Rushing Fall, a Grade 1 winner in three consecutive years, will not run in Saturday’s Grade 2, $400,000 Ballston Spa Stakes at Saratoga.
Trainer Chad Brown was not happy with Rushing Fall’s most recent workout, a half-mile in 52.49 seconds over the Oklahoma training track last Saturday, and has decided to “take a step back on her and run some tests on her.”
Catholic Boy, last year’s Travers winner, will not run in the Grade 1 Woodward here on Aug. 31 and plans are on hold for him as he has been dealing with a few minor issues since his second-place finish to Preservationist in the Grade 2 Suburban Stakes at Belmont Park last month.
In addition to having missed time due to cuts sustained in the Suburban, Catholic Boy most recently had what’s known as a blind wolf tooth removed. Such teeth don’t totally break through the gums but can cause a horse discomfort.
Louisiana Downs in Bossier City, La., was granted its traditional dates for 2020 during a Louisiana Racing Commission meeting on Monday, according to Eric Halstrom, the track’s vice president of operations.
Louisiana Downs will conduct an 84-date meet for Thoroughbreds, from May 2 through Sept. 23. The track is to race on Mondays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Saturdays, Halstrom said.
Louisiana Downs will open 2020 with a 46-date meet for Quarter Horses, which starts Jan. 4.
Delta Downs in Vinton, La., has announced it stakes schedule for the upcoming Thoroughbred meet, and the headliner will again be the $895,000 Louisiana Premier Night card on Feb. 8.
Delta opens Oct. 8 and races through Feb. 29.
There are 26 stakes scheduled for the meet, with those races worth a cumulative $2.2 million.
Louisiana Premier Night will be the season’s richest card, featuring six divisional stakes for Louisiana-breds. The main event is the $150,000 Championship, a 1 1/16-mile race for 3-year-olds and up.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario – No horse has won the Canadian Triple Crown since the synthetic-track era began at Woodbine in August 2006. Pender Harbour came the closest in 2011, when he finished third in the Queen’s Plate, before winning the Prince of Wales and Breeders’ stakes.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Eurico Da Silva, one of the most popular and successful riders in Woodbine’s history, has announced that he will retire at the end of the current meet on Dec. 15.
“I’m retiring because I want to spend more time with my family,” Da Silva said. “I just feel if I continue working like that, I’m going to miss seeing my kids grow up.
DEL MAR, Calif. – Itsinthepost only beat one of his six rivals in the Del Mar Handicap on Saturday, but he came out of the race well and will be given a chance to rebound at Santa Anita, trainer Jeff Mullins said.
Itsinthepost has won 10 times in 40 starts, but is now 0 for 12 on the turf at Del Mar.
“He’s all right,” Mullins said. “I think the turf is a little too firm for him here.”
Prince Earl, Bowies Hero to City of Hope Mile
DEL MAR, Calif. – Flavien Prat entered the final two weeks of the Del Mar meeting as the leading jockey in both wins (27) and prize money (more than $2.1 million), continuing a banner year for the 27-year-old native of France.
Prat on Saturday won the Pacific Classic for the first time, aboard Higher Power. Earlier this year, he was placed first in the Kentucky Derby when Country House was moved up via disqualification, and he won the Queen’s Plate with One Bad Boy, both first-time wins in those races, too.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – When Sadler’s Joy won the Grade 1 Sword Dancer in 2017, trainer Tom Albertrani had jockey Julien Leparoux aboard for the horse’s final work. Coincidence or not, Albertrani, who rarely uses jockeys to work his horses, had Jose Lezcano aboard Sadler’s Joy when he had his final work for Saturday’s Grade 1, $850,000 Sword Dancer.
Lezcano will ride Sadler’s Joy in the Sword Dancer, replacing Javier Castellano, who will be riding Annals of Time for Chad Brown.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Midnight Bisou, leader of the older female dirt division, and the multiple graded stakes winner Elate have put in their final workouts in preparation for a showdown in Saturday’s Grade 1, $700,000 Personal Ensign at Saratoga.
On Monday, Midnight Bisou worked a half-mile in 49.79 seconds over the Oklahoma training track, which was rated good. Midnight Bisou went her first quarter in 25.70 and her second quarter in 24.09. She galloped out five furlongs in 1:03.67.
“She moved so pretty this morning,” trainer Steve Asmussen said.
