It is possible that by the end of the current meeting on Sept. 7, trainer Phil D’Amato will rank among the five all-time leading stakes winners at Del Mar.
D’Amato swept the track’s two stakes on Saturday, both at a mile on turf, when Almendares won the $102,500 Wickerr Stakes and Thought Process glided home in the Grade 2 San Clemente Stakes for 3-year-old fillies.
DEL MAR, Calif. - Sweet Azteca, the brilliant winner of the Grade 2 Great Lady M. Stakes at Los Alamitos on July 5 in her first start of 2025, will remain in California this summer.
Trainer Richard Baltas said on Sunday that Sweet Azteca is scheduled to run in the Grade 3 Rancho Bernardo Stakes at Del Mar on Aug. 24. The $100,000 Rancho Bernardo Stakes at 6 1/2 furlongs is the track’s leading summertime sprint for fillies and mares.
DEL MAR, Calif. - Jockey Tiago Pereira suffered facial injuries in a one-horse spill at Del Mar on Saturday and is scheduled to undergo surgery on Sunday at a San Diego-area hospital, according to his agent, Craig Stephen.
Stephen said Pereira is likely to be sidelined “for at least eight weeks.”
The incident occurred on the turn of the fifth race, an allowance race at five furlongs on turf. Pereira was aboard Origami, who appeared to clip heels with Border Control, who was racing in front of Origami.
DEL MAR, Calif. - Raging Torrent, one of the leading milers and older horses this year, has been retired after the colt was recently diagnosed with a suspensory injury, according to co-owner Craig Dado.
The injury was detected in the weeks after Raging Torrent won his third consecutive stakes, and the fifth of his 14-race career, in the Grade 1 Metropolitan Mile Handicap at Saratoga on June 7. A 4-year-old by the Into Mischief stallion Maximus Mischief, Raging Torrent won seven races and earned $1,797,400.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - Mother Nature helped put a dent in the opening week of business at Saratoga’s traditional 40-day meet as all-sources handle was down 30 percent compared to last year’s opening four days, according to figures provided by the New York Racing Association.
Visually, it looked like Far Bridge’s three-length victory in Saturday’s Grade 2, $200,000 Bowling Green Stakes was done with ease. But it’s a trainer’s job to worry and on Sunday Miguel Clement was wondering just how easily the victory was attained.
Clement said he was surprised how early Joel Rosario advanced Far Bridge to the lead with three furlongs to go and then seemingly coasted the final 100 yards.
Sierra Leone, the Breeders’ Cup Classic winner who went 0 for 3 in Saratoga last summer, had his first workout over the main track here since last September on Sunday, going a half-mile in 48.80 seconds in company with the 3-year-old Hill Road.
Sierra Leone, coming off a second-place finish behind Mindframe in the Grade 1 Stephen Foster at Churchill Downs on June 28, is pointing to the Grade 1, $1 million Whitney on Aug. 2.
Prior to her narrow defeat in the Diana, She Feels Pretty had won the Grade 3 Modesty at Churchill and Grade 1 New York here to climb to the top of the division. Her loss on Saturday may not have altered her ranking.
Trainer Cherie DeVaux had some concerns about She Feels Pretty over a yielding, or what was officially labeled good in the charts, turf course. Still, she was proud of the effort She Feels Pretty gave and said the Grade 2, $500,000 Flower Bowl is one of the potential options for the filly.
