DEL MAR, Calif. - Moonshine Memories may race exclusively at Del Mar this year.
Moonshine Memories won her stakes debut in Saturday’s Grade 1 Del Mar Debutante for 2-year-old fillies. She may not race again until the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies at Del Mar on Nov. 4.
“My thought is to wait,” trainer Simon Callaghan said Sunday. “We know she loves the track.”
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Copper Bullet, the four-length winner of the Grade 2 Saratoga Special, will be sidelined indefinitely with a minor injury, his connections said.
“He’s on the shelf for a little bit, I don’t know how long,” said Ron Winchell, whose Winchell Thoroughbreds co-owns Copper Bullet with Willis Horton. “He’s probably not going to make the Breeders’ Cup. He had a little setback, so we gave him a little time. He’ll be back.”
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Harmonize, who won for the first time in just more than a year in Saturday’s Grade 3 Glens Falls Stakes at Saratoga, could make her next start in the Grade 1, $300,000 Rodeo Drive Stakes at Santa Anita on Sept. 30, trainer Bill Mott said Sunday.
The likelihood of firm ground at Santa Anita is perhaps one reason to point for the Rodeo Drive, and the potential to get away from some of the bears in trainer Chad Brown’s female turf division is potentially another reason.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – As he watched the rain fall hard outside the office of his Saratoga barn Sunday morning, trainer Steve Asmussen could only smile.
“How fortunate are we that this wasn’t yesterday?” Asmussen said.
A wet track, a surface that Gun Runner has not particularly enjoyed, might have been the only thing that could have prevented Gun Runner from putting on a dazzling show in Saturday’s $750,000 Woodward Stakes, a race he won by 10 1/4 lengths over Rally Cry for his third consecutive Grade 1 victory.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Keen Ice still has five weeks before he makes his next start in the Jockey Club Gold Cup on Oct. 7, so trainer Todd Pletcher wasn’t looking for much from him in a half-mile workout on Saturday with Far From Over.
The work was completed in 49.39 seconds over the Oklahoma track.
“We’re not trying to overdo it at the moment, just trying to keep him turning over until we get more serious, but he seems to be doing well,” Pletcher said.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – While the Saratoga meet ends Monday, the racing season will continue, and trainers Chad Brown and Todd Pletcher spent a good part of Saturday morning putting horses through workouts and gearing up for the fall.
Brown worked 23 horses Saturday morning at Saratoga, including Arlington Million winner Beach Patrol and Beverly D. one-two finishers Dacita and Grand Jete.
Pletcher worked 18 horses Saturday morning, topped by Suburban winner Keen Ice, who is targeting the Grade 1 Jockey Club Gold Cup at Belmont Park on Oct. 7.
DEL MAR, Calif. – Bookies Luck and Spiced Perfection, the winners of stakes for California-bred 2-year-olds in the last week, will be pointed for statebred stakes at Del Mar on Breeders’ Cup weekend, their trainers said.
Bookies Luck won Friday’s $100,345 I’m Smokin Stakes at six furlongs by 3 1/4 lengths for his second win in five starts, all for owners and breeders Larry and Marianne Williams and trainer Jeff Bonde. Bookies Luck will be pointed for the $200,000 Golden State Juvenile at seven furlongs on Nov. 4, Bonde said.
DEL MAR, Calif. – Cuddle Alert gave trainer Reed Saldana his first win at Del Mar when the mare won an optional claimer on Aug. 17. The goals are higher on Monday, when Cuddle Alert starts in the $75,000 CERF Stakes for fillies and mares at six furlongs.
Cuddle Alert can give Saldana his first stakes win as a trainer. The filly won the Spring Fever Stakes at Santa Anita this year when trained by Saldana’s wife, Melissa.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – World Approval, the Grade 1 Fourstardave winner, worked five furlongs in 58.91 seconds on Friday over the Oklahoma turf course as he prepares for the Grade 1, $800,000 Woodbine Mile on Sept. 16.
Working inside of the orange cones, known as “dogs,” on the turf, World Approval, wearing blinkers, went his opening quarter in 24.09 seconds and got his final quarter in 23.01.
“We put them on because he was by himself and wanted him to do something today,” trainer Mark Casse said of the blinkers. “I don’t think he’s ever been better.”
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Seymourdini, who has won all three of his starts this year by a combined 36 1/4 lengths, worked five furlongs in 1:02.18 on Friday over Saratoga’s main track. It was his first official workout since he won the State Dinner Stakes at Belmont Park by 10 1/2 lengths on July 3.
Trainer Linda Rice said her long-term objective remains the Grade 1 Cigar Mile at Aqueduct on Dec. 2, with one potential start before then, perhaps in the Bold Ruler at Belmont Park on Oct. 28.
