LOUISVILLE, Ky. – The sky was the limit after Madison’s Luna followed an impressive career debut in February at Tampa Bay Downs with a five-length romp in the Grade 3 Hutcheson at Gulfstream Park six weeks later.
Alas, the gray Tapit colt was a far-back 10th in both subsequent starts, the Pat Day Mile and Woody Stephens.
“I was as surprised and disappointed as anybody,” said Phil Bauer, who trains Madison’s Luna for Rigney Racing.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Trainer Ian Wilkes still has the Nov. 3 Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile at Churchill as the year-end goal for McCraken, but he’ll be taking a slight diversion from his original plan for the standout 4-year-old by stretching him out in a longer race.
“We’re going to the Cornhusker,” Wilkes said.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Bravazo was the only horse besides Justify to compete in all three Triple Crown events this year, but apparently that wasn’t enough action. Ten days after the June 9 Belmont Stakes, Bravazo was back on the work tab at Churchill Downs, breezing a half-mile Tuesday in 47.80 seconds.
Trainer D. Wayne Lukas said Bravazo is ready for the second half of the racing season and will make his next start in either the July 29 Haskell at Monmouth Park or the July 28 Jim Dandy at Saratoga.
Golden Gate Fields was ordered by the California Horse Racing Board on Thursday to reach contractual agreements with Northern California offtrack satellite locations, as well as horsemen’s organizations representing owners and trainers, by July 2 to be granted a license for a six-week race meeting from late August to early October.
ARCADIA, Calif. – Top of the Game will be trainer Ryan Hanson’s first runner in a graded stakes in Saturday’s Grade 2 San Carlos Stakes at Santa Anita.
“For Thoroughbreds, not Quarter Horses,” Hanson was quick to point out Thursday.
Hanson, 36, has an extensive background in Quarter Horses in California and Idaho and won graded stakes for Quarter Horses at Los Alamitos in 2013. Lately, he has focused on a Thoroughbred stable at Santa Anita, which has grown from approximately three runners last summer to 11 this year.
ARCADIA, Calif. – Mongolian Saturday, winner of the Breeders’ Cup Turf Sprint at Keeneland in 2015, has run his last race.
Trainer Enebish Ganbat said Thursday that Mongolian Saturday has developed a suspensory issue that has forced retirement. Ganbat said Mongolian Saturday will be sent to his farm in Kentucky.
ARCADIA, Calif. – Santa Anita is ending its spring-summer meeting this weekend with marathon racing programs.
Saturday’s program has 12 races and will begin at noon to accommodate an early afternoon ceremony honoring Triple Crown winner Justify. Sunday’s closing-day program is expected to have “10 or 11” races, according to Tim Ritvo, chief operating officer of the track’s parent company, The Stronach Group.
Los Alamitos opens its three-week summer meeting Thursday.
There have been three 2-year-old races at this Arlington meet, and leading trainer Larry Rivelli has won them all. The most recent came Sunday, when Strong Will, the 1-5 favorite, prevailed by 2 1/2 lengths.
Strong Will was the first winner for freshman sire Strong Mandate and cost owner Carolyn Wilson $775,000 at a 2-year-old auction this spring. He has been described by his trainer as “a man among boys.” He failed to win by an especially wide margin, but Rivelli believes the colt won despite the race’s 4 1/2-furlong distance, not because of it.
Mr. Jagermeister is a go for the $200,000 Mystic Lake Derby on Saturday, the richest race of the Canterbury Park season. But so, too, are a slew of other 3-year-olds. Fourteen were entered Wednesday for the one-mile turf race.
Mr. Jagermeister is a Minnesota-bred of rare quality, but what that means for the Mystic Lake Derby is hard to say. The race will be his first on turf and his first around two turns, and he was only confirmed for it after working an easy half-mile on turf Sunday at Canterbury.
ARCADIA, Calif. – Stone Hands was beaten 15 lengths in his stakes debut in the Shared Belief Stakes for 3-year-olds at a mile at Del Mar last summer.
Stone Hands has not raced at a mile since then. He has been in brilliant form in sprint races leading to his graded stakes debut in Saturday’s Grade 2 San Carlos Stakes at Santa Anita. The $250,000 San Carlos Stakes is run at seven furlongs.
Trained by Doug O’Neill for Paul and Zillah Reddam, Stone Hands has won optional claimers in his last two starts, at 5 1/2 furlongs on May 4 and 6 1/2 furlongs on May 28.
