Charge It, winner of the Grade 2 Suburban Stakes, returned to the worktab Thursday, breezing a half-mile in 49.18 seconds over Saratoga’s main track. He is preparing for a start in the Grade 1, $1 million Whitney Stakes here on Aug. 5.
Far Bridge, winner of the Grade 1 Belmont Derby, also returned to the worktab Thursday, breezing a half-mile in 49.96 seconds in company with Al’s Rocket. Far Bridge is preparing for a start in the Grade 1, $600,000 Saratoga Derby on Aug. 5.
Jose Ortiz will ride Drew’s Gold when the Grade 1 Woody Stephens runner-up starts in next Friday’s Grade 2, $200,000 Amsterdam Stakes at Saratoga.
Ortiz replaces Jose Gomez, who had ridden the horse to two of his four straight victories before he finished second to Arabian Lion in the Woody Stephens on June 10.
Big Data has hooked eventual stakes winners Arcangelo, Kingsbarns, and Lord Miles in his young career and the company lines point him out as a major player in Sunday’s sixth race at Gulfstream Park.
The first-level allowance for 3-year-olds will be run at a mile on the main track and is one of three notable offerings on the card. There’s also a first-level allowance for 3-year-olds and up at 1 1/16 miles on Tapeta and a $25,000 starter allowance sprint on Tapeta.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Maryquitecontrary had a five-race winning streak snapped when she finished second to champion Goodnight Olive in the Grade 1 Madison Stakes at Keeneland in April.
Maryquitecontrary will try to start a new streak when she runs Wednesday in a short but solid renewal of the Grade 2, $200,000 Honorable Miss Handicap going six furlongs at Saratoga.
The Honorable Miss is the local prep for the Grade 1, $500,000 Ballerina Handicap here Aug 26.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – The connections of Clairiere want what the connections of Nest have: an Eclipse Award.
To get one, Clairiere will likely have to defeat Nest a time or two in a series of three races that begin Sunday in the Grade 2, $200,000 Shuvee Stakes gong 1 1/8 miles at Saratoga. The Shuvee, won last year by Clairiere, is the lead-in to the Grade 1, $500,000 Personal Ensign to be run here Aug. 25, a race to which both horses are pointing. In a perfect world, the two would meet in the Breeders’ Cup Distaff at Santa Anita on Nov. 4.
The only win Irideo has recorded in his American career was a 31-1 surprise in the Wickerr Handicap at a mile on turf at Del Mar last July.
Since then, Irideo has finished second in three graded stakes, including a half-length loss in the Grade 1 Shoemaker Mile at Santa Anita on May 29 that left trainer Marcelo Polanco wondering what could have happened with a slightly better trip.
“He was close,” Polanco said. “Probably, he might have won.”
A start at a new distance in Sunday’s Grade 3 Cougar II Stakes at 1 1/2 miles at Del Mar may be what Kiss Today Goodbye needs to end a 10-race losing streak that has lasted nearly 30 months.
Kiss Today Goodbye is not the only runner being tried at an unfamiliar distance. Of the seven runners in the $125,000 Cougar II Stakes, four are racing at 1 1/2 miles for the first time, and two were beaten in a single start at the trip. Rimprotector won an allowance race at 1 1/2 miles at Golden Gate Fields last November.
Millionaire Wicked Halo has been a force, winning six career stakes and finishing worse than third only once while knocking heads against the best of her division. She is a standout in the $125,000 Twin Bridges Stakes for female sprinters on Sunday at Ellis Park.
Last year’s winner of the Washington Oaks, Tiz a Macho Girl, returns to Emerald Downs to face six others in the co-featured Washington Legislators Stakes for fillies and mares on Sunday.
Trained by Jeff Metz, Tiz a Macho Girl first tried the local stakes ranks as a maiden last year before winning a maiden event and then leaping into the deep end of the pool in the Washington Oaks. As fate would have it, Tiz a Macho Girl won the Oaks as an outsider paying $45 on the nose.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Churchtown returns from a freshening in Sunday’s Grade 2 Connaught Cup on the Woodbine Oaks undercard. Off the company that he’s been keeping, he’s arguably the one to beat in the seven-furlong main turf sprint, which carries a base purse of $175,000.
