Trainer John Sadler, jockey Flavien Prat, and owners Kosta and Pete Hronis – the team that won the Pacific Classic and Pat O’Brien the last two weekends – will seek a sweep of the Sunday stakes at Del Mar with Nolo Contesto in the Grade 2, $250,000 Del Mar Derby and Encoder in the $100,000 Del Mar Juvenile Turf.
Encoder was an impressive winner first time out going five furlongs, and will stretch out to a mile for his second start.
Sorrento Stakes winner Amalfi Sunrise, who suffered a hind-end injury that took her out of consideration for Saturday’s Grade 1, $300,000 Del Mar Debutante, is “getting better,” trainer Simon Callaghan said, though exactly what is ailing her has yet to be conclusively identified.
Amalfi Sunrise was injured recently during a routine gallop. Callaghan said that a nuclear scan showed an area of concern, but subsequent X-rays failed to find anything. She has been kept at his Del Mar barn, and is walking every day.
DEL MAR, Calif. – Improbable, winner of the Shared Belief Stakes on Sunday, will have the Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile at Santa Anita on Nov. 2 as his major year-end goal, but how he gets there is yet to be determined, trainer Bob Baffert said.
“We’ll wait a week and then decide what to do,” said Baffert, who said he would discuss options with Elliott Walden, the president and chief executive of co-owner WinStar Farm.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Mongolian Groom came out of his third-place finish in the Grade 1 Pacific Classic at Del Mar on Aug. 17 so well that trainer Enebish Ganbat immediately began looking for somewhere to run him next.
Ganbat landed on Saturday’s Grade 1, $750,000 Woodward at Saratoga. Mongolian Groom landed here on Sunday to complete preparations for the Woodward, run at 1 1/8 miles.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Dual-surface Grade 1 winner World of Trouble is still hampered by a foot injury that will force him to miss the Turf Monster Stakes at Parx next week and puts his status for the Breeders’ Cup in question.
“We’re not going to make the Turf Monster and we’ll be pressed to make the Breeders’ Cup,” trainer Jason Servis said.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Trainer Steve Asmussen has already enjoyed a terrific Saratoga meet and will look to close it out Monday with a victory in the Grade 1 Hopeful.
Asmussen, who has won 13 races including two Grade 1’s, is expected to start three horses in the Hopeful: Basin, Shoplifted, and Gozilla, all maiden winners at this meet. On Monday, each put in a workout over the Oklahoma training track.
DEL MAR, Calif. – The Debutante kicks off a closing weekend that includes six stakes races, two of them graded, two Grade 1, concluding with the Grade 1, $300,000 Runhappy Del Mar Futurity for 2-year-olds on Monday.
Eight Rings heads the likely field for the Futurity. His trainer, Bob Baffert, has won the race a record 14 times, including last year with eventual divisional champ Game Winner.
DEL MAR, Calif. – Recent setbacks to top-class 2-year-old fillies Amalfi Sunrise and Immediate Impact have left Inspiressa as the likely favorite for the Grade 1, $300,000 Del Mar Debutante on Saturday, a position Inspiressa solidified with a five-furlong work in 1:01 Monday morning.
DEL MAR, Calif. – Omaha Beach, who missed the Shared Belief last Sunday owing to a minor illness, is back galloping for trainer Richard Mandella, who on Monday said he is “looking seriously” at the Grade 3, $150,000 Ack Ack Stakes at Churchill Downs on Sept. 28 as a comeback race.
The Ack Ack is the same day as the Grade 1 Awesome Again at Santa Anita, but is a one-turn mile as opposed to the Awesome Again’s 1 1/8 miles. Omaha Beach has not raced since winning the Arkansas Derby in April.
DEL MAR, Calif. – Neptune’s Storm, the winner of two turf stakes for 3-year-olds at Santa Anita in the spring, will have a new rider when he starts in the richest race of his career in Sunday’s Grade 2 Del Mar Derby.
Trainer Richard Baltas said over the weekend Florent Geroux will replace Drayden Van Dyke. Van Dyke is booked to ride Moody Jim, the attractive winner of a maiden race in his California debut on July 27 for trainer Jeff Mullins.
“He chose to ride Mullins,” Baltas said.
