DEL MAR, Calif. – Two-time champion Songbird is back in Southern California following her win in the Grade 1 Delaware Handicap at Delaware Park last Saturday. It may not be long before she is back on the road.
Trainer Jerry Hollendorfer said Wednesday that Songbird is being considered for the Grade 1 Personal Ensign Stakes for fillies and mares Aug. 26 at Saratoga.
“We might take a look at that race,” he said. “We’ll have some different races to look at.”
DEL MAR, Calif. – Rival owners and trainers are in no hurry to run their older horses against Arrogate in Saturday’s Grade 2 San Diego Handicap at Del Mar.
As of late Wednesday morning, Arrogate had four likely rivals – Accelerate, Cat Burglar, Donworth, and El Huerfano.
El Huerfano, winner of an optional claimer at Santa Anita in June, was not a certain runner as of Wednesday, trainer Peter Miller said.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Todd Pletcher may have surrendered his title as perennial leading trainer at Saratoga last summer, but when it comes to victories with 2-year-olds, he remained second to none.
Fifteen of Pletcher’s 31 victories at the 2016 Saratoga meet came with his 2-year-olds, including wins in all three graded stakes for juvenile fillies. Over the last seven Saratoga seasons, Pletcher has won 112 races for 2-year-olds, an average of 16 per meet.
Parx Racing has added the Donald LeVine Memorial to its Labor Day lineup of stakes.
The LeVine has been won each of the past two years by A. P. Indian. It was one of several $100,000 stakes dropped from the schedule this year. The LeVine is for 3-year-olds and up. It has been shortened from seven furlongs to six furlongs.
Trainer Graham Motion holds a strong hand coming into the July 30 Haskell card at Monmouth Park. He is pleased with how Belmont Stakes runner-up Irish War Cry is training for the Grade 1 Haskell Invitational and is considering running Miss Temple City in the Grade 3 Matchmaker.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – In June 2016, Brian Lynch was forced to surrender his New York trainer’s license after testing positive for marijuana. Though he could run horses at other tracks in his name, he was not permitted on the grounds at Belmont Park where the bulk of his stable was based.
Ultimately, Lynch’s ban lasted three weeks before his license was reinstated by the New York Gaming Commission. Lynch said that being away from his best horses gave him a new perspective.
Del Mar’s grass course was open for workouts for the first time this summer on Monday, and 20 horses drilled on it. Among them was the unbeaten Sircat Sally, who likely will head the field for the Grade 2, $200,000 San Clemente Handicap for 3-year-old fillies on Sunday.
Sircat Sally went six furlongs in 1:16.80 around orange cones, known as dogs, while working evenly with her Jerry Hollendorfer-trained stablemate He Will. Sircat Sally has been assigned the top weight of 125 pounds for the San Clemente.
DEL MAR, Calif. – A horse who runs 100 times may recall the days of Exterminator, but that milestone will be reached Thursday at Del Mar by the durable and popular 10-year-old claimer Royal F J, who will race for the 100th time.
It’s a point of pride for his trainer and co-owner, Jack Carava.
“I’ve had a couple of horses who ran over 100 times, but not ones I’ve had for almost their whole career and certainly not in recent years,” Carava said Monday at Del Mar. “We’ve had a lot of fun with him.”
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – A year ago, trainer Gary Contessa sent out Turco Bravo to win the 1 3/4-mile Birdstone Stakes. He’s confident he can duplicate that feat Aug. 3 with another long-winded Chilean-bred, the multiple graded stakes-placed Tu Brutus.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Aldous Snow, who won the Grade 3 Singspiel Stakes for the third time in four years at Woodbine on July 2 for trainer Malcolm Pierce and owner and breeder Sam-Son Farm, will now point to the $125,000 Halton Stakes on Aug. 30.
The Halton Stakes is run over 1 1/2 miles on turf on Canadian Millions Sales Stakes Day. Pierce, however, didn’t rule out a start for the 8-year-old gelding in the Grade 2, $175,000 Nijinsky Stakes over 1 1/4 miles on turf July 29.
