ELMONT, N. Y. - Trainers Chad Brown and Todd Pletcher split the two graded turf stakes run at Belmont over the weekend and both are likely to send their winners and losers to Del Mar for their respective Breeders’ Cup races.
Pletcher ran first and third in Saturday’s Grade 3 Pilgrim Stakes with Seabhac and Maraud, and the Brown-trained Voting Control finished second. All three are likely to move onto the Juvenile Turf on Nov. 3.
ARCADIA, Calif. – With two Grade 1 victories, one around two turns and another at the track where the Breeders’ Cup will be held in 4 1/2 weeks, Bolt d’Oro has firmly established himself as the horse to beat in the Juvenile on Nov. 4 at Del Mar.
He put himself in this position with his powerful victory in the FrontRunner Stakes on Saturday at Santa Anita.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Nominations for the Grade 1, $800,000 Canadian International on Oct. 15 have been announced, and Grade 1 Northern Dancer Turf Stakes winner Johnny Bear leads the list of locals.
Johnny Bear and Northern Dancer Turf Stakes fourth-place finisher Seeking Albert were the only Woodbine-based horses among the 34 nominees for the Canadian International. Trainer Ashlee Brnjas said she anticipated Johnny Bear would run in the Canadian International, despite having other options.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario – At this time last year, Melmich was coming off a runner-up finish in the Temperence Hill Invitational Stakes at Belmont Park and had his sights set on November’s Grade 2 Marathon Stakes as part of the Breeders’ Cup Friday undercard at Santa Anita.
This year, trainer Kevin Attard is planning on keeping Melmich at home.
ARCADIA, Calif. – Mr. Roary, who won his first graded stakes in the Grade 3 Eddie D Stakes on the hillside turf course at Santa Anita last Friday, is a candidate for the Breeders’ Cup Mile at Del Mar on Nov. 4, trainer George Papaprodromou said.
Owned by Rustin Kretz, Mr. Roary closed from well of the pace to win the $101,725 Eddie D Stakes. At the Del Mar summer meeting, Mr. Roary was third in the Grade 2 Eddie Read Stakes in July and last of 13 in the Grade 2 Del Mar Handicap Aug. 19.
“I don’t know what happened the last time,” Papaprodromou said of the Del Mar Handicap.
ARCADIA, Calif. – The six-time stakes winner Ambitious Brew has been sidelined with a foot ailment, trainer Marty Jones said last weekend, and may not race again until 2018.
A 7-year-old gelding, Ambitious Brew won the Bertrando Stakes for California-bred milers in his last start, which came at Los Alamitos in July. He has not had a workout since mid-August and missed two potential races for him in September – the E.B. Johnston Stakes at Los Alamitos and the Grade 3 Eddie D Stakes at Santa Anita.
ARCADIA, Calif. – A minor bout of colic prevented Shenandoah Queen from starting in the Grade 1 Zenyatta Stakes at Santa Anita last Saturday and has eliminated her from consideration for the Breeders’ Cup Distaff on Nov. 3.
She could run Nov. 4 in the BC Filly and Mare Sprint at seven furlongs, trainer John Sadler said.
“I have to figure out a plan,” Sadler said.
ARCADIA, Calif. – Flavien Prat has won or tied for riding titles at four meetings in Southern California since the summer of 2016. Last Saturday, Prat won three Grade 1 races on a card for the first time in his career at Santa Anita on horses bound for Breeders’ Cup races at Del Mar on Nov. 3-4.
On Sunday, Prat reflected on the recent riding titles and the big day on Saturday. He was quick to answer which milestone meant more.
“Those days are better,” he said of Saturday.
ARCADIA, Calif. – Stellar Wind, the leading older female in California, worked five furlongs in 1:02.40 at Santa Anita on Sunday for the Breeders’ Cup Distaff at Del Mar on Nov. 3.
Trainer John Sadler timed Stellar Wind in a quicker 1:01. He described the workout as “beautiful.”
Stellar Wind won the Grade 1 Clement L. Hirsch Stakes at Del Mar on July 30 in her last start. Sadler said he plans to work Stellar Wind four more times before the BC Distaff. The last of those workouts, tentatively scheduled for Oct. 29, could be at Del Mar, he said.
ARCADIA, Calif. – A portion of the purse of the Grade 3 Adoration Stakes at Santa Anita in May was ordered redistributed on Sunday after runner-up Skye Diamonds tested in excess of the permitted level of clenbuterol, according to a ruling published by the Santa Anita stewards.
Skye Diamonds earned $20,000 of the $100,000 purse, which has been forfeited. The revised order of finish promotes the original third- through fifth-place finishers one position each – Sensitively, Lady Tapit, and Autumn Flower.
