The complexion of the $750,000 Delaware Handicap changed over the weekend when Bob Baffert decided not to send Abel Tasman cross-country for the 1 1/4-mile race for fillies and mares. The Del Cap instantly went from a small field with a heavy favorite to a larger, more wide-open affair.
Grade 1 winners Elate and Unbridled Mo should vie for favoritism in Saturday’s nine-horse Del Cap when they break from posts 6 and 5, respectively.
ARLINGTON HEIGHTS, Ill. – The top three finishers from the 1 3/16-mile Arlington Handicap on Saturday are on different tracks. Divisidero, who won his first graded stakes race away from Churchill Downs in the Arlington Handicap, returned in good shape to trainer Kelly Rubley’s base at Fair Hill in Maryland. He got a Beyer Speed Figure of 100 while winning beyond 1 1/8 miles for the first time. Divisidero was sixth in the 2017 Arlington Million and could get another shot in the race next month.
ARLINGTON HEIGHTS, Ill. – All Real Story wants to do is run free.
Try to restrain the horse and you are in for a battle you both will lose. Let Real Story dictate his race, as happened Saturday in the American Derby, and he’ll show his best.
ARLINGTON HEIGHTS, Ill. – Graham Motion has several horses under consideration for stakes races on the Aug. 11 Arlington Million card, but Colonia, a sharp winner of the $100,000 Hatoof Stakes here Saturday in her North American debut, is not among them.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Woodbine Oaks winner Dixie Moon did not have the best of it in the $1 million Queen’s Plate on June 30, as she was shuffled back at the start and was eased into the stretch. Trainer Catherine Day Phillips said Dixie Moon came out of the race with no issues and will fight another day.
CYPRESS, Calif. – The 2-year-old colt Owning won his debut in a maiden special weight race Sunday in a style that left owners Paul and Zillah Reddam and trainer Simon Callaghan planning for graded stakes at Del Mar next month.
Ridden by Mario Gutierrez, Owning ($8.60) was always near the front and pulled away in the final furlong to win the 5 1/2-furlong race by 2 1/2 lengths over Tariq. Owning was timed in 1:04.20.
“We couldn’t ask for much more,” Callaghan said. “He broke sharp and placed himself nicely and drew off.”
John Martin, a leading trainer in Northern California, will have about a dozen horses at Del Mar this summer, his largest stable there.
Martin, who won training titles at two meetings at Golden Gate Fields last year, said Sunday that he was finalizing the runners who will be sent to Del Mar and expects to send 12 to 14 horses total. The summer season begins July 18 at Del Mar.
“It’s a meeting I need to be at, and I need to make it work,” Martin said. “I have some nice horses, but I need to place them strategically.”
Battle of Midway, the winner of the Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile at Del Mar last November, worked three furlongs in 39.20 seconds at Santa Anita on Saturday, his first major exercise since returning to training earlier this year.
Battle of Midway was sent to stud in Kentucky last winter but was found to be subfertile, leading to a decision to place the 4-year-old back in training.
Trainer Jerry Hollendorfer said little was expected of Battle of Midway in Saturday’s workout.
“It was slow,” Hollendorfer said. “That was by design. He’s coming off a layoff.”
The champion Unique Bella has been in no hurry in recent workouts.
On Saturday at Santa Anita, Unique Bella breezed five furlongs in 1:03.80, a time three or four seconds slower than what she is capable of producing. The times are of little concern to trainer Jerry Hollendorfer, who said Unique Bella is on course for the Grade 1 Clement L. Hirsch Stakes at 1 1/16 miles at Del Mar on July 29.
“She didn’t work very fast, but she worked well,” Hollendorfer said.
