ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Woodbine’s new $8 million inner turf course is scheduled to be used Friday for the first time. The first race on it is a $25,000 claimer.
The seven-furlong layout was the harness track from 1994 to 2017, when Woodbine’s Standardbred division was moved to Woodbine at Mohawk Park.
Jockey Emma-Jayne Wilson rode Dun Drum in a five-furlong trial race in lane 2 on the new course last Friday.
ELMONT PARK, N.Y. – Maryanorginger, who overcame trouble to win her career debut in the $150,000 Astoria Stakes, will be sidelined 60 days with cellulitis and a stress fracture in a hind leg, trainer Jeremiah Englehart said Monday.
Englehart said that Maryanorginger is at Dr. Patty Hogan’s farm in central New Jersey, and he hopes to bring the filly back for a fall and winter campaign.
ELMONT, N.Y. – Pat On the Back, who has won four New York-bred stakes in his last six starts, will make his next start against open company in the Grade 2, $300,000 John A. Nerud Stakes at Belmont on July 6, trainer Jeremiah Englehart said.
Pat On the Back, who won the Affirmed Success at six furlongs and the Commentator at a mile, will now try seven furlongs in the Nerud.
Last year, Pat On the Back won the Saginaw Stakes, a race restricted to New York-breds which this year will be run next Sunday.
ARCADIA, Calif. – Jockey Flavien Prat and trainer Doug O’Neill led their respective categories at the Santa Anita spring-summer meeting, which ended on Sunday.
From April 12 through Sunday, Prat won 30 races, six more than runner-up Joe Talamo. Prat was the second-leading rider at the track’s winter-spring meeting, which ran from Dec. 26 to April 7, finishing with 52 wins, four fewer than Joel Rosario.
ARCADIA, Calif. – No matter the vantage point, whether trackside or watching on a mobile phone 5,000 miles away, there was much to like about Amalfi Sunrise’s career debut in a maiden special weight race for 2-year-old fillies at Santa Anita on Sunday.
Amalfi Sunrise drew into the race from the also-eligible list and gave the most dazzling performance of a juvenile at the Santa Anita meeting, which ended on Sunday.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Edgard Zayas holds a 64-56 advantage over Emisael Jaramillo in the jockey standings, while Saffie Joseph Jr. maintains a comfortable 20-14 edge over both Ralph Nicks and Antonio Sano in the trainer standings heading into the final four days of Gulfstream Park’s 2019 spring meet, which ends Sunday.
Jaramillo might have been able to shave a little more off Zayas’s lead had he not spent the weekend at Monmouth Park, where he won three races on Saturday and two more on Sunday’s card.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Diamond Oops has taken a somewhat unconventional route to get there, but he could be one of the more intriguing players in what figures to be a wide open renewal of the Grade 3 Smile Sprint on Saturday’s Summit of Speed program at Gulfstream Park. Diamond Oops is one of two horses trainer Patrick Biancone has been pointing toward the Summit of Speed for the past several months, along with the graded stakes-placed Razorback Lady, who will be among a small field of fillies and mares expected for the Grade 2 Princess Rooney.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – One race before saddling Mia Mischief to defeat Covfefe in the Roxelana on Saturday, Steve Asmussen achieved another milestone in his Hall of Fame training career.
Rocky Tough went last to first in an allowance, making Asmussen just the third trainer in Churchill history with 700 wins. He then won the Roxelana and two more races Sunday, giving him 703, which trails only Dale Romans (729) and Bill Mott (715) atop the all-time Churchill list.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Covfefe got beat, and still last weekend was another fabulous one for trainer Brad Cox.
“Covfefe ran really well, but sometimes you don’t win even when you run big,” said Cox, who had seven winners among four different tracks from Friday to Sunday, most notably Owendale in the Ohio Derby at Thistledown.
