ELMONT, N.Y. – After watching Royal Delta put together a string of lightning-fast workouts, trainer Bill Mott was hoping to slow down his champion filly Monday morning.
Mission accomplished. Sort of.
With exercise rider Rodolphe Brisset maintaining a strong hold of the reins, Royal Delta still zipped four furlongs in 47.58 seconds Monday morning over Belmont Park’s main track in preparation for a start in Saturday’s Grade 1, $400,000 Beldame Invitational.
ELMONT, N.Y. – The connections of the majority of the horses running in Saturday’s $1 million Jockey Club Gold Cup at Belmont Park are hoping to use the race as a springboard to the $5 million Breeders’ Cup Classic on Nov. 3 at Santa Anita.
That would put trainer Shug McGaughey in the minority. As far as Hymn Book is concerned, Saturday’s Jockey Club Gold Cup could very well be his Breeders’ Cup.
MIAMI – South Florida’s top two Breeders’ Cup candidates were on their way back home Monday after shipping north for important prep races over the weekend.
Musical Romance was scheduled to leave New York at noon Monday for her return trip to south Florida following a third-place finish in Saturday’s Grade 2 Gallant Bloom at Belmont Park. She will likely pass through the Calder stable gate several hours after Trinniberg, who was being vanned back home from Philadelphia on Monday by trainer Shivananda Parbhoo following his second-place finish in Parx Racing’s Gallant Bob.
POMONA, Calif. – Jockey Martin Pedroza broke slowly at the start of the 13-day Los Angeles County Fair meet, and finished second in the standings. It was the first year since 1998 Pedroza has not led the meet.
But 6-year-old gelding Norvsky suffered the season’s biggest stumble. Even money in the $100,000 Ralph M. Hinds Handicap on closing day Sunday at Fairplex Park, Norvsky stumbled at the start, and unseated jockey Joe Talamo.
That left Pedroza and Worth Repeating ($8.20) with a perfect trip and five-length runaway victory in the centerpiece race of the meet.
Trainer Bob Baffert will start the multiple stakes winner Ellafitz in the $250,000 Zenyatta Stakes over 1 1/16 miles at Santa Anita, but she could be overshadowed by Amani, Include Me Out, and Switch.
Amani, who will be ridden by Bejarano, has won 10 of 13 starts, but was winless in two races at Del Mar – a troubled third behind Include Me Out in the Clement Hirsch Stakes on Aug. 4 and a sixth against males in the Pacific Classic. Amani was Chile’s top horse of 2011.
Trained by Neil Drysdale, Amani worked five furlongs in 1:00.60 at Santa Anita last Friday.
ARCADIA, Calif.- Hall of Fame trainer Bob Baffert won 11 Grade 1 races in 2011. He could equal that mark as early as this weekend on the opening Saturday of the Santa Anita fall meeting.
Through Sunday, Baffert has nine Grade 1 wins this year. He will have runners in four of the five Grade 1 races at Santa Anita on Saturday, and will have favorites in two races.
Trainer Kiaran McLaughlin said Alpha, who finished sixth in the Pennsylvania Derby, beaten 4 1/4 lengths by Handsome Mike, will remain under consideration for the Breeders’ Cup Classic.
Alpha, who dead-heated for win in the Travers and who won the Jim Dandy, suffered his first loss since the Kentucky Derby.
Jockey Ramon Dominguez told McLaughlin that Alpha’s nose was right up against the gate prior to the start of the race and he needed an assistant starter to back Alpha up a little bit.
ELMONT, N.Y. - My Miss Aurelia and Questing, separated by a head when first and second in Saturday’s Grade 1 Cotillion Stakes at Parx, are headed for a rematch in the $2 million Breeders’ Cup Ladies’ Classic at Santa Anita on Nov. 2, their connections indicated Sunday morning.
Guam Typhoon stretched his winning streak to eight races Saturday night with a wire-to-wire victory in the $100,000 Changing Times Stakes at Penn National.
Ridden by Daniel Centeno, the 6-year-old Guam Typhoon ($4.20) set fractions of 22.40 and 44.49 seconds en route to running six furlongs in 1:09.09. He was 2 3/4 lengths clear at the finish.
Jamie Ness claimed Guam Typhoon on behalf of Midwest Thoroughbreds for $25,000 in mid-February and the gelding has proceeded to win six races since March for his new connections, including three stakes.
BENSALEM, Pa. - My Miss Aurelia came up alongside Questing turning for home in Saturday’s $1 million Cotillion Stakes at Parx and the two-horse race that it appeared to be on paper was about to play out on the racetrack.
My Miss Aurelia, last year’s undefeated 2-year-old filly champion, and Questing, the pro tem leader of this year’s 3-year-old filly division, brushed each other a couple of times in the stretch, but in the end My Miss Aurelia, under Corey Nakatani, prevailed by a short head over Questing and Irad Ortiz Jr. in the Grade 1 Cotillion.
