ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Trainer Mark Casse had a big weekend at Woodbine, picking up eight wins from the Saturday and Sunday races. Among those were stakes wins on Saturday from Telekinesis in the Plate Trial Stakes and Road to Victory in the Alywow Stakes.
Casse said Road to Victory could run back in the Grade 2, $250,000 Mother Goose Stakes for 3-year-old fillies over 1 1/16 miles on dirt at Belmont Park on June 30.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Trainer Mark Casse said both Plate Trial Stakes winner Telekinesis and Woodbine Oaks runner-up Wonder Gadot emerged from their Saturday starts in good order and are likely to run in the $1 million Queen’s Plate on June 30.
Casse could have as many as three in the Queen’s Plate, as Neepawa is also likely to run. Neepawa finished a troubled third in an allowance race over 1 1/16 miles here on May 20. He breezed five furlongs in 59 seconds Saturday morning on Tapeta.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Trainer Catherine Day Phillips said Dixie Moon was in good order Sunday morning following her victory in Saturday’s $500,000 Woodbine Oaks over Wonder Gadot. Owned by Sean and Dorothy Fitzhenry, Dixie Moon will now be considered for the $1 million Queen’s Plate on June 30 for her next start.
ELMONT, N.Y. - As Triple Crown winner Justify's connections mull his future, the trainers of the 3-year-olds left in the wake of his Belmont Stakes and Triple Crown victories Saturday are honing in on a summer campaign that is likely to see some of them compete in the $1.25 million Travers Stakes at Saratoga on Aug. 25.
ELMONT, N.Y. – As Justify has established himself as the clear leader of the 3-year-old male division, Monomoy Girl has done the same in the 3-year-old female division. Unlike Justify, who has wrapped up a championship with his Triple Crown sweep, Monomoy Girl still has more work to do.
On Sunday, one day after winning the Acorn Stakes at Belmont Park for her third consecutive Grade 1 victory, Monomoy Girl returned to Churchill Downs to prepare for a summer and fall campaign that is designed to end in the Breeders’ Cup Distaff at Churchill in November.
ELMONT, N.Y. – Spring Quality and Sadler’s Joy, the one-two finishers in the Grade 1, $1 million Manhattan Stakes on Saturday, might meet again in the Grade 2, $250,000 Bowling Green Stakes on July 28 at Saratoga.
Sadler’s Joy as of Sunday seemed the more solid Bowling Green participant; trainer Graham Motion said no plans had been set for Spring Quality, and that a race like the Arlington Million also could be considered.
ELMONT, N.Y. – A lot was thrown at Justify over the past four months, but he handled it all in unprecedented fashion, and on Sunday, trainer Bob Baffert said Justify had emerged from his Triple Crown-clinching victory in the Belmont Stakes on Saturday in good condition and was “ready to go.”
Total betting on the Belmont Stakes this year, the first year a Triple Crown was on the line since American Pharoah’s 2015 Belmont, was $79.7 million, according to a chart of the race, a 68 percent gain on handle for the race last year but short of the amount of money bet three years ago.
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.
