ELMONT, N.Y. – Trainer Bill Mott was watching a handful of horses complete workouts on the Belmont Park training track Sunday morning when jockey Jose Ortiz walked up to stand alongside him. Mott and Ortiz exchanged their thoughts on what had happened about an hour earlier on the main track when Ortiz guided the Mott-trained Tacitus through his final workout in preparation for Saturday’s $1.5 million Belmont Stakes.

Belmont Park
Saturday, June 1, 2019
Weather: Clear 
Temperature:  67   
Track: Fast

ELMONT, N.Y. – Conditions were about as perfect as they could get on the main track when Spinoff, Intrepid Heart and Tax turned in their final major preps for the Belmont Stakes following the renovation break shortly before 9:00 a.m. Saturday at Belmont Park.

ELMONT, N.Y. – Newspaperofrecord, who suffered her first defeat in the Grade 3 Edgewood Stakes at Churchill Downs last month, will be heavily favored to make amends in Thursday’s Grade 3, $200,000 Wonder Again Stakes at Belmont Park.

ELMONT, N.Y. – Trainer Danny Gargan was hoping to see a little more from Tax than he did in a Saturday morning workout at Belmont Park and now the Withers winner’s status for the $1.5 million Belmont Stakes is in limbo.

Los Alamitos received approval from the California Horse Racing Board on Friday to reduce its upcoming summer meeting from 12 racing days to 10 in an effort to ensure all programs draw sufficient horses, track vice-president Jack Liebau said.

Los Alamitos will open its three-week summer meeting on Saturday, June 29, two days later than scheduled. There will be two days of racing on June 29-30, and four-day racing weeks from July 4-7 and 11-14.

“It’s a done deal,” Liebau said. “I think this will work.”

ARCADIA, Calif. – Roger Stein, a retired trainer who was well known as the host of a long-running racing radio program, died Friday following a lengthy illness, according to his brother Rick Stein.

Roger Stein was 65. He died at his home in Hidden Hills, Calif.

ELMONT, N.Y. – In addition to running War of Will and Sir Winston in the Belmont Stakes, trainer Mark Casse will have plenty of other action to keep him busy during the Belmont Stakes Racing Festival, which consists of 18 stakes over three days beginning Thursday.

ELMONT, N.Y. – The Grade 1, $700,000 Ogden Phipps will be the toughest test of Come Dancing’s career, but if her workout Friday morning is any indication, she seems well prepared for it.

Come Dancing waltzed six furlongs in 1:11.63 over the Belmont Park training track, with a final quarter of 23.91 seconds. She galloped out seven furlongs in 1:26.09, according to Daily Racing Form clocker Mike Welsch. It was her last serious move prior to the Phipps, one of eight Grade 1 stakes to be run June 8 at Belmont.

John Franks was the backbone of breeding and racing in Louisiana for years, and next month Louisiana Downs will honor the late Eclipse Award winner as part of its new Racing Hall of Fame announced Friday.

The inaugural class, determined by committee, also will include Sunday Silence and Free Spirits Joy; trainers Frank L. Brothers and C.W. Walker; jockeys Ron Ardoin and Larry Snyder; and original track owner Edward J. DeBartolo Sr.

ARCADIA, Calif. – Dan Eidson, a veteran racing official who has worked throughout the United States, was dismissed as Santa Anita’s racing director on Thursday.

Eidson declined to comment on the situation when reached by phone Friday. He is the second leading racing executive to depart Santa Anita in the last six months. Last December, Rick Hammerle was released as racing secretary, and was replaced in January by Steve Lym, a former racing executive at Woodbine.