ELMONT, N.Y. – As the field walked toward the starting gate for Saturday’s Belmont Stakes, jockey Mike Smith, aboard Triple Crown hopeful Justify, looked up to the heavens. A big smile came across his face, as if he knew what was about to happen.
“I felt very good,” Smith said. “The weather cooled down, the wind kind of came, I felt so good. I couldn’t wait for the doors to open.”
ELMONT, N.Y. - Westwood, who was pulled up nearing the far turn of the 6 1/2-furlong True North on Friday, has been diagnosed with a broken coffin bone in his left front foot, according to trainer Kiaran McLaughlin.
Westwood was prompting the pace three wide when jockey John Velazquez felt him take a bad step, and promptly pulled him up.
“He wasn’t traveling right and then it felt like he hit himself,” Velazquez said.
ARCADIA, Calif. – The flashy 3-year-old filly Amada Rafaela was euthanized Thursday after she was injured and pulled up during the seventh race at Santa Anita.
Amada Rafaela was making just the second start of her career, following a smashing May 5 debut for trainer Bob Baffert. She won that six-furlong race by more than eight lengths in 1:09.88 and earned a 97 Beyer, which matched the highest of the year by a 3-year-old filly.
Retama Park near San Antonio has a new format for its meet that opens July 6, but the El Joven and La Senorita for 2-year-olds on turf will again highlight the stakes schedule. Retama is putting on a mixed meet this year and will largely feature Quarter Horses on Fridays and Saturdays and Thoroughbreds on Tuesdays and Wednesdays. The season runs through Sept. 5.
ELMONT, N.Y. – Trainer Neil Drysdale was back in Southern California Friday morning, but his filly La Sardane will remain in New York for the foreseeable future following her neck victory in Thursday’s Grade 3, $200,000 Intercontinental Stakes here.
Drysdale said there are no immediate plans for La Sardane who earned a 92 Beyer Speed Figure for her victory, running seven furlongs in 1:20.04.
“In my mind, she’s a miler,” Drysdale said. “Didn’t think she was ready for the Just a Game. We’ll figure it out. She’s on the right track.”
Ruidoso Downs in New Mexico has increased overnight purses – with the exception of trials – by 10 percent. The increase is retroactive to the start of the meet. The boost is due in part to play at the track’s casino, which had a makeover in advance of the start of the meet May 25.
“The opening weekend exceeded our expectations, and our goal is carry that momentum through the summer,” Jeff True, president of Ruidoso, said in a press release. “The purse boost should attract a couple more entries to each race, which is important since field size is critical to our success.”
ELMONT, N.Y. – The multiple stakes-winning New York-bred 3-year-old filly Midnight Disguise will miss the summer races due to an ankle injury, trainer Linda Rice said.
Midnight Disguise will get 60 days off after filling was discovered in an ankle shortly after her victory in the Bouwerie Stakes here on May 28, Rice said Thursday.
“We decided to stop on her and give her some time,” Rice said. “She’s accomplished a lot. She’s a big filly. I’m thinking we’ll be shooting for Belmont when we get back in the fall.”
ELMONT, N.Y. – Mitole, the freakishly fast 3-year-old sprinter, will be sidelined indefinitely due to a splint bone injury, trainer Steve Asmussen said.
Mitole, who won the Chick Lang Stakes at Pimlico during Preakness week, was under consideration for Saturday’s Grade 2, $400,000 Woody Stephens Stakes.
“He had a couple of good weeks, but thought he was a little sensitive on the splint Monday and decided not to work him,” Asmussen said.
Asmussen said the splint would be freeze-fired and Mitole would get some time off.
Fear the Cowboy, the $1.7 million earner who ran third in last month’s Grade 3, $200,000 Lone Star Park Handicap, is going into “hibernation” for the remainder of the summer, said trainer Efren Loza Jr.
“We’re going to give him a rest,” Loza said.
Fear the Cowboy returned to his Ocala, Fla., base after the Lone Star Park Handicap. The five-time stakes winner races for Kathleen Amaya and Raffaele Centofanti.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – In the absence of the standout filly Elate, the role of favorite in the Grade 2 Fleur de Lis Handicap at Churchill Downs next Saturday likely will now fall to Valadorna or Farrell.
Churchill racing officials had been hoping to attract Elate for her 2018 debut, but the filly’s co-owner Walker Hancock of Claiborne Farm said Friday from Belmont Park the Fleur de Lis “is coming up just a bit too quick for us.”
“I wish it’d been another week later, but that’s the way it goes,” Hancock said. “We’ll probably wait now for the Delaware Handicap” on July 14.
