DEL MAR, Calif. – Restrainedvengence upset Wednesday’s Oceanside Stakes at a mile on turf, and is unlikely to start again until the Grade 2 Del Mar Derby on Sept. 2.
Trainer Val Brinkerhoff said the six-week gap between races gives Restrainedvengence ample time to recover from his first stakes win in the Oceanside. Brinkerhoff, 61, frequently gallops Restrainedvengence and has worked for several months to teach the gelding to not be as eager early in races.
DEL MAR, Calif. – Doug O’Neill set the foundation for a serious bid for the Del Mar summer meeting training title with four wins on Wednesday’s opening program.
O’Neill nearly equaled his own Del Mar record of five wins in a single day, set in 2015. Five other trainers have had four-win days at Del Mar.
O’Neill, who turned 50 in May, has won four training titles at summer meetings here, most recently in 2010. He won 31 races that year, and may need that many this season to claim the title.
Parx has a pair of $100,000 Pennsylvania-bred stakes on Saturday, the Crowd Pleaser, a 1 1/16-mile turf race for 3-year-olds, and the Marshall Jenney, a five-furlong turf sprint for 3-year-olds and up.
Five additional Pennsylvania-bred stakes will be run at Parx the first weekend in September.
The Jenney is the eighth of nine Saturday races at Parx. The Critical Way, a well-traveled 4-year-old, is the horse to beat. The Critical Way will be making his first start for the Runnymede Farm of Gregory and Caroline Bentley and trainer Eddie Graham.
DEL MAR, Calif. – Handle was up significantly and attendance down slightly for Del Mar’s opening day on Wednesday, a trend that has developed here in recent years.
The opening-day crowd includes thousands of patrons desirous of being at one of the social events of the summer in this area, while many of the regulars – certainly not all, but many – take a pass on the day and send it in from home. There are still 35 days of live racing to go.
DEL MAR, Calif. – Trainer Jerry Hollendorfer won three races on Wednesday’s opening-day card at Del Mar, none potentially more significant than that of Brill in the first open 2-year-old filly race of the meet. Brill overcame a rough start and a distance likely short of optimum to prevail first time out going five furlongs.
DEL MAR, Calif. – Tatters to Riches was one of the most-exciting 2-year-old prospects on this circuit last summer, but went to the sidelines last fall with a chip in a hind ankle. He is just about set to return for trainer Jeff Mullins, who has high hopes for the 3-year-old colt.
“He’s ready,” said Mullins, who trains Tatters to Riches for the Cohen family’s Red Baron’s Barn. “It’s stressful getting him back because we know how much talent he has.”
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Finley’sluckycharm was beaten a neck by Paulassilverlining in last year’s Grade 2 Honorable Miss Handicap, and she is back at Saratoga for another try at that six-furlong stakes for fillies and mares.
On Wednesday, Finley’sluckycharm breezed a half-mile in 50.07 seconds over an Oklahoma training track rated “good.” Finley’sluckycharm will be trying to bounce back from a fourth-place finish in the Grade 1 Humana Distaff at Churchill Downs when she starts next Wednesday.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Trainers Todd Pletcher, Mark Casse, and Steve Asmussen each entered two horses in Saturday’s Grade 3, $150,000 Sanford Stakes, the first of three graded dirt stakes for 2-year-olds at the meet.
Pletcher, a six-time Sanford winner, entered debut winners Lexitonian and Sombeyay, who drew the rail and post 2. Asmussen entered first-out winners Whiskey Echo (post 4) and Bano Solo (post 7), while Casse is going with Dream Maker (post 5) and Strike Silver (post 8), who won their debuts at Churchill Downs a week apart.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Proctor’s Ledge will have at least one thing in her favor when she takes on trainer Chad Brown’s arsenal of three Grade 1 winners in Saturday’s $500,000 Diana Stakes, the first Grade 1 race at Saratoga this year.
She loves the course.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – In 2015, there was American Pharoah. The following year, Songbird. Last year, the individual winners of all three Triple Crown races ran in the Travers for the first time in 35 years and the 4-year-old Gun Runner came out of upstate New York a legitimate Horse of the Year contender.
