DEL MAR, Calif. – With six straight wins, five this year, including three in Grade 1 company, Game On Dude has put himself in position to be named Horse of the Year at year’s end, a feat he could have pulled off in both 2011 and 2012 had he won the Breeders’ Cup Classic.
DEL MAR, Calif. - The victory by Vagabond Shoes in Saturday’s $200,250 Del Mar Handicap for turf marathoners was as much a credit to jockey Victor Espinoza as it was to the stamina of the 6-year-old gelding.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - Dance to Bristol had taken the lead straightening for home in Friday’s $500,000 Ballerina Handicap at Saratoga, but the presence of the Grade 1 winner Book Review loomed large to her outside.
Inside, trainer Ollie Figgins III thought to himself, “We’re going to see what kind of heart my horse had.”
Dance to Bristol had enough heart to hold off Book Review by a head and win her first Grade 1 race and earn an automatic, fees-paid berth into the Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Sprint at Santa Anita on Nov. 1.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Royal Delta regained her spot on the throne of the older filly and mare division with a dominant victory in last month’s Grade 1 Delaware Handicap.
Sunday, she will try to keep her position against two would-be queens – Authenticity and On Fire Baby – in the Grade 1, $600,000 Personal Ensign Handicap at Saratoga.
DEL MAR, Calif. – The reinvention of Goldencents as a sprinter can continue in Sunday’s $250,000 Pat O’Brien Stakes at Del Mar.
Already this year, Goldencents has won the Grade 3 Sham Stakes at a mile, the Grade 1 Santa Anita Derby at 1 1/8 miles, and finished a game second in the Grade 1 Bing Crosby Stakes at six furlongs here on July 28.
All horses running in the 2014 Breeders’ Cup races at Santa Anita will be allowed to be administered the anti-bleeding medication furosemide on race day, Breeders’ Cup confirmed in a statement Friday, in a rollback of an experimental policy that had divided the racing industry.
Jwala scored a huge upset in the $444,000 Nunthorpe Stakes on Friday at York in England, beating favored Shea Shea by a half-length in the Group 1 sprint race.
A 4-year-old filly, Jwala had only made her group stakes debut in her most recent start, finishing last of 17 in the Group 2 King George Stakes on Aug. 2 at Goodwood. Few knew that Jwala, according to trainer Robert Cowell, had fractured an eye socket in that race, and whatever the case, Jwala turned in by far the best performance of her career, hitting as a 40-1 shot overseas, and at more than 80-1 in U.S. betting markets.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Gentlemen’s Bet will return to New York for the Grade 1 Vosburgh as trainer Ron Moquett remains undeterred about the speedy colt’s chances of earning his way into the Breeders’ Cup Sprint.
Gentlemen’s Bet was 2-1 when finishing third of five in the Grade 1 Vanderbilt at Saratoga on Aug. 4 for just his second defeat from seven career starts. The 4-year-old Gentlemen’s Bet is back at his Churchill Downs base to train until about a week before the $400,000 Vosburgh, a six-furlong race at Belmont Park on Sept. 28.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario — Sisterly Love has been a dominant winner in her two starts around two turns this season at Woodbine, capturing both the Trillium and the Grade 3 Ontario Matron at 1 1/16 miles. On Sunday, Sisterly Love will be looking to extend her streak with an eye toward bigger things down the road when she faces five rivals in the 1 1/16-mile Belle Mahone.
“She’s been doing good,” said Mark Casse, who conditions Sisterly Love and watched the Kentucky-bred win the Trillium by 8 1/2 lengths and the Ontario Matron by three lengths in front-running fashion.
The Fugue won her first stakes of 2013 in Thursday’s $506,000 Yorkshire Oaks at York Racecourse in England, a win that could lead to a start in the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe in France in October.
Trained by John Gosden for Andrew Lloyd-Webber, The Fugue, a 4-year-old filly by Dansili, earned an automatic berth to the Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Turf at Santa Anita in early November through the Breeders’ Cup’s Win and You’re In program.
