Jockey Adam Beschizza has been suspended three racing days by Arlington stewards for interference at the quarter pole of the American Derby on Saturday.
Beschizza rode Faraway Kitten to victory in the Grade 3, $150,000 American Derby, but the stewards sanctioned him for coming in on eventual last-place finisher Strong Will. The suspension covers July 21, July 25, and July 26. Beschizza, an English import who also won the Arlington Handicap on Saturday, is based at Ellis Park.
The 52-year-old jockey E.T. Baird rode his first race since late last summer when he guided Brittney On Blades to a second-place finish in Sunday’s seventh race at Arlington.
Baird for decades was one of the finest gate and front-end jockeys in the Midwest, and he put Brittney On Blades right on the lead.
Faraway Kitten continued his midsummer rise, winning his second straight stakes race, the American Derby, on Saturday at Arlington, and now a colt who as a yearling failed to meet a $35,000 reserve at auction has a date set for the Grade 1 Secretariat on Aug. 10 at Arlington.
The Secretariat was changed from a 1 1/4-mile to a one-mile race this year owing to the creation of the Saratoga Derby, which is expected to draw the best East Coast horses in the division.
It’s been a little more than a year since English export Jack Sisterson took a position in Lexington, Ky., as a trainer for Calumet Farm. The partnership appears to have stuck and had an especially fruitful last weekend.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Broadway Run won two of her first three career starts, including the Coronation Cup here last July. She has gone winless in five starts since.
On Saturday, Broadway Run will be back at Saratoga for the $200,000 Caress Stakes, which like the Coronation Cup is run at 5 1/2 furlongs.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – On paper, it looked like a curious move when Jose Ortiz chose to ride Guarana, who had won her only career start, over Kentucky Oaks winner Serengeti Empress in the Grade 1 Acorn last month at Belmont Park.
For Ortiz, it was an easy decision. When he heard the two horses would be running in the same race, Ortiz called his agent, Jimmy Riccio Jr., and told him he wanted to stay on Guarana.
Mike and Mickala Sisk are doing some Christmas shopping in July – at Saratoga.
This is the time of year the Sisks start to build up their stable to prepare for the Oaklawn meet, which opens in January. The couple has won the last two owner titles at the Hot Springs, Ark., track and in April set a single-season mark for owner wins at Oaklawn when they broke a 1974 record established by Dan Lasater.
“Remember the Sears Wish Book that would come out at Christmastime?” said Mike Sisk, 50. “Saratoga horses are in our Sears Wish Book. We want to buy as many as we can.”
OCEANPORT, N.J. – A good performance by Maximum Security on Saturday in the Grade 1 Haskell Invitational at Monmouth Park would heat up a 3-year-old division searching for a leader. But regardless of how Gary and Mary West’s son of New Year’s Day performs, things figure to be quite toasty with a heat wave gripping the Northeast.
Monmouth, just a few miles from the Atlantic, likely will fare better than more landlocked areas, with a humid 93 degrees predicted for Saturday in Oceanport.
DEL MAR, Calif. – The Grade 1 winners McKinzie and Paradise Woods worked at Del Mar on Wednesday in advance of important stakes.
McKinzie, a winner of five stakes who was second in the Metropolitan Handicap at Belmont Park on June 8, officially worked five furlongs in 59 seconds, though trainer Bob Baffert said the 4-year-old worked six furlongs.
McKinzie is scheduled to start in the Grade 1 Whitney Stakes at 1 1/8 miles at Saratoga on Aug. 3. The winner receives a fees-paid berth in the Breeders’ Cup Classic at Santa Anita on Nov. 2.
DEL MAR, Calif. – Bolo, the winner of the Grade 1 Shoemaker Mile at Santa Anita on May 27, will not start in Sunday’s Grade 2 Eddie Read Stakes at Del Mar and will be pointed for the Grade 2 Del Mar Mile on Aug. 18.
Trainer Carla Gaines said on Wednesday that she would like to limit Bolo’s races in late summer and early fall in advance of the Breeders’ Cup Mile at Santa Anita on Nov. 2. Bolo earned a berth in the BC Mile with his win in the Shoemaker Mile.
