ELMONT, N.Y. – Trainer Mark Casse on Sunday morning was still trying to wrap his head around the conflicted feelings he had following the Belmont Stakes on Saturday, which he won with Sir Winston while seeing War of Will, his Preakness winner, beat one horse.
“It was emotional,” Casse said. “It’s like having two kids, and you’re excited for one son and upset and hurt for the other son.”
ARCADIA, Calif. – The top California-based handicap horse will head to Kentucky for his next start, as trainer John Sadler and Hronis Racing find themselves in an enviable position with a glut of top older horses.
Gift Box, the winner of the Grade 1 Santa Anita Handicap and the runner-up in the Grade 1 Gold Cup in his most recent start, worked five furlongs Sunday at Santa Anita and will start in the Grade 2, $600,000 Stephen Foster Handicap on Saturday at Churchill Downs.
Total handle on the Belmont Stakes on Saturday was far short of the wagering totals for the race last year, when a Triple Crown was on the line, but the figure compared more than favorably to the last time the race was run without the additional attention from a Triple Crown try in 2017, according to charts of the races.
ELMONT, N.Y. – Trainer Bill Mott thought drawing the outside post with Tacitus for Saturday’s $1.5 million Belmont Stakes was going to work to his advantage. Just five weeks earlier, Mott had won the Kentucky Derby with Country House, who had the outside post in a 19-horse field.
In the end, the outside post – and the subsequent wide trip under Jose Ortiz – may have been Tacitus’s undoing.
The El Joven and La Senorita, a pair of turf stakes for 2-year-olds, will be the richest Thoroughbred offerings during the upcoming meet at Retama Park. The races will each be worth $75,000 when they are run on a Wednesday card, Aug. 14.
Retama opens a mixed meet for Thoroughbreds and Quarter Horses on July 4. The season will run through Sept. 11.
ELMONT, N.Y. – Maryanorginger, who overcame a stumbling start and early trouble to win Thursday’s $150,000 Astoria Stakes for 2-year-old fillies in her career debut, likely won’t make her next start until the Grade 2, $200,000 Adirondack on Aug. 4 at Saratoga, trainer Jeremiah Englehart said Friday.
Englehart said he thought the filly looked a little light to him in the paddock and he wants to give her plenty of time to get over the race.
“I’ll probably want to wait a little bit longer than [July 11] to run her,” said Englehart, referring to the Schuylerville at Saratoga.
Shotgun Kowboy is gearing up for the Remington Park meet, which opens Aug. 23 in Oklahoma City. Shotgun Kowboy is back at Lone Star Park near Dallas after a brief freshening following his fifth-place finish in the Grade 3, $300,000 Steve Sexton Mile on April 28 at Lone Star.
Shotgun Kowboy spent some time off at the Oklahoma farm of his breeder, owner, and trainer, C.R. Trout.
“He’s back galloping right now,” Trout said. “He’ll be ready to go for Remington.”
Pendleton won his fourth straight race – all in New Mexico – last Sunday, when he rolled home by 14 1/2 lengths in the $75,000 San Juan County Commissioners at SunRay Park.
“He exceeded my expectations that day, that’s for sure,” said trainer Justin Evans.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – With another Triple Crown in the books, the unofficial second half of the racing season will get under way next Saturday night when a pair of Win and You’re In races toward the 2019 Breeders’ Cup are run under the lights at Churchill Downs.
The Stephen Foster and Fleur de Lis – both former handicap races now being run under allowance conditions – are among five graded stakes that will shift attention toward the Nov. 1-2 Breeders’ Cup.
