SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - The 3-year-old Expressman got a late start to his career, but he proved it was well worth the wait in winning his debut Saturday by 7 1/4 lengths at Saratoga and earning a gaudy 107 Beyer Speed Figure in the process.
Sharp away from the gate under Javier Castellano, Expressman rolled in front with splits of 22.75, 45.56, 1:10.17 and covered seven furlongs of a maiden special weight race in 1:22.94. His stablemate Unlimitedpotential finished second.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - Damon’s Mound, the 3 1/4-length winner of Saturday’s Grade 2, $200,000 Saratoga Special, will not be returning to Saratoga for the Grade 1 Hopeful on Labor Day, and may not start again until the Grade 1, $600,000 Breeders’ Futurity at Keeneland on Oct. 8, trainer Michelle Lovell said Sunday.
“If you think you got a chance to go to the Breeders’ Cup, the best thing to do might be to run him at Keeneland where the Breeders’ Cup is being held this year,” Lovell said Sunday. “The timing is perfect.”
DEL MAR, Calif. – Jockey Tyler Baze, who failed to show at Del Mar for his scheduled mounts on Thursday and did not contact stewards until only one race remained on that day’s card, was granted a leave of absence for what the stewards called “personal matters” after meeting with the stewards Friday afternoon.
The resolution of the meeting is that Baze will not ride at least through Sunday, and he has been fined $1,000 for missing his mounts without calling in at an appropriate time Thursday, stewards said. But stewards said there will be no further sanctions against Baze.
Noel Hickey, who dominated as an owner-trainer at Arlington Park in the early- to mid-1990s before winning the 1998 Breeders’ Cup Turf with Buck’s Boy, died Wednesday in an Ocala, Fla., nursing home. He was 92.
Hilary Pridham, his former longtime assistant, said family members informed her that Hickey “died in his sleep, very peacefully.” She said Hickey had lived in the nursing home for about a year after suffering from Alzheimer’s disease, then COVID in the last few weeks.
The California Horse Racing Board has rescinded a requirement that journalists be licensed in order to access backstretches of the state’s racetracks, two days after first issuing the requirement, which was to go into effect at the beginning of September.
In a statement, the CHRB said that it had “revised” the policy “after considerable feedback,” which included letters from both the National Turf Writers and Broadcasters organization and the president of the Associated Press Sports Editors urging the board to reconsider the decision.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Kentucky Derby winner Rich Strike will soon be on his way to Saratoga after being sent through what trainer Eric Reed described as an “easy-as-he-could” workout early Wednesday at Churchill Downs.
Rich Strike gave his Reed stablemate, the 4-year-old gelding Common Bond, a head start down the backside before passing him from the outside and pulling away down the stretch, getting five furlongs in 59.40 seconds over a fast track. The six-furlong gallop-out time was 1:13.29, according to Churchill clocker John Nichols.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Memorial services for T.V. Smith are scheduled for Aug. 19 after the retired trainer died last Friday at age 84.
Smith spent some 50 years on the track, retiring in 2007. He was born Thomas Victor Smith but quickly became known as "T.V." when working at tracks in the upper Midwest, primarily in Nebraska, near where he was born and raised in South Dakota.
DEL MAR, Calif. – Hall of Fame jockey Kent Desormeaux on Sunday was suspended 60 days by Del Mar’s stewards for an incident at an RV park here last fall, and he will have conditions placed on him to resume riding, but the ruling paves the way for Desormeaux to compete anew after a tumultuous past year.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - Just about halfway through its 40-day meet, Saratoga is on track to set a record for all-sources handle.
Through Sunday’s 19th day of the season, all-sources handle is $416,924,385, up 8 percent over last year’s figure through 19 days of $385,973,818. Last year, Saratoga set an all-time record for all-sources handle with $815,508,063.
Ontrack handle at the meet is $70,071,675, an increase of 7.4 percent over last year’s figure of $65,221,626.
