ARCADIA, Calif. – Avenge, a turf sprinter, was halfway through 2016 when trainer Richard Mandella stretched her out and the filly went on a tear.
Avenge won three turf routes, including the Grade 1 Rodeo Drive, a 1 1/4-mile race at Santa Anita, and finished third in the Grade 1 Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Turf. Avenge, who won the Rodeo Drive again in 2017, retired having won seven races and $868,341 from 17 starts.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Trainer Chad Summers is hoping distance will prove to be the great equalizer when River of Time and Friend Ofthe Devil meet for the second time this season Thursday at Saratoga in the $150,000 Cab Calloway Stakes. The New York Stallion Series event lured a field of eight statebred 3-year-olds to go one mile on turf.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Erik Johnston, who three weeks ago announced his retirement from his position as director of racing and sportsbook at Penn National, was named stakes coordinator at the New York Racing Association, it was announced Friday.
Johnston will replace Andrew Byrnes, who has held the position since 1999 but who announced earlier this year that he was retiring at the end of the Saratoga meet. Johnston will assume his duties as stakes coordinator beginning Oct. 3.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Mo Plex, the Grade 3 Ohio Derby winner who finished fourth behind Sovereignty in the Grade 2 Jim Dandy, will make his next start in the Grade 1, $1 million Pennsylvania Derby on Sept. 20 at Parx Racing, trainer Jeremiah Englehart said.
“I’d like to give him another shot against open company,” Englehart said. “The last two Pennsylvania Derby winners lost in the Jim Dandy and won their next start in Pennsylvania.”
Englehart said he considered the Albany Stakes for New York-breds on Aug. 21 but felt that race was too close to the Jim Dandy.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Captain Cook, winner of the Withers Stakes at Aqueduct in February, has been transferred by owners Vinnie and Teresa Viola from Rick Dutrow to Todd Pletcher and will be considered for multiple upcoming stakes, including the Grade 1 H. Allen Jerkens on Aug. 23.
On Friday, Captain Cook worked a half-mile in 48.83 seconds in company with the Grade 1-winning filly Candied over Saratoga’s main track. It was Captain Cook’s first work for Pletcher and first since he ran third in the Maxfield Stakes on June 29 at Churchill Downs.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Goal Oriented, third in the Grade 1 Haskell in his most recent start, worked seven furlongs in 1:23.80 on Friday morning at Del Mar for an anticipated start in the Grade 1, $1.25 million Travers Stakes on Aug. 23 at Saratoga.
Goal Oriented, trained by Bob Baffert, worked in company with Barnes, who is one of three horses Baffert is planning to run in the Grade 1 H. Allen Jerkens on the Travers undercard.
Just another Monday card at Ellis, right? The nine-race program includes three $100,000 maiden special weights, an open 3-year-old filly turf sprint allowance worth $108,000, and a dirt-route second-level allowance with a $102,000 purse.
Over the last five years, Brad Cox has trained 97 3-year-old turf winners and 445 3-year-old dirt winners. He’s won 111 sophomore dirt stakes during that span, 21 such turf stakes. But this summer, Cox packs a potent one-two punch with 3-year-old grass fillies. About a month after Fionn captured the Grade 1 Belmont Oaks Invitational, chasing down divisional leader Nitrogen, Destino D’Oro turned in an excellent performance winning the Pucker Up by almost four lengths on Aug. 3 at Ellis Park.
The 5-year-old horse Otago hasn’t raced since June 14. In the meantime, his stock has risen.
When last seen racing, Otago checked in second, thumped by five lengths, in the Monmouth Stakes. The horse who beat him, Redistricting, earned a 102 Beyer Speed Figure for the performance, a Grade 1-level number. Five weeks later, Redistricting ran right back to that form, winning the Grade 2 United Nations over 1 3/8 miles by 1 1/2 lengths with a 101 Beyer.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Gabaldon was one of the few horses to beat Governor Sam on turf, something he did when they both debuted as 2-year-olds in the Royal Palm Juvenile Stakes at Gulfstream in May 2024.
Since then, Gabaldon has run just twice – including a second-place finish in the 2024 Windsor Castle Stakes at Royal Ascot – and has been hampered by myriad issues that his trainer, Jose D’Angelo, hopes are behind him. Meanwhile, Governor Sam has developed into a four-time stakes winner for trainer George Weaver and the ownership group of Alex Bregman and Swinbank Stables.
