he was cross-entered on Thursday for Monday’s Grade 1, $300,000 Hopeful Stakes at Saratoga and that is where he is expected to run, according to trainer Joe Orseno.
Why not?
Highly Wicked had a makeover of sorts this past winter and her newfound style has led to five stakes wins in her last five starts – a streak she will be looking to continue Saturday in the $75,000 Louisiana Cup Distaff at Louisiana Downs.
DEL MAR, Calif. – If all three principals run their race, the 2025 edition of the Grade 1 Pacific Classic on Saturday at Del Mar could be one for the ages.
The 4-year-olds Nysos and Fierceness, and 3-year-old Journalism, meet for the first time, each with something to prove in the 1 1/4-mile, $1 million Pacific Classic.
When Michael Maker and Paradise Farms decided to claim debuting colt One More Freud for $35,000 earlier this month, the trainer had a feeling that the juvenile might do some running. He didn’t expect a 14 1/2-length victory at Saratoga, however, nor did he expect to have the likely favorite in the $100,000 Sapling Stakes at Monmouth Park on Saturday.
“I think that kind of performance always surprises you,” Maker said. “But he was a very attractive horse and he had some good workouts, so we took a chance.”
