ARLINGTON HEIGHTS, Ill. – One day there will be a Stars and Stripes Handicap lacking The Pizza Man, but that day will not be July 8.
The popular Illinois-bred gelding is set to start in the Stars and Stripes for the fifth year in a row, owner Rich Papiese said Friday. Papiese bred and owns The Pizza Man with his wife, Karen, as Midwest Thoroughbreds.
ARLINGTON HEIGHTS, Ill. – Pending Saturday workouts at Keeneland, the high-powered Ignacio Correas duo of Kasaqui and Dona Bruja remain on track for Arlington stakes starts on July 8.
Kasaqui convincingly won the Grade 2 Wise Dan Stakes at Churchill Downs in his most recent start and will try to win the Arlington Handicap for the second year in a row. The 7-year-old Argentine import went on to finish second last summer in the Arlington Million.
ARCADIA, Calif. – The two-time champion Songbird continues to work fast with minimal effort.
On Thursday at Santa Anita, Songbird breezed five furlongs in 59.60 seconds, the fastest of 29 works at the distance. For the second consecutive week, Songbird’s work was given the designation of “breezing” and not the more-strenuous “handily.”
Regular jockey Mike Smith was aboard for the workout. Smith rode Songbird to a win in her first start of the year, the Grade 1 Ogden Phipps Stakes at Belmont Park on June 10.
ARCADIA, Calif. – Finest City, the champion female sprinter of 2016, worked a half-mile in 49.40 seconds at Santa Anita on Friday for a scheduled start in the Grade 2 Great Lady M. Stakes at Los Alamitos next Saturday.
Finest City won the Great Lady M. Stakes at Los Al in April 2016 and the Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Sprint at Santa Anita last November, a victory that clinched her championship.
The M & M Racing operation of Mike Sisk is making an impact at Belmont Park, and working behind the scenes on behalf of the new owner is a familiar name. Cody Autrey, the longtime trainer who now resides year-round in Arkansas, is the racing manager for the Texas-based Sisk.
Autrey last started a horse as a trainer in May 2016 at Prairie Meadows. He decided to search out other opportunities in racing and has carved out a niche working with Sisk and trainer Robertino Diodoro, who this year branched out with a division in New York.
ARCADIA, Calif. – Flavien Prat was the leading rider at the Santa Anita winter-spring meeting this year and led the standings for the spring-summer meeting going into Friday’s program.
Prat may very well win the title at the meeting, which ends on Tuesday, but he will have little impact on the two-week Los Alamitos summer meeting, which begins on Thursday.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – After a nine-month absence, trainer Peter Walder’s name is back in the entries at Gulfstream Park, where he will send out two starters on Sunday, including Starship Zorro as one of the key contenders in the $47,000 optional-claiming feature.
Walder, who has won 796 races and maintained a stellar 24 percent win rate through his training career, said he had been away because of a “non-racing-related personal issue” that prevented him from obtaining a license from the state.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – The spring meet came to an end on Friday for the purpose of deciding the jockey, trainer, and owner titles, with none of the three races close at the end.
Tyler Gaffalione dominated the rider standings, with Edgard Zayas easily second. Emisael Jaramillo, Luca Panici, and Miguel Vasquez rounded out the top five.
The centerpieces of next Saturday’s Stars and Stripes card are the $1.2 million Belmont Derby Invitational and the $1 million Belmont Oaks. Since both 1 1/4-mile turf races are invitationals, the fields are still in flux as the New York Racing Association continues to invite horses.
While the fields may grow, both races have a solid core.
A. P. Indian, who would have been a major player in next Saturday’s Grade 2 Belmont Sprint Championship, will be forced to skip the race after coming out of his June 17 breeze at the Fair Hill Training Center in Maryland with filling in an ankle, trainer Arnaud Delacour said.
The injury was minor, and A. P. Indian has resumed training.
“He came back with filling in an ankle after his last breeze,” Delacour said. “I sent him to New Bolton to get checked out, and everything looks good. It was a minor setback, but we missed a little time and are going to skip the race.”
