CYPRESS, Calif. – Dabster, the winner of the Harry Brubaker Stakes at Del Mar on Aug. 22, will start in the longest race of his career in Sunday’s $100,000 Los Alamitos Special at 1 1/4 miles.
Trainer Bob Baffert indicated in a text message Thursday that Dabster will start in the newly created race, which is restricted to horses that have not won a stakes worth $50,000 or more to the winner at a mile or over. Baffert is in Kentucky this week at the Keeneland September yearling sale.
CYPRESS, Calif. – Hurricane Florence is keeping top sprinter Ransom the Moon in California.
Trainer Phil D’Amato said Thursday that Ransom the Moon, the winner of the Grade 1 Bing Crosby Stakes at Del Mar in July and a leading candidate for the Breeders’ Cup Sprint at Churchill Downs on Nov. 3, will have his next start in the Grade 1 Santa Anita Sprint Championship on Oct. 6.
VANCOUVER, British Columbia – Trainer Robertino Diodoro said Sky Promise will get a well-deserved rest after rallying to beat Weekend Wizard in the Grade 3, $150,000 British Columbia Derby last Saturday.
Sky Promise was making his third start in just more than a month. In Sky Promise’s two previous starts for Diordoro, who claimed him for $40,000 at Churchill Downs on June 30, he won the $75,000 Manitoba Derby at Assiniboia Downs on Aug. 6 and the Grade 3, $200,000 Canadian Derby at Northlands Park on Aug. 25.
Firenze Fire, who spent the first part of the year chasing the Kentucky Derby dream, will make his next start in the Grade 3, $300,000 Gallant Bob Stakes going six furlongs at Parx Racing on Sept. 22, trainer Jason Servis said Wednesday.
Servis chose the Gallant Bob over the Grade 2, $300,000 Kelso, going a mile at Belmont on the same day, because the Gallant Bob is restricted to 3-year-olds. Also, it could open up the possibility of running in the Breeders’ Cup Sprint.
“If he ran good we’d have to entertain both,” Servis said, referring to the Sprint and the Dirt Mile.
Kathleen O’Connell won the 2,000th race of her training career on Wednesday, when first-time starter Wishful Quality fought back along the inside to win in a photo at Delaware Park, returning $53.80. The milestone was reached in the sixth race, a maiden special weight for 2-year-old fillies.
O’Connell won the first race of her career June 16, 1981, at Hazel Park, according to Daily Racing Form records.
Serious racing fans probably did a double-take when they saw Stanley Hough listed as the trainer of Barry Lee in the featured ninth race Friday at Churchill. The last starter for Hough was in April 2012 at Aqueduct.
Hough explained that he is part of the ongoing reconfiguration of racing operations at Sagamore Farm as overseen by president Hunter Rankin. Sagamore, the legendary Maryland breeding and racing farm owned by Under Armour tycoon Kevin Plank, still will maintain a presence with trainer Horacio de Paz in Maryland.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Finley’sluckycharm, who wasn’t even nominated to the Open Mind, will make her next start in the Nov. 3 Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Sprint after getting a brief freshening in the aftermath of a seventh-place finish in the Grade 1 Ballerina on Aug. 25 at Saratoga, said trainer Bret Calhoun.
ELMONT, N.Y. – Trainer Carlos Martin will carefully monitor the field for the Grade 1, $400,000 Beldame Stakes for his filly Come Dancing, who rolled to a 6 1/4-length victory in last Sunday’s $100,000 Royal Delta Stakes at Belmont Park.
While Come Dancing benefited from an uncontested lead, she did show in the Royal Delta that she could handle a route of ground. The Royal Delta was run at 1 1/16 miles around one turn, while the Oct. 6 Beldame will be run at 1 1/8 miles, also around one turn.
ELMONT, N.Y. – Trainer Graham Motion entered stakes winners Secret Message and Colonia in Saturday’s Grade 2, $400,000 Sands Point Stakes at 1 1/8 miles on turf, which drew a field of eight 3-year-old fillies.
Secret Message comes off an eye-catching 1 1/4-length victory in the Grade 3 Pucker Up Stakes at Arlington Park on Aug. 11. Colonia finished fifth in the Grade 1 Del Mar Oaks, which followed a victory in the Hatoof Stakes at Arlington in July.
Both fillies started slowly and came far off the pace in their most recent race.
Zippit E, a four-time stakes winner, has been retired, said trainer Bret Calhoun.
Zippit E was second by a nose in the $50,000 Fiesta Mile in her career finale Aug. 4 at Retama Park. She retires with a record of seven wins from 19 starts and earnings of $216,891. Zippit E, the reigning Texas-bred older filly or mare, raced for her breeders, Wayne Sanders and Larry Hirsch.
