Joel Rosario will ride Gronkowski in the Travers Stakes and on Sunday he got to test-drive the Belmont Stakes runner-up, guiding him through a five-furlong drill in 1:01.32 over the Saratoga main track.
Gronkowski worked in company with the 3-year-old maiden Allured. Gronkowski, wearing blinkers and on the outside, went three furlongs in 36.99 seconds then got a last quarter in 24.33 and galloped out six furlongs in 1:13.79 and seven furlongs in 1:26.94.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - Trainer Bill Mott is pointing Elate and Hofburg to Grade 1 stakes here in less than two weeks. On Sunday, he put the two in company for what would be their most important workouts for their respective races.
Though Hofburg will be credited with the faster time - five furlongs in 1:00.54 - it was Elate [1:00.71] who was clearly the stronger of the two in the move conducted over the Oklahoma training track.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - Voodoo Song, who won his first Grade 1 race by taking Saturday’s $500,000 Fourstardave Handicap at Saratoga, will follow a course that his connections hope gets him to the Breeders’ Cup Mile at Churchill Downs on Nov. 3.
Ed Burgart, the popular track announcer at Los Alamitos, has postponed his retirement until the end of the 2019 season.
The track announced Saturday that Burgart had reached an agreement with track owner Ed Allred to remain in the position through next year. Burgart was originally scheduled to retire at the end of June this year, and then at the end of this year.
Burgart said he plans to take vacations in February, March, and September in 2019 but otherwise will call the year-round Quarter Horse and lower-level Thoroughbred night meeting at Los Alamitos.
ARLINGTON HEIGHTS, Ill. – Carrick was flying back to New York on Sunday after sending horseplayers flying back to their past performances, trying to figure out how he won the Grade 1, $400,000 Secretariat Stakes on Saturday at Arlington.
Carrick’s three starts before the Secretariat: A $40,000 maiden-claiming win, a $50,000 non-winners-of-two starter-allowance win, and a third in the Grade 3 Kent, which Untamed Domain probably would’ve won without terrible trouble.
ARLINGTON HEIGHTS, Ill. – Robert Bruce, having taken care of business Saturday by winning the Arlington Million, was headed back to New York on Sunday for a fall campaign likely to focus on races over longer distances than the Million’s 1 1/4 miles.
ARLINGTON HEIGHTS, Ill. – Spring Quality had to be scratched from the Arlington Million after shipping poorly to Arlington from Maryland but has improved considerably since Saturday, trained Sunday morning here, and was well enough to get on an equine charter and fly to New York early Sunday afternoon. If Spring Quality continues getting back to his normal self, he’ll start in the Grade 1, $1 million Sword Dancer on Aug. 25 at Saratoga.
“He had a good night last night,” trainer Graham Motion said Sunday morning.
DEL MAR, Calif. - Cordiality may return to a turf sprint at Santa Anita this fall after winning her second stakes for California-bred turf-mile females in the $151,035 Solana Beach Stakes at Del Mar on Friday.
On Saturday trainer and co-owner Mark Glatt said the $100,000 California Distaff Handicap for statebreds at about 6 1/2 furlongs on the hillside turf course Oct. 13 is a possibility for Cordiality.
Cordiality won the Fran’s Valentine Stakes for Cal-breds at Santa Anita on May 19 and was third in the Grade 3 Wilshire Stakes there June 24.
DEL MAR, Calif. - From brilliant 2-year-old prospects to older stakes horses, there were notable runners among the 183 horses who recorded workouts at Del Mar on Saturday. Several are expected to start before the current summer meeting ends on Sept. 3.
Beach View, the winner of the Grade 3 Cougar II Handicap at 1 1/2 miles on July 25, worked five furlongs in 1:01.80 for the Grade 1 Pacific Classic at 1 1/4 miles on Aug. 18. Beach View won his first stakes in the Cougar II, drawing off by 4 3/4 lengths.
