Trainer Steve Asmussen won stakes in Texas and Louisiana last weekend and plans for both of those winners, Adore and Shang, are to be determined, he said Wednesday.

Adore captured the inaugural running of the $100,000 Lone Star Park Turf Stakes on Monday, and for her wire-to-wire win in the mile race for fillies and mares she earned a Beyer Speed Figure of 90.

“She’s so incredible,” Asmussen said. “She’s 11 for 23 now.

“I don’t have a specific race in mind for her. We’ll see what we think is right.”

ELMONT, N.Y. – Though he will likely be the longest shot in the field, Tale of Silence is being pointed to the Grade 1, $1.2 million Metropolitan Handicap on June 8, trainer Barclay Tagg confirmed on Wednesday.

On Tuesday, Tale of Silence worked five furlongs in 58.17 seconds over Belmont Park’s main track. He began his work about 10 lengths behind Funny Flowers and caught him at the wire after going three furlongs in 33.40 seconds and his final quarter in 24.77.

“He seemed to do all right,” Tagg said. “I didn’t really want him to go that fast.”

ELMONT, N.Y. – At the upcoming Saratoga meet, the New York Racing Association will offer maiden juvenile races restricted to horses purchased at their most recent auction for $45,000 or less. This gives an owner the option of not having to run in a claiming race to avoid taking on the higher-priced auction buys.

ELMONT, N.Y. – Trainer Linda Rice will give Newly Minted a chance against open company and try to stretch out Blindwillie McTell in distance as she makes plans for her pair of 3-year-olds who won stakes on Monday’s Empire Showcase Day card at Belmont Park.

Newly Minted, who improved her record to 3 for 3 with her victory in the $125,000 Bouwerie Stakes, will likely make her next start in the Grade 3, $150,000 Victory Ride Stakes for 3-year-old fillies here on July 5. That race is at 6 1/2 furlongs.

ELMONT, N.Y. – Personally, trainer Jeremiah Englehart wasn’t enjoying his Memorial Day holiday, battling allergies and a sinus infection as he watched the proceedings at Belmont Park from his home in Saratoga.

“I wasn’t having a lot of fun watching until his race,” Englehart said.

ARCADIA, Calif. – Paradise Woods will be a massive favorite to win Saturday’s Grade 2 Santa Maria Stakes for fillies and mares at Santa Anita against a familiar field.

Trained by John Shirreffs, Paradise Woods won the Grade 2 Santa Margarita Stakes at 1 1/8 miles by 10 1/2 lengths on April 27 for her first win since September 2017. In the $200,000 Santa Maria, at 1 1/16 miles, Paradise Woods will face the second- through fourth-place finishers from the Santa Margarita – La Force, Exuberance, and Just a Smidge.

ARCADIA, Calif. – It was not until Tuesday evening, more than 24 hours after Bolo won the Grade 1 Shoemaker Mile at Santa Anita, that trainer Carla Gaines sat down to watch the race on her mobile phone.

The immediate celebration after Monday’s race, and concern about the health of her popular Labrador retriever Louie, a fixture in the Santa Anita stables, kept Gaines occupied Monday evening and through Tuesday.

Runaway Ghost is scheduled to spend his summer chasing graded stakes races, with the first target the Grade 2, $600,000 Stephen Foster.

“That’s what we’re aiming for right now,” trainer Todd Fincher said Wednesday.

The Stephen Foster, which is June 15 at Churchill Downs, will be run at a mile and an eighth. Runaway Ghost has made two starts at the distance and won them both, first taking the Grade 3, $800,000 Sunland Derby in 2018, then the $150,000 Sunland Park Handicap in his most recent start May 4.

ELMONT, N.Y. – Master Fencer had some inflammation in his left front ankle Wednesday afternoon, a few hours after he took an awkward step and stumbled toward the end of a workout in preparation for the $1.5 million Belmont Stakes here on June 8.

“He’s got just a little bit of inflammation in a left front ankle that he didn’t have yesterday,” said Vincent DiCicco, a veterinarian who is not treating Master Fencer but is monitoring the horse for the USDA while he is stabled in New York.

Wednesday, May 29
BELMONT PARK
Weather: Cloudy
Temperature:  61
Track: Fast

ELMONT, N.Y. – Japanese invader Master Fencer was considered to be one of the “buzz” horses heading into this year’s Belmont Stakes coming off his very encouraging seventh-place finish (placed sixth) in the Kentucky Derby during which he made up nearly 20 lengths on the leaders through the final six furlongs of the race.