Last summer, Johannes won the Grade 2 Eddie Read Stakes in the third start of a six-race campaign that featured five stakes wins and a game second in the Breeders’ Cup Mile at Del Mar.
This summer, the $250,000 Read Stakes is tentatively scheduled to be the first start of the year for Johannes, trainer Tim Yakteen said over the weekend.
“We won’t make any commitments until we get closer to the race, but the Eddie Read is in our backyard and a logical spot,” Yakteen said. “He’s doing well.”
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Like just about everybody else with horses currently stabled on the grounds at Saratoga, Friday morning was a particularly busy one for trainer George Weaver once the turf course opened for training for just the second time this spring.
Weaver sent out 10 horses to breeze over the grass at the Oklahoma training track, including four – Sacred Wish, Governor Sam, Outlaw Kid, and Golden Channel – during the special session reserved for stakes horses immediately after the course opened at 10 a.m.
Cugino made a successful 4-year-old debut Thursday at Aqueduct, winning a third-level allowance race by one length, adding more depth to trainer Shug McGaughey’s older male turf division.
Cugino, who ended his 3-year-old season with a victory in the Tropical Park Derby, saved all the ground under Irad Ortiz Jr., then split horses in the stretch to earn the victory. His final time of 1:40.99 for 1 1/16-miles was just .88 of a second off the course record and translated to a 93 Beyer Speed Figure, a career-best.
Jovie G will take on male rivals in the $50,000 Yellow Hammer on Sunday at Louisiana Downs. She looks like the one to beat.
Jovie G will be going a mile on turf in the race restricted to Alabama-breds who have never won two statebred stakes worth $50,000. The 4-year-old filly won a maiden race over the local John Franks turf course last July.
The Yellow Hammer, which is for 3-year-olds and up, drew a field of nine. There are two other fillies in the race, Lemon Fizz and T V C One Five.
Take Charge Tom, a three-time stakes winner who is coming off a third-place finish in the $300,000 Texas Derby at Lone Star Park, is headed to Canada.
Trainer Robertino Diodoro said the 3-year-old is scheduled to run next in the $50,000 Derby Trial at a mile on July 14 at Assiniboia Downs. The goal is for Take Charge Tom to run in the Western Canadian Derby series that begins with the $125,000 Manitoba Derby on Aug. 4 at Assiniboia.
Komorebino Omoide will be going for a sweep of the two richest races at Lone Star Park next Saturday, June 28, when he makes a rare start on grass in the $250,000 Texas Turf Classic.
The 1 1/8-mile race for 3-year-olds and up headlines Lone Star’s Summer Turf Festival of four stakes. The program also includes the $125,000 Wasted Tears for fillies and mares and a pair of turf sprints. Entries were to have been taken Saturday, June 21.
Although Gulfstream Park’s $75,000 Musical Romance Stakes is named after a multiple Grade 1 winner and Eclipse Award champion, the race has rarely, if ever, been used as a prep for a major graded stakes during the Saratoga meet. But such will be the case Sunday when trainer Saffie Joseph Jr. uses the 6 1/2-furlong fixture for fillies and mares as a stepping-stone to the Grade 2 Honorable Miss on July 20 at Saratoga for the red-hot Haulin Ice.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Bill Mott already trains the best 3-year-old colt in the country in dual classic winner Sovereignty. Mott hopes he has an up-and-coming 3-year-old stakes filly in Mazayaat, who makes her stakes debut in Sunday’s $125,000 Wilton at Aqueduct.
“To get his accolades she’ll have to move forward in a hurry,” Mott said.
Can’t Sleep could not wait for Del Mar for her second start of the year.
A 4-year-old filly, Can’t Sleep has been entered in an allowance race for California-bred fillies and mares at 5 1/2 furlongs at Los Alamitos on Sunday, an opportunity trainer Carla Gaines said was too appealing to pass up.
“She’s ready to run,” Gaines said. “I didn’t want to wait for the grass race at Del Mar.”
Los Alamitos began its three-week summer meeting on Friday. The Del Mar summer meeting starts July 18.
