DEL MAR, Calif. – Even though Bellafina is still eligible for a maiden race, trainer Simon Callaghan said he intends to start both her and Tijori in the Grade 2, $200,000 Sorrento Stakes for 2-year-old fillies going six furlongs on Sunday at Del Mar.
Bellafina was second to another intended Sorrento starter, Katieleigh, in a maiden race at Los Alamitos on July 4. Since that race, Dean Reeves has bought into Katieleigh and she has been transferred to trainer Kathy Ritvo from Luis Mendez.
Indiana Grand canceled the last eight races of its Tuesday card because of persistent heavy rain.
The track ran two races over a very sloppy, slow-playing main track before calling a halt to the program.
Wagers on the early pick four and the pick five were refunded. Pick threes on races 1, 2, and 3 and on races 2,3, and 4 paid out consolations using “all” in the canceled races. Racing was scheduled to resume Wednesday at the central Indiana venue.
David Cabrera, second-leading rider at the Prairie Meadows meeting, has been handed a 10-day suspension by Prairie Meadows stewards for “intentional, rough and dangerous riding” in the eighth race on July 27.
Cabrera rode odds-on favorite Our Majesty, and during a homestretch battle with She’s Our Fastest and jockey Alex Birzer “brought his horse in during the stretch run interfering with [She’s Our Fastest] . . . repeatedly striking [She’s Our Fastest] and impeding . . . Birzer with his left arm,” the stewards said.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Farrell and Wow Cat, separated by a neck in Sunday’s Grade 3 Shuvee Stakes, will both point to the Grade 1 Personal Ensign here on Aug. 25, their trainers said Monday.
Farrell went gate to wire in the Shuvee, holding off Wow Cat late to win her fifth graded stakes and surpass the $1 million mark in career earnings. The only thing she hasn’t done is win a Grade 1 race.
“That’s what we’re looking for, a Grade 1,” trainer Wayne Catalano said.
Farrell earned a 90 Beyer Speed Figure for the Shuvee.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Trainer Bill Mott won six races over five days at Saratoga to move into second in the trainer standings following Sunday’s card.
And his meet should only get better.
Mott, who had won seven races from 28 starters at the meet entering Monday’s card, celebrated his 65th birthday Sunday with two wins, naturally. He has now won a race at Saratoga on his birthday in 17 of the last 24 years. More impressively, Mott has won at least one race at Saratoga for 32 straight meets, or since 1987. He has won the Saratoga training title nine times.
DEL MAR, Calif. – The mood was of both sadness and anticipation at the Bob Baffert barn Monday morning. Sadness because Triple Crown winner Justify was set to depart in less than 48 hours for WinStar Farm in Kentucky, but anticipation over a bumper crop of 2-year-olds that has debuted with wins this meet, including the filly Chasing Yesterday on Saturday and the colt Roadster on Sunday.
Justify was feted in a retirement ceremony between races Saturday, which Baffert said “was emotional for me.”
DEL MAR, Calif. – Monday was trainer John Sadler’s 62nd birthday, but he was the one doling out presents. Sadler said that Joel Rosario would replace the injured Victor Espinoza aboard Accelerate in the Grade 1, $1 million Pacific Classic at Del Mar on Aug. 18.
Espinoza fractured the C-3 vertebra in his neck on July 22 and is out for the meet. Sadler said he chose Rosario, who is based on the East Coast but once was the dominant rider in Southern California, because they “have a good history together.”
DEL MAR, Calif. – Even though her right front shoe came loose and then fell off soon after the start of the Clement Hirsch Stakes on Sunday at Del Mar, Unique Bella emerged unscathed from the race, according to Dan Ward, the local assistant to trainer Jerry Hollendorfer.
“Didn’t damage the foot at all,” Ward said Monday morning as he looked after things here while Hollendorfer tended to his Golden Gate Fields string. “We were really lucky.”
