Steve Andersen, a longtime California correspondent for Daily Racing Form, has been named the recipient of the Walter Haight Award for “career excellence in turf writing” by the National Thoroughbred Writers and Broadcasters, the organization announced Tuesday.
Andersen has been employed by DRF for 31 years, covering the racing industry in California from head to heel. His coverage has included race previews and recaps, breeding and business news, sales coverage, and features.
Ron Turcotte, the Hall of Fame jockey who was the regular rider of the legendary Secretariat, died on Friday at his hometown in New Brunswick, Canada, according to friends. Turcotte, who had been a paraplegic since a riding accident in 1978, was 84.
Alpha Bella, who ended a 10-race losing streak with a win in the CTT-TOC Stakes at Del Mar last Friday, and the undefeated 2-year-old Hey Nay Nay have graded stakes engagements in coming weeks.
Trainer John Sadler said last weekend that Alpha Bella will be pointed for the Grade 2 Rodeo Drive Stakes for fillies and mares at 1 1/4 miles on turf at Santa Anita on Oct. 4. The winner of the $200,000 Rodeo Drive Stakes receives a fees-paid berth to the Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Turf at Del Mar on Nov. 1.
Derick Giwner, editor of Daily Racing Form’s DRF Harness, has been selected for induction into the Communicators wing of the Harness Racing Hall of Fame, the United States Harness Writers Association announced Tuesday.
Giwner, a two-time winner of the Hervey Award for writing and a Man of the Year recipient from the USHWA in 2020, was tabbed to lead DRF Harness at its launch in 2012. His weekly Harness Digest Newsletter “is a must read for many segments of the harness community,” the USHWA said in a press release announcing his selection.
DEL MAR, Calif. - The groundwork is nearly complete.
In coming weeks, the 5-year-old mares Ag Bullet and Sweet Azteca will start in graded stakes designed as prep races for the Breeders’ Cup at Del Mar on Nov. 1.
Sweet Azteca will be favored to win the Grade 3 Rancho Bernardo Handicap for fillies and mares at 6 1/2 furlongs at Del Mar next Sunday.
Ag Bullet is being readied for a start in the Grade 2 Ladies Turf Sprint, a $2 million race for fillies and mares at 6 1/2 furlongs at Kentucky Downs on Aug. 30.
DEL MAR, Calif. - Indispensable, the winner of an allowance race at Del Mar on July 19, and Tarantino, third in the Grade 2 San Diego Handicap on July 26, are set to start in the Grade 1 Pacific Classic at Del Mar on Aug. 30, their trainers said on Sunday.
Both will be longshots in the $1 million Pacific Classic, which is run at 1 1/4 miles. The probable field is led by Nysos, winner of the San Diego Handicap in his last start, and possibly the star 3-year-old Journalism, who won the Grade 1 Haskell Invitational at Monmouth Park on July 19.
DEL MAR, Calif. - Hall of Fame trainer Bob Baffert’s stranglehold on California’s 2-year-old division shows no sign of abating.
A week after he swept the two Grade 2 six-furlong stakes for juveniles at Del Mar – with Desert Gate in the Best Pal Stakes and Himika in the Sorrento Stakes – Baffert won two maiden races at 5 1/2 furlongs for 2-year-olds with the colt Litmus Test on Saturday and Explora on Sunday.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – None of the 26 3-year-olds Sovereignty defeated in winning four graded stakes this year, including the Kentucky Derby and Belmont Stakes, were entered against him for Saturday’s Grade 1, $1.25 million Travers Stakes at Saratoga. In fact, just four 3-year-olds – only one who is a graded stakes winner – will challenge him in what is the smallest Travers lineup since 1994, when Holy Bull won.
Still, Bill Mott, the trainer of Sovereignty, is not taking anything for granted.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - After graduating from Louisiana State University in summer 1983, Tom Amoss came to Saratoga to spend a week. While he was here, he saw Devil’s Bag win a maiden race by 7 1/2 lengths, the first of five wins for that colt on his way to being crowned 2-year-old champion.
“It never left me, it’s a race I still remember,” said Amoss, who began training horses on his own in 1987. “I’m hopeful that this horse goes on to do something really special, because I think it’ll be a maiden race that people remember, just like I remember [Devil's Bag's] race.”
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - Following her victory in Saturday’s Grade 1 Alabama Stakes at Saratoga, dual-surface graded stakes winner Nitrogen will remain on the dirt for at least the remainder of this year with the Breeders’ Cup Distaff on Nov. 1 at Del Mar as the year-end goal.
Trainer Mark Casse said he plans to run Nitrogen once before the Distaff, but as of Sunday morning had not yet figured out where that race would be.
“We know what our final target is, we just don’t know how we’re going to get there,” Casse said.
