SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – The morning after the Belmont Stakes, trainer Bill Mott stood a few yards away from the stall of his dual-classic winner Sovereignty and stated the Grade 1, $1.25 million Travers on Aug. 23 at Saratoga was the colt’s next major objective.
Furthermore, Mott said by the time the Jim Dandy Stakes came around – seven weeks after the Belmont – he’d expect Sovereignty, who also won the Kentucky Derby, would be “ready to do something.”
Patriot Spirit, game runner-up in the $200,000 Knicks Go in May, will return from a layoff of nearly three months on Saturday at Colonial Downs. After taking time to treat a small splint, trainer Mike Campbell has entered the 4-year-old colt in the $100,000 Reigh Count Stakes, where he has been pegged as the 7-5 morning-line favorite.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Trainer Mark Casse had not originally planned on Classic Q going to the lead in the Wild Applause Stakes here earlier this month. But when the field came up void of any early speed, jockey Jose Ortiz called an audible, Classic Q ultimately getting loose on the front end before holding off Play With Fire by a half-length to register her first career stakes win.
Saturday offers a Breeders’ Cup Classic preview, albeit involving two unplayable races some 2,800 miles apart.
At Saratoga, Sovereignty races for the first time since the Belmont. Baeza looks like he’s blooming, and the Jim Dandy, occupying an intermediate space on Sovereignty’s agenda, looms a “trap” race. However, I believe Sovereignty will end his career considered a great horse, and a great won’t lose this Jim Dandy.
Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine (R) said at the Ohio State Fair this week that he is “not for” the state legalizing online casinos.
The simple approach with Pushiness for Saturday’s $100,000 Daisycutter Handicap at five furlongs on turf at Del Mar is to let the four-time winner take her customary position as a pacesetter.
How she does over the next 55 seconds or so is slightly harder to assess.
“There is not really a strategy,” trainer Michael McCarthy said. “We’ll let her run away from there. She’s naturally fast.”
So is Imaboutago, who could pressure Pushiness in the Daisycutter, which drew a field of 10 fillies and mares.
Rebel’s Romance has won two renewals of the Breeders’ Cup Turf, and his connections surely have their sights set on a third this November at Del Mar. The 7-year-old gelding also has captured three Group 1s in Germany and in 2024 won the Group 1 Sheema Classic at Meydan.
DEL MAR, Calif. – An unsettled California sprint division could gain clarity Saturday at Del Mar, where shipper World Record and local Hejazi meet in the Grade 1 Bing Crosby Stakes.
World Record arrived from Kentucky this week to face a modest field in the six-furlong Bing Crosby, a Win and You’re In for the Breeders’ Cup Sprint. To defeat Hejazi and stakes winners Dr. Venkman, Roll On Big Joe, and Crazy Mason, World Record will need a higher figure than the 86 Beyer Speed Figure he earned finishing second last out in a Grade 3 at Churchill Downs.
Since a win in a 220-yard maiden race on April 26, French Valley has been held in the highest regard by owner and breeder Steve Burns and his brother-in-law, trainer Mike Casselman.
What’s missing in French Valley’s brief career is a major stakes win, which could occur in Saturday’s $255,000 Governor’s Cup Futurity at 350 yards at Los Alamitos.
DEL MAR, Calif. – Favorites are not safe in the Grade 2 San Diego Handicap, but here comes Nysos on Saturday at Del Mar.
Fresh off a 108 Beyer Speed Figure romp at seven furlongs, Nysos figures to be heavily favored stretching to 1 1/16 miles in the San Diego, race 8 on a card that includes the Grade 1 Bing Crosby Stakes for sprinters, race 10.
Trainer Bob Baffert said distance “shouldn’t be an issue” for Nysos. In fact, the way Nysos runs and trains, combined with his mellow personality, suggests the 4-year-old could be anything.
