ELMONT, N.Y. – After winning the Tremont with Fore Left last month at Belmont Park. trainer Doug O’Neill will set his sights on the opening week stakes for 2-year-olds at Saratoga.
O’Neill is expected to run the fillies Comical and Shippy in Thursday’s Grade 3, $150,000 Schuylerville Stakes, the co-feature on Saratoga’s opening-day card. O’Neill is also expected to run Raging Whiskey in Saturday’s Grade 3, $150,000 Sanford Stakes for juvenile males.
Rico Walcott, the dominant jockey in Alberta the past nine years, was back working horses at Century Mile on Friday morning. It was a big moment for the 30-year-old journeyman who underwent surgery April 5.
According to his agent Bob Fowlis, Walcott may be ready to ride in a race as soon as Thursday.
“He has a lot of horses lined up to work the next couple of days,” said Fowlis. We’ll see how he’s doing after that.”
Kentucky Downs officials announced Friday that the winner of the Sept. 7 Kentucky Downs Turf Sprint will receive a $1 million bonus if the horse proceeds to sweep the Oct. 5 Woodford at Keeneland and the Nov. 2 Breeders’ Cup Turf Sprint at Santa Anita.
The offer comes on the heels of the Grade 3, $700,000 Kentucky Downs Turf Sprint having been listed as the first-ever Breeders’ Cup Win and You’re In event at the turf-only track in south-central Kentucky.
Jockey Chris Emigh became the 70th jockey with at least 4,000 wins in North America when he guided Mr Haney to the milestone victory in the first race Thursday at Arlington.
Emigh, 48, has 1,100 winners at Arlington, third-most at the track behind Earlie Fires and Pat Day. Emigh began his jockey career in 1989 and has ridden every meeting at Arlington since 1997.
With a romp in the $50,000 Budweiser Stakes at Emerald Downs last Sunday, Anyportinastorm made it clear he is the horse to beat in the Grade 3, $200,000 Longacres Mile on Aug. 11. Trainer Blaine Wright said Anyportinastorm will skip the $50,000 Mt. Rainier Stakes on July 21 and train into the premier race in the Pacific Northwest.
“It looks like he’s doing it easily, but he lays it all down, and he isn’t the kind of horse you want to bring back in three weeks,” said Wright.
With less than two weeks remaining before the start of the Del Mar summer meeting, the track has yet to officially state whether Jerry Hollendorfer will be allowed to train and run horses there. Hollendorfer’s attorney expressed doubt earlier this week that the Hall of Famer will be allowed to race there.
ELMONT, N.Y. – Code of Honor figures to be a heavy favorite in Saturday’s Grade 3, $250,000 Dwyer Stakes for 3-year-olds at one mile. But in Mihos, he will be facing a horse who’s already beaten him once.
Mihos won the Mucho Macho Man Stakes at Gulfstream Park in January, beating Code of Honor by 7 3/4 lengths. Mihos then finished fifth in the Grade 2 Holy Bull Stakes on Feb. 2 and hasn’t raced since.
ELMONT, N.Y. – Preservationist, a 6-year-old with only seven lifetime starts, will make his stakes debut in Saturday’s Grade 2, $700,000 Suburban Stakes at Belmont Park.
The Suburban drew a field of 11 headed by Catholic Boy, winner of last year’s Travers Stakes.
A son of Arch, Preservationist has had plenty of starts and stops due to injuries. On May 23, he came off a three-month layoff to win a third-level allowance after winning his second-level condition in February.
ELMONT, N.Y. – Trainer Aidan O’Brien shipped in four horses for Saturday’s Stars and Stripes card at Belmont Park – two colts for the $1 million Belmont Derby and two for the $750,000 Belmont Oaks.
For the Oaks, he shipped in Coral Beach and Just Wonderful to take on a trio of runners – Cafe Americano, Cambier Parc, and Newspaperofrecord – from the barn of Chad Brown as well as Concrete Rose, winner of the Grade 3 Edgewood Stakes at Churchill Downs two months ago.
Trainer J.R. Caldwell said that Flat Precious, who was a 5 1/4-length maiden special weight winner Sunday at Lone Star, will be pointed to the $100,000 fillies division of the Texas Thoroughbred Futurity on July 14 at Lone Star.
She will start as one of the top choices off a Beyer Speed Figure of 65. Flat Precious is a daughter of Flat Out who races for Keene Thoroughbreds. She was the fifth 2-year-old winner of the Lone Star meet for Caldwell.
