SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - Jockey Luis Rivera Jr. showed up for work at trainer Kenny McPeek’s barn a little before 5:30 a.m. Saturday because, well, that’s what he’s done most of the summer. Never mind that he was at Saratoga Hospital until around 8 p.m. Friday getting his hip examined following a spill he was involved in during the races.
DEL MAR, Calif. - Journalism, winner of the Grade 1 Haskell Invitational at Monmouth Park on July 19 and three other stakes this year, worked a half-mile in 48 seconds at Del Mar on Saturday for a potential start in the Grade 1 Pacific Classic on Aug. 30.
A half-interest in reigning Horse of the Year Thorpedo Anna has been purchased by John Sikura’s Hill ‘n’ Dale Farm. A release announcing the deal also revealed the new partnership’s intentions to race Thorpedo Anna through 2026, if she continues to hold good form.
Thorpedo Anna is expected to make her next start in the Grade 1 Personal Ensign on Aug. 23 at Saratoga. The 4-year-old daughter of Fast Anna has been racing for a partnership of Brookdale Racing, Mark Edwards, breeder Judy Hicks, and the McPeek family’s Magdalena Racing.
DEL MAR, Calif. - Lil Yachty, the famous rapper, was in the first hour of his first visit to Del Mar on Saturday when he was bound for the winner’s circle.
The gelding Listenupshance, part of Lil Yachty’s Run Fast Racing stable, had rallied between rivals in the final furlong to post a 17-1 upset in an allowance race at five furlongs on turf in the day’s opening race.
“We got a little lucky,” Lil Yachty said an hour later. “It’s good to be here.”
It’s safe to say the moment has clinched Lil Yachty’s status as a Del Mar, and racing, fan.
DEL MAR, Calif. - A group of riders, including red-hot leading jockey Juan Hernandez, were visiting between workouts on the Del Mar backstretch on Sunday morning when the conversation turned to a forthcoming jockey karaoke event that evening to benefit injured riders.
Some of the banter focused on who was going to sing. Hernandez, for one, was not raising his hand. He may lead the standings, but he will not lead the chorus.
“I can’t sing,” Hernandez said with a laugh. “I’m going tonight just to support.”
Hernandez does win races, and sometimes in bunches.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - In response to running Saturday’s last race at Saratoga at the wrong distance, the New York Racing Association implemented new protocols on Sunday in hopes that it won’t happen in the future.
NYRA is requiring verbal notification between the head starter and the stewards to confirm the correct gate locations, according to NYRA spokesman Pat McKenna. In addition, in the coming days, NYRA will add improved visual identifiers to each starting location specific to distance and rail-setting options.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - Thorpedo Anna on Sunday had her most serious workout yet in preparation for the Grade 1 Personal Ensign on Aug. 23, but it didn’t go off as planned.
Thorpedo Anna worked five furlongs in 1:01.75 over the Oklahoma training track, but her company started too far in front of her and it kind of made the move a bit disjointed. Midnight Concerto, the workmate ridden by Danny Ramsey, started a furlong in front of Thorpedo Anna, ridden by Luis Rivera Jr., who was accompanied to the five-furlong pole by a stable pony.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - About the only question answered in Kentucky Derby winner Mystik Dan’s turf experiment in Saturday’s Grade 1 Arlington Million is that he won’t go a distance of ground over that surface again.
Trainer Kenny McPeek will try to decide in the coming weeks what to do with Mystik Dan this fall, but the Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile seemed like a leading contender for a year-end goal.
“More than likely,” McPeek said.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - It looks like Sandman will enter the world of turf racing for his next start.
Sandman, the winner of the Arkansas Derby who ran in two legs of the Triple Crown, worked a half-mile in 49.75 seconds over the Oklahoma turf course on Sunday morning. Trainer Mark Casse said he was pleased enough with the move that he will likely point the son of Tapit to the Grade 3, $3.5 million Nashville Derby at 1 5/16 miles on Aug. 30 at Kentucky Downs.
“Right now, that’s what I have in mind,” Casse said immediately after the move.
STILLWATER, N.Y. – Light on his feet and shaking his head, Rich Strike danced into the show ring at the Irish Hill and Dutchess Views Stallions operation looking much as he did when he was led over for his 2022 Kentucky Derby upset – or like he could head down the winding country roads to nearby Saratoga Race Course for that day’s card.
But after a long and winding road, Rich Strike, in the history books as the second-longest shot ever to win the Derby, is now in a new phase of his life, settling into his stallion career after a late but solid start.
