Trainer Kevin Patterson won his 16th straight race Sunday night when he sent out Call Me Cowboy in the eighth race at Mountaineer Park under jockey Luis Quinones. Call Me Cowboy won the $5,000 claiming race by a length as the 1-5 favorite.
Patterson’s win streak dates to May 31. Call Me Cowboy has won twice for Patterson during that time period.
Call Me Cowboy was one of three winners for Quinones on Sunday night. He is the leading rider at Mountaineer.
Trainer Andrew Lerner won at Del Mar for the first time in the summer of 2017. The stable had six horses and a Spartan office on the backstretch. An overturned bucket doubled as a chair.
Furnishings and the number of runners in the stable have improved significantly in the last two years.
When the Del Mar summer meeting begins Wednesday, the 30-year-old Lerner will have 40 horses in his care.
“It really is crazy,” Lerner reflected last weekend.
The 36-day Del Mar summer meeting that starts Wednesday may be among the most important in the track’s history.
Amidst an opening day noted for its large and festive crowds and general revelry, Del Mar opens less than a month after the conclusion of a six-month Santa Anita meeting plagued by a series of equine fatalities that led to the cancellation of three weeks of racing in March, drew national news, and led to widespread concern over horse safety.
CYPRESS, Calif. – Handle for the nine-day Los Alamitos summer meeting compared favorably to a similar nine-day stretch from last year’s longer meeting, track vice-president Jack Liebau said Sunday.
Los Alamitos held nine days of racing from June 29 through Sunday, and Liebau said handle on those days improved by approximately 2 percent compared to similar days at the 2018 summer meeting. There were 11 complete days of racing at the 2018 meeting and one day with two races when the remainder of the program was canceled because of excessive heat.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Despite a slow opening day – due to a combination of an early opening and inclement weather – all-sources handle for the first four days of the 2019 Saratoga meet is up 2.5 percent compared to the first four days of the 2018 meeting. However, ontrack handle is down 17.9 percent compared to the first four days last year.
CYPRESS, Calif. – From the confusion and anguish of the Kentucky Derby aftermath on May 4, there was one emotion evident on the faces of owners Gary and Mary West after Game Winner’s win in the Grade 3 Los Alamitos Derby on Saturday.
Satisfaction.
Game Winner, the champion 2-year-old male of 2018, won the $150,000 Los Alamitos Derby in a performance that served as a trial for the Grade 1 Travers Stakes at Saratoga on Aug. 24.
“He seems to be back to his old self again,” Gary West said in the winner’s circle. “I think this will be a great prep race for him.”
For the second straight morning in Saratoga, more than 300 horses put in timed workouts over the three different tracks in Saratoga.
Among the bigger names to breeze were Mitole and Midnight Bisou, a duo that has combined to win their last 11 starts for trainer Steve Asmussen.
Mitole, the Grade 1 Metropolitan Handicap winner, worked five furlongs in 1:01.09 over the Oklahoma training track in preparation for a start in the Grade 1, $350,000 Alfred G. Vanderbilt on July 27.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – On to Chicago.
After winning his fourth straight Grade 1 Diana Stakes on Saturday with Sistercharlie, trainer Chad Brown will now set his sights on winning a fifth straight Beverly D. with the likes of Sistercharlie and Homerique headed to the Grade 1, $600,000 race at Arlington Park on Aug. 10.
Sistercharlie came off a 252-day layoff to win Saturday’s Grade 1, $500,000 Diana for a second consecutive year. Sistercharlie beat Rushing Fall by 1 3/4 lengths, ran 1 1/8-miles in 1:47.34, and earned a career-best Beyer Speed Figure of 105.
Cesar DeAlba, the retired Quarter Horse jockey turned Thoroughbred trainer, saddled his first winner with his fifth starter when Seven Oxen ($5.80) prevailed by two lengths in a $20,000 claimer for maidens at six furlongs at Los Alamitos on Saturday.
DeAlba retired from riding last December at Los Alamitos and had his first runner at Santa Anita in February.
“It seems like it’s been a long six months,” De Alba said, reflecting on his career change.
United, a promising 4-year-old gelding trained by Richard Mandella, will have his first start of the Del Mar summer meeting in an allowance race with a $62,500 claiming option at 1 1/8 miles on turf in Wednesday’s second race.
United’s intended second start of the Del Mar summer meeting will be significantly more important. The optional claimer is designed as a prep race for the Grade 2 Del Mar Handicap at 1 3/8 miles on turf on Aug. 17, a $250,000 race Mandella described on Sunday as “very possible.”
