DEL MAR, Calif. – Trainer Richard Mandella can play his cards close to the vest, but he gave away his tell Tuesday morning at Del Mar after his top-class 3-year-old colt Omaha Beach had his first work on the comeback trail.
Mandella was smiling broadly, and did a little jig, as he watched Omaha Beach cool out at his barn following a three-furlong workout that was his first drill since prior to the Kentucky Derby.
“We’re back!” he said. “He looked pretty happy.”
So did Mandella.
Colonial Downs in New Kent, Virginia, will have takeout rates of 16 percent for its win, place, and show pools and a rate of 20 percent for nearly all other bets when the track reopens in August, the track announced on Monday.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Though he hadn’t run a horse here in eight summers, trainer Stanley Hough still appreciates how hard it is to win a race at Saratoga.
In a span of 48 hours Hough made it look easy, winning an allowance race Friday with He Hate Me and a maiden race Sunday with Scars Are Cool. They were Hough’s first two Saratoga wins since Tar Heel Mom won the Grade 2 Honorable Miss in August 2011, the last summer he ran a horse here.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Guarana won the Grade 1 Acorn with 53 days between races and Sunday’s Grade 1 Coaching Club American Oaks with 43 days between starts. That’s why when evaluating where to run the undefeated 3-year-old filly next, trainer Chad Brown seems inclined to wait for the Grade 1, $1 million Cotillion Stakes at Parx Racing on Sept. 21.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Code of Honor, the Kentucky Derby runner-up who won the Grade 3 Dwyer Stakes, won’t be running in Saturday’s Grade 2 Jim Dandy Stakes, but he did return to the work tab Monday morning, breezing three furlongs in 38.53 seconds over the Oklahoma training track.
Code of Honor, who is pointing to the Grade 1 Travers on Aug. 24, galloped out a half-mile in 51.43 and five furlongs in 1:04.11.
“Just getting him started again, I thought it was good,” trainer Shug McGaughey said. “We’ll get him back in a routine and go from there.”
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – On Sunday morning, trainer Jimmy Toner and owner Sean Shay visited their Grade 1 winner Hunter O’ Riley at the Rood and Riddle Equine Hospital in Saratoga. Hunter O’ Riley is there due to a leg infection that will force him to miss Saturday’s Bowling Green Stakes, a race he won in 2017.
Late Sunday afternoon, Toner and Shay were in the Saratoga winner’s circle after Mominou pulled off a 29-1 upset in the $200,000 Caress Stakes.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Trainer Bill Mott waited out the weekend heat and beat the late Monday morning rain by working many of his stakes-bound horses, including Tacitus and Channel Maker, early Monday over the Oklahoma training track in Saratoga.
DEL MAR, Calif. – Jeff Mullins had a strong opening week at Del Mar, with a pair of wins and a second in just four starts. He has two runners on Thursday’s card, both 4-year-old first-time starters whom the trainer expects to run well.
First up is the Elusive Warning gelding Satanta, who goes six furlongs against California-bred maidens in race 1.
“Acts like a solid horse,” Mullins said. “Everybody who gets on him loves him.”
DEL MAR, Calif. – Pure Xena looked like a major player for the Grade 1 Del Mar Debutante the final weekend of the meet the way she dominated a maiden race for 2-year-old fillies Saturday, winning by 11 1/4 lengths in her debut.
Pure Xena’s name was inspired by her sire, Warrior’s Reward. Owner Samantha Siegel, on the advice of trainer Brian Koriner, purchased her at auction in Ocala, Fla., in April for $370,000.
