DEL MAR, Calif. – Straight No Chaser, winner of the Grade 3 Maryland Sprint Stakes in 2023, was withdrawn from Saturday’s Grade 1 Bing Crosby Stakes on race day at Del Mar after the 5-year-old horse developed “an issue,” trainer Dan Blacker said on Sunday.
Blacker said Straight No Chaser will undergo tests this week.
“It’s disappointing to see it at the 11th hour,” Black said of the scratch. “It’s disappointing for the team and the owners. We have to do what’s best for the horse.”
The horse who appears to be the best Indiana-bred dirt-route runner of his generation, Inveigled, is set to make his first Indiana start on Wednesday at Horseshoe Indianapolis.
Inveigled travels from trainer Jane Cibelli’s base at Laurel Park in search of vast riches – namely, the winner’s share of a $250,000 purse offered in the Governor’s Handicap, a mile and 70-yard main-track contest restricted to 3-year-old Indiana-breds.
DEL MAR, Calif. – Fighting off challenges from two rivals through the final five furlongs, Parenting remained unbeaten after three starts with a neck win in a one-mile allowance race at Del Mar on Sunday.
The win was Parenting’s first start since an easy win by 7 1/2 lengths in the Affirmed Stakes for 3-year-olds at 1 1/16 miles at Santa Anita on June 9. Owned by Wathnan Racing, Parenting was considered for the Grade 1 Haskell Invitational at Monmouth Park on July 20, but was not shipped to the New Jersey track.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – After facing Grade 1 company in three of her last four starts, Evvie Jets will theoretically be getting some class relief when dropping into Wednesday’s main event at Saratoga, the $135,000 De La Rose, a race carded for fillies and mares who have not won a graded stakes in 2024. Despite its restricted status, however, the one-mile De La Rose is anything but a soft spot and has lured a field of 10, that aside from Grade 2 winner Evvie Jets, includes seven graded stakes-placed rivals as well as the Group 3 European winner Immensitude.
DEL MAR, Calif. – With two winning juveniles and a veteran 4-year-old in peak form, trainer Tim Yakteen had the best weekend of his 20-year career at Del Mar on Saturday and Sunday.
It all happened in the days before his 60th birthday on Monday.
Johannes, a 4-year-old colt, extended his 2024 winning streak to three graded stakes on turf with an attractive win against a strong field in Sunday’s Grade 2 Eddie Read Stakes at 1 1/8 miles on turf.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – War Like Goddess won the Grade 2 Glens Falls in 2021 and 2022 and was beaten a neck in the race last year.
Thursday, War Like Goddess will be in her stall in Bill Mott’s barn when the Glens Falls is run, the Hall of Fame trainer electing not to bring the 7-year-old mare back just three weeks after her victory in the Grade 3 Robert G. Dick Memorial at Delaware Park.
Instead, Mott will point War Like Goddess to the Grade 2, $500,000 Flower Bowl on Aug. 31.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Speak Easy, who came off a six-month layoff to win a first-level allowance race by 2 1/4 lengths here on Saturday, will be considered for the Grade 1 H. Allen Jerkens on Aug. 24, trainer Todd Pletcher said.
Speak Easy, a son of Constitution, won a seemingly loaded maiden race at Gulfstream Park on Jan. 27 and was entered in the Grade 2 Fountain of Youth on March 2 but was scratched when he ran off in the post parade, hit the inside rail, and suffered a few cuts. Speak Easy then had another minor setback when Pletcher was trying to continue his training.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – John Kimmel is one of just six people to have won a trainer’s title at Saratoga in the last 30 years. That was in 1997, when Kimmel won a race on the final day of the then 36-day meet to tie Bill Mott, who was winning or sharing the fifth of what would become nine titles.
The Sussex Stakes at the Glorious Goodwood Festival marks a departure point for 3-year-old milers, the sophomores leaving age-restricted competition to set out in the world of weight-for-age racing against older rivals. Few accord the older set much chance on Wednesday in the Group 1 Sussex.
Opera Singer has never been tried at 1 1/4 miles, never faced older fillies and mares, and has not won since October.
Despite all that, Opera Singer is an early favorite with British bookmakers to win Thursday’s Group 1 Nassau Stakes for fillies and mares at 1 1/4 miles at Goodwood Racecourse in Britain.
