SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – A better post and the prestige of Saratoga won out over perhaps an easier spot in Charles Town for trainer Derek Ryan, who on Wednesday confirmed that Book’em Danno would run in Saturday’s Grade 1, $500,000 H. Allen Jerkens.
Book’em Danno, a 3-year-old New Jersey-bred gelding by Bucchero, also was entered in Friday night’s $500,000 Robert Hilton Stakes at Charles Town, where he most likely would have been an odds-on favorite. Both races are at seven furlongs.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – When it’s come to Dornoch, trainer Danny Gargan has put himself out there on multiple occasions. His faith in the horse – well before Dornoch ever ran – has been rewarded with what may be his horse of a lifetime.
A horse Gargan almost couldn’t afford to buy due to a lack of commitment from clients, Dornoch could be on the verge of becoming a champion when he bids for his third consecutive Grade 1 stakes victory in Saturday’s $1.25 million Travers at Saratoga.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Trainer Kenny McPeek had a plan for Thorpedo Anna’s training session Wednesday morning. Thorpedo Anna was not cooperative.
After drawing the rail for Saturday’s Grade 1, $1.25 million Travers Stakes and noting that Thorpedo Anna had gotten antsy in the gate and broke poorly before winning the Coaching Club American Oaks here last month, McPeek was going to let Thorpedo Anna gallop out of the starting gate on the Oklahoma training track.
The 2024-25 Gulfstream Park Championship meet will kick off a bit earlier than usual later this season, on Thanksgiving Day, Nov. 28, the opening-day program offering the first of 66 stakes races to be decided during the winter meet, which runs through March 30, 2025.
As always, the $3 million Pegasus World Cup Invitational, $1 million Pegasus World Cup Turf Invitational, and the $1 million Florida Derby will highlight the Championship meet and are three of 30 graded stakes on a schedule worth more than $15 million in purses.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Flavien Prat has made all the right moves this summer at Saratoga. He leads all jockeys in stakes wins (11), graded stakes wins (7) and purse-money won ($3.7 million) through the first six weeks of the 40-day meet.
DEL MAR, Calif. – Hector Berrios will replace Mike Smith on Express Train in the Grade 1 Pacific Classic at 1 1/4 miles on Aug. 31 at Del Mar, trainer John Shirreffs said Sunday.
Berrios, who through Sunday was fourth in the jockey standings with 15 wins, will ride Express Train in a race for the first time. Berrios, 37, has been aboard Express Train for his last two workouts, Shirreffs said, the most recent of which was six furlongs in 1:13 last Friday at Del Mar.
Berrios has had 19 mounts for Shirreffs in his career through Sunday, winning three times.
DEL MAR, Calif. – Based on a recent partial sale, the unbeaten 3-year-old filly Iscreamuscream was worth $990,000 on Saturday morning. By Saturday evening, the figure had soared considerably.
Already a stakes winner at Del Mar in July, Iscreamuscream extended her streak to four races with a comprehensive win in the Grade 1 Del Mar Oaks at 1 1/8 miles on turf on Saturday.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Illuminare, the 3-year-old son of City of Light who won his first two starts, missed some training time due to a foot injury and was not entered Monday for Saturday’s $200,000 Smarty Jones Stakes at Parx Racing, trainer Todd Pletcher said.
Illuminare won a first-level allowance here July 13 by 4 3/4 lengths. He did not work again until Saturday, when he went a half-mile in 50 seconds.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – As trainer Chad Brown runs four of his stakes-caliber older turf fillies and mares in Thursday’s Grade 2, $300,000 Ballston Spa Stakes, he is pointing two Grade 1 winners of 2024 to the Grade 1 First Lady on Oct. 5 at Keeneland.
Chili Flag, who has three stakes win this year including the Grade 1 Just a Game, has been off the work tab since Aug. 2 owing to a temperature, Brown said.
Whitebeam, who won the Grade 1 Diana for the second consecutive year in July, has worked three times since that victory.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – As the connections of Gulfport await a final resolution in the courts regarding the 2022 Hopeful Stakes at Saratoga that could eventually make him a Grade 1 winner, they are running him in allowance spots for which he officially remains eligible while hoping to return to stakes company.
Following a victory in a second-level allowance at Churchill Downs on June 30, Gulfport now steps into a third-level allowance/ $80,000 optional claimer that goes as Thursday’s eighth race at Saratoga.
