DEL MAR, Calif. - Justique, one of the most impressive maiden special winners among 2-year-old fillies at Del Mar this summer, will miss Saturday’s Grade 1 Del Mar Debutante because of missed training time in August.
Trainer John Shirreffs said Sunday that Justique will be pointed to the Grade 2 Chandelier Stakes, a $200,000 race at 1 1/16 miles at Santa Anita on Oct. 8.
DEL MAR, Calif. – Those closest to Flightline worked around the colt on Sunday morning at trainer John Sadler’s Del Mar barn in the quiet, hushed tones of someone in the Reina Sofia admiring Picasso’s “Guernica.” Fitting, because in the Pacific Classic on Saturday, Flightline fashioned a masterpiece.
His 19 1/4-length victory in the 1 1/4-mile Pacific Classic over such proven 10-furlong horses as Country Grammer and Express Train marked his fifth victory without a defeat, and produced the highest Beyer Speed Figure of his career, 126.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - Stirred, not shaken.
While East Coast-based trainers with Breeders’ Cup Classic contenders were naturally impressed with the otherworldly performance of Flightline in Saturday’s Grade 1 Pacific Classic at Del Mar, it will not deter them from pointing their horses to a meeting with the unbeaten superstar in the $6 million Classic at Keeneland on Nov. 5.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - John Imbriale will step aside as the full-time announcer at New York Racing Association tracks in 2023 and instead be part of a three-person announcer team NYRA will utilize that will include Chris Griffin and Frank Mirahmadi.
Spendarella, the leading 3-year-old turf-route filly in North America, won’t race again in 2022 because of “a minor setback,” trainer Graham Motion said Saturday.
Spendarella sharply won the Grade 1 Del Mar Oaks on Aug. 20 at Del Mar and had returned to Motion’s base at the Fair Hill Training Center in Maryland. Spendarella was being pointed to the Queen Elizabeth II Challenge Cup next month at Keeneland, but the focus now turns to her 4-year-old campaign, Motion said.
Michael P. Ballezzi, the longtime executive director of the Pennsylvania Thoroughbred Horsemen’s Association who was instrumental in the formation of a re-homing program for retired Thoroughbreds at Parx Racing, died Aug. 31, according to the PTHA. Ballezzi was 76.
Penny Pearce, a trainer who has won nearly $2 million in purses over the past two years while winning at a 25 percent rate, has been suspended for more than five years after six horses she trained tested positive for clenbuterol in out-of-competition tests, according to a ruling from the Pennsylvania Horse Racing Commission.
DEL MAR, Calif. – It was the weekend between the Kentucky Derby and Preakness, May 1989. Sunday Silence had exited the Derby with a foot bruise. His status for the Preakness was in jeopardy. I was working for the Los Angeles Daily News, which had sent me to the Derby and was prepared to send me to the Preakness, but not if the Derby winner was out.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - A court appearance scheduled for Friday for trainer Chad Brown, who faces a misdemeanor charge of obstruction of breathing, has been adjourned until Sept. 16, according to a clerk at the Saratoga Springs City Court.
“His attorney asked for an adjournment,” the clerk said.
Brown was arrested on Aug. 17 and charged with obstruction of breathing in a case that involved a former acquaintance at his Saratoga home.
For reasons largely unique to Quarter Horse racing, Paul Jones is the only trainer in history who has won the All American Futurity at Ruidoso Downs and the Champion of Champions at Los Alamitos in the same year.
The All American Futurity is the sport’s leading race for 2-year-olds, and the Champion of Champions the top race for 3-year-olds and up. Jones, who accomplished the feat in 2006 with No Secrets Here and Wave Carver, may have company on that short list this year.
