DEL MAR, Calif. – Jockey Martin Garcia miraculously escaped serious injury Tuesday morning at Del Mar when a filly he was working broke down while galloping out a furlong past the wire, then plummeted to the ground and rolled over top of Garcia.
“I’m okay,” Garcia said after he walked off the track, his front and back covered in dirt. “She broke down. I tried to hold her up but then the other leg gave way, too. She rolled over top of me. The safety vest saved me.”
Remington Park in Oklahoma City has two high-end races and two interesting maiden special weight races on Wednesday night’s card.
An optional $25,000 claiming race over a mile on the grass goes as race 8 and drew the stakes winners Z Rockstar, Holiday Mischief, Sky Flight, and Phantom Trip. However, a pair of horses who have yet to win stakes, King Ptolemy and Macho Gabacho, could vie for favoritism off third-place finishes in optional $40,000 claiming races at Lone Star Park.
Sir Genghis, who won the $100,000 Louisiana Legends Classic at Evangeline Downs in July, will see allowance action Wednesday night at Evangeline.
Sir Genghis has raced once since the Legends Classic, finishing fourth in the $50,000 Louisiana Cup Turf Classic on Aug. 5 at Louisiana Downs. He moves back to dirt and a sprint distance for the eighth race at Evangeline, a six-furlong allowance that carries a purse of $26,500.
Karl Broberg will win the Evangeline Downs training title by a pole when the Opelousas, La., track’s meet closes on Saturday night, but he was far from celebrating on Monday. Broberg was working the phones as floodwaters were threatening his farm near Delta Downs in Vinton, La.
There has been ongoing flooding in coastal areas in Louisiana and Texas since Hurricane Harvey made landfall late Friday night in Rockport, Texas.
“We are in a bad spot right now,” Broberg said. “I’m talking with the guys at the farm, getting things ready if we do need to get mares out of there.”
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Gun Runner completed preparations for his role as the expected odds-on favorite in Saturday’s Grade 1, $750,000 Woodward Stakes by working a half-mile in 50.28 seconds early Monday morning over the Oklahoma training track at Saratoga.
Under exercise rider Angel Garcia, Gun Runner went his first quarter in 25.56 seconds and his second quarter in 24.72, with a five-furlong gallop-out time of 1:04.31.
“The big horse is doing well,” trainer Steve Asmussen said.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Believing that last Saturday’s Grade 2 Ballston Spa had come up too tough, trainer Jimmy Toner scratched Time and Motion from that race and now likely will supplement her to Saturday’s Grade 3, $200,000 Glens Falls at Saratoga.
“All the horses coming back from the Diana came,” Toner said. “I didn’t think they’d all come back, and Lady Eli, I think she puts a different dimension on things. I didn’t want to run against her.”
Lady Eli won the Ballston Spa.
DEL MAR, Calif. – Paradise Woods, who finished sixth of seven as the heavy favorite in the Torrey Pines Stakes at Del Mar on Sunday after stumbling at the start, was “stiff and sore” Monday morning, trainer Richard Mandella said.
“She scrambled pretty badly leaving the gate,” Mandella said. “It was her own fault. She freaked out in the gate. She looks fine other than being a little stiff, and her back’s a little sore.”
DEL MAR, Calif. – The Del Mar Debutante and Del Mar Futurity are the richest and most significant of the seven stakes that will be run over the final three days of the Del Mar meet, which ends Monday, and there will be multiple stakes all three days.
Supporting the Debutante on Saturday is the Grade 2, $200,000 John C. Mabee Stakes. The Mabee is a 1 1/8-mile grass race for females that could have a maximum field of 14, including Cambodia, Pretty Girl, and Amboseli, the top three in the Grade 2 Yellow Ribbon on Aug. 5.
DEL MAR, Calif. – Simon Callaghan has put himself in position to sweep the Grade 1 races for 2-year-olds at Del Mar the final weekend of the meet, something only three trainers have done in the past 25 years.
“It’s why we do it, isn’t it?” Callaghan said Monday morning. “We have [horses] that are good enough, obviously top contenders in their divisions.”
Jose Pinchin gave a rich Jamaican laugh.
The question had been this: Could one compare Highborn, who starts Saturday at Gulfstream in the $200,000 Affirmed division of the Florida Sire Stakes, with Three Rules, whom Pinchin trained to win the 2016 edition of that race.
“No, no, I don’t think so,” Pinchin said. “Highborn is a nice little gelding, hopefully as good as any of the others this year, but not Three Rules.”
