SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Master of The Seas, unraced since his Grade 1 Maker’s Mark Mile victory at Keeneland in April, picked up the pace in his preparation for the Grade 1 Fourstardave on Aug 10 by working four furlongs on the Oklahoma turf course in 48.51 seconds Friday morning. Daily Racing Form clocker Mike Welsch caught Master of The Seas galloping out five furlongs in 1:00.28, while pulling away from his workmate.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Nobals, the 2023 Breeders’ Cup Turf Sprint winner, will make his seasonal debut Sunday at Saratoga in a $120,000 stakes-caliber allowance race at 5 1/2 furlongs on turf.
Trainer Larry Rivelli entered Nobals and One Timer, a multiple stakes winner, in both this race and Sunday’s $100,000 Robert Molaro Stakes at Hawthorne. One Timer wound up on the also-eligible list for the Saratoga allowance, making Rivelli’s decision on where to run both horses an easy one.
In the last week, the 3-year-old Quarter Horse filly Asscher has gone from being housed at Ruidoso Downs, to briefly being based at a training center in nearby Tularosa, N.M., and finally driven approximately 150 miles north to the Downs at Albuquerque in advance of Sunday’s $483,394 Rainbow Oaks.
A series of devastating floods at Ruidoso Downs, caused by runoff from a massive wildfire that struck the area in mid-June, led to the relocation of the last six weeks of the Ruidoso meeting to Albuquerque.
Millionaire Sibelius will seek his seventh stakes win for trainer Jerry O’Dwyer in the $150,000 Frank J. De Francis Memorial Dash going six furlongs at Laurel Park on Sunday.
The 5-year-old gelding gained international prominence capturing last year’s Group 1 Dubai Golden Shaheen.
Sibelius returned to the Middle East for the 2024 Golden Shaheen but finished 11th.
“Ryan Moore came back in and said the horse to his outside was leaning all over him the whole way,” O’Dwyer said. “[Sibelius] never got a chance to get comfortable and into a nice rhythm.”
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – A little more distance appears to have made Silver Knott a lot better horse. Sunday, the 4-year-old gelding goes for his third straight marathon turf stakes success in as many tries this year when he looms a short price in the Grade 2, $250,000 Bowling Green Stakes at Saratoga.
Winless last year in six starts – five in North America – for Newmarket-based trainer Charlie Appleby, Silver Knott this year has won the Grade 2 Elkhorn going 1 1/2 miles at Keeneland in April and three weeks later the Grade 2 Man o’ War going 1 3/8 miles at Aqueduct.
Coastal Jazz is clearly the horse to beat in Sunday’s allowance feature over 6 1/2 furlongs at Emerald Downs.
The Justin Evans trainee won by 4 1/2 lengths at the $25,000 claiming level over six furlongs on July 14 in his last start. Prior to that, the son of Coast Guard shared pacesetting duties through torrid splits before fading slightly when going a mile and 70 yards on June 29.
After spending most of his life working in Thoroughbred horse racing, from his adolescent days as a hotwalker in New Orleans for Hall of Famer trainer Jack Van Berg to his current incarnation as trainer of a 36-horse Kentucky stable split between Keeneland and Churchill, one can understand why Wayne Catalano felt so strongly about winning his 3,000th race as a trainer Sunday at Ellis Park.
“It ain’t easy to win one race, much less 3,000 of them,” Catalano said, reached Thursday by telephone.
Trainer Mark Hennig believes he ran Gun Song back too quickly following her sharp win in the Black-Eyed Susan Stakes at Pimlico. And if Gun Song runs as quickly Saturday at Monmouth Park as she did in the Black-Eyed Susan, she’ll be a handful in the Grade 3, $250,000 Monmouth Oaks.
The Monmouth Oaks drew eight entrants and at 1 1/16 miles is a half-furlong shorter than Gun Song’s two most recent races. Her performance over 1 1/8 miles last month at Saratoga in the Grade 1 Acorn was as poor as her Black-Eyed Susan had been strong.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Fierceness and Sierra Leone were the hot 3-year-olds of the Triple Crown prep season, combining to win three of four graded stakes on the way to the Kentucky Derby.
Coming off his record-setting 13 1/2-length victory in the Grade 1 Florida Derby, Fiereceness was sent off as the 3-1 favorite in the Kentucky Derby. By virtue of his eye-catching wins in the Grade 2 Risen Star and Grade 1 Blue Grass, Sierra Leone went off the 9-2 second choice.
