SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Trainer Mark Casse had to have a smile on his face when he examined the field for Saturday’s Grade 1, $600,000 Alabama Stakes at Saratoga and did not see the name Abel Tasman among the nine 3-year-old fillies entered Wednesday for the prestigious 1 1/4-mile race.
“I think we can give her a run for the money, but it doesn’t hurt my feelings she’s not there,” Casse said Wednesday morning, hours before the Alabama field was drawn.
Fair Grounds in New Orleans will run 11 stakes during its 10-date meet for Quarter Horses that opens Friday. The track will stack five of those races on its closing-day card Sept. 9. The stakes program is worth a total of $585,000.
The first card of the season comprises 10 trial races for the $285,000 Louisiana Quarter Horse Breeders Association Sale Futurity, a restricted Grade 1. The finale, the richest offering of the meet, anchors the card Sept. 9.
John McGary will be the new announcer for Zia Park, according to Matt Crawford, manager of racing operations for the Hobbs, N.M., track. McGary also will continue to serve as the announcer at Louisiana Downs in Bossier City, La., but will vacate his position at Mahoning Valley in Ohio.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Jockey Brian Hernandez spent approximately 12 hours in the Capital Region, but the most important minutes were those spent on the back of his Travers mount McCraken on Wednesday morning.
Hernandez flew in from Louisville Tuesday night, and early Wednesday morning he guided McCraken through a six-furlong workout in 1:16.20 over the Oklahoma training track in preparation for a start in the Grade 1, $1.25 million Travers on Aug. 26.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – After briefly considering shipping Stallwalkin’ Dude to South Korea for the $600,000 Korea Sprint Cup in Seoul on Sept. 10, trainer and part-owner David Jacobson said he would keep the 7-year-old gelding at home and that he could possibly run in the Grade 1 Forego here on Aug. 26.
Jacobson said Stallwalkin’ Dude came out of his victory in last Friday’s Tale of the Cat Stakes “great, not just okay.”
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Trainer Brendan Walsh is less sound today than he was going into his memorable victory with Proctor’s Ledge in the Grade 3 Lake George earlier in the Saratoga meet. Fortunately, his steadily improving 3-year-old filly is just fine, and will be a major player when she returns against five rivals in Saturday’s Grade 2 Lake Placid here.
Walsh, who has the majority of his stable in Kentucky, fractured his collarbone in a riding mishap at Churchill Downs not long after Proctor’s Ledge gave him his first Saratoga winner on July 21.
The competition for the 10 spots in the starting gate for the $3 million All American Futurity for Quarter Horses will be intense on Friday and Saturday, when Ruidoso Downs in New Mexico puts on 28 trial races for the classic. There are 263 individual 2-year-olds entered, and the horses with the five fastest times from each 14-race card will advance to the finale Sept. 3.
First post for each program is 11:30 a.m. Mountain.
DEL MAR, Calif. – It is possible He Will could go from being the narrow loser of a California-bred stakes in late July to holding a berth for the Breeders’ Cup Turf by Saturday evening.
He Will, a former maiden claimer, will have his second start in a graded stakes in Saturday’s Grade 2 Del Mar Handicap at 1 3/8 miles on turf, a distance that should suit the 5-year-old horse, trainer Jerry Hollendorfer said.
Gold Rush Dancer earned a career-best 97 Beyer Speed Figure for his blowout win in the Longacres Mile Handicap at Emerald Downs Sunday.
With Evin Roman aboard, the 4-year-old son of Private Gold took control of the race going down the backstretch, and the only question was how far he was going to win by when he hit the six-furlong mark four lengths in front. The final margin was 4 3/4 lengths.
Trainer Vann Belvoir, who won the Mile as a jockey when it was held at Yakima Meadows in 1995, wasn’t sure where Gold Rush Dancer would make his next start.
Charles Town will begin offering a jackpot pick six wager called the Charles Town 6-12 on Thursday evening. The latter part of the name refers to the bet’s 12 percent takeout.
The Charles Town 6-12 will be offered on the final six races each evening. The jackpot will be paid out only when a single ticket selects all six winners. When there is more than one winner or nobody picks all six races, 75 percent of the pool will be paid out to those selecting the most winners. The other 25 percent of the pool will go into the jackpot.
