DEL MAR, Calif. – My Boy Jack, a three-time stakes winner who was fifth in the Kentucky Derby in May, has been diagnosed with a bone chip in an ankle that will require surgery.
My Boy Jack will miss the remainder of the year. Kirk Godby of Don’t Tell My Wife Stables, which co-owns the colt with Monomoy Stables, said My Boy Jack is expected to return to racing as a 4-year-old in 2019. The injury was detected after My Boy Jack finished eighth of nine in the Grade 1 Belmont Derby on July 7.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – The Travers may have picked up a significant contender Saturday and she didn’t even run.
Trainer Mark Casse told the New York Racing Association publicity team Saturday that Wonder Gadot, winner of the first two legs of the Triple Crown, is likely to face males in the Grade 1, $1.25 million Travers Stakes at Saratoga on Aug. 25.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - Trainer Todd Pletcher and jockey John Velazquez have teamed up to win the Grade 1 Whitney at Saratoga three times. Next Saturday, they will seek a fourth victory with Tapwrit, a horse Velazquez will ride for the first time in the $1.2 million race.
DEL MAR, Calif. – The California Horse Racing Board has launched an investigation into the circumstances surrounding the $20,000 claim of winner Arch Prince from Thursday’s fifth race at Del Mar, focusing on the relationship between previous trainer Val Brinkerhoff and new trainer Bobby Wayne Grayson.
Brinkerhoff and Grayson’s son, Bobby Jr., co-own Restrainedvengence, the winner of the Oceanside Stakes at Del Mar on July 18. Bobby Grayson Jr. was listed as the owner of Arch Prince on the claim slip, with Bobby Wayne Grayson listed as trainer.
DEL MAR, Calif. – In consecutive starts, Take the One O One won the $192,345 Snow Chief Stakes at 1 1/8 miles on turf at Santa Anita on June 2 and Friday’s $150,345 Real Good Deal Stakes at seven furlongs on dirt at Del Mar.
Those races, for California-bred 3-year-olds, have padded Take the One O One’s earnings to $341,181 and displayed the colt’s versatility in two-turn turf races and main-track sprints. The next objective will be a more difficult race – the Grade 2 Del Mar Derby at 1 1/8 miles on turf Sept. 2.
OCEANPORT, N.J. - The William Hill Sports Book at Monmouth Park on Sunday will offer a horse racing/Major League Baseball pick four, which is being calling the Grand Slam. Head-to-head proposition wagers on some horses in the Haskell Invitational will also be available, as will betting on the margin of victory.
The bets will only be available at Monmouth.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – The stewards fined jockeys Ricardo Santana Jr. and Irad Ortiz Jr. $2,000 each for careless riding in separate incidents on Thursday’s card.
Though the fines were the same, the stewards’ rulings were not.
In race 5, Ortiz rode Brimstone to a three-quarter-length victory over Imperatore. Ortiz drifted out several paths, carrying Top of the Page out with him. Top of the Page, ridden by Jose Ortiz, Irad’s brother, was beaten a half-length for second.
The stewards posted the inquiry sign but ultimately did not make a change.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Good Samaritan, last year’s Jim Dandy Stakes winner, will make his next start in the Grade 1, $1.2 million Whitney Stakes next Saturday, according to Elliott Walden, president and CEO of WinStar Farm, which heads the group that owns the 4-year-old.
Meanwhile, Yoshida, a Grade 1 winner on turf who also was nominated to the Whitney, will make his next start in the Grade 1 Fourstardave, a mile turf race Aug. 11, Walden said. Both horses are trained by Bill Mott.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – World Approval, the reigning male turf champion, will be given the remainder of the year off and possibly be brought back for a 7-year-old campaign in 2019, trainer Mark Casse said.
“He’s not where I need him to be right now,” Casse said. “I talked to Mrs. [Charlotte] Weber about it, and she agreed. We’ll turn him out for two or three months.”
DEL MAR, Calif. – Pavel, the winner of the Grade 1 Stephen Foster Handicap at Churchill Downs on June 16, will start in the Grade 1 Pacific Classic at Del Mar on Aug. 18.
Trainer Doug O’Neill and owners Paul and Zillah Reddam have chosen the $1 million Pacific Classic at 1 1/4 miles instead of the Grade 1 Whitney Stakes at Saratoga on Aug. 4. The decision was finalized after Pavel worked six furlongs in 1:12.60 at Del Mar on Friday.
