What do you get when you combine the winners of the Travers Stakes, Kentucky Oaks, Pacific Classic, and Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies?
The Monday work tab at Del Mar.
It was an all-star lineup that hit the track early Monday prior to the final card of the meet, with the likes of West Coast, Abel Tasman, Collected, and Champagne Room working, along with such top-class runners as Cupid and Vale Dori.
DEL MAR, Calif. – Bob Baffert on Saturday overtook the late Mike Mitchell for the most career wins at Del Mar among trainers, although the feat was not announced to the crowd at Del Mar until Sunday.
Baffert began the meet 10 wins behind Mitchell, who won 476 races at Del Mar over 37 seasons. Baffert won three races on Saturday to first tie and then surpass Mitchell, then captured his 12th race of the meet on Sunday – giving him 478 career wins – with the first-time starter Alluring Star. Baffert’s achievement was announced to the crowd after that race.
Storm Runner was a whopping 159-1 when he finished second last month under apprentice Rogelio Miranda in his lone start, a 6 1/2-furlong maiden race on the main track at Ellis Park. Team Valor founder Barry Irwin said the debut effort piqued his interest to the extent that he arranged the purchase of the 2-year-old Get Stormy colt on behalf of Team Valor and Gemstone Stables, and Storm Runner returns in the fifth race Thursday at Kentucky Downs.
Irwin said that one reason he bought Storm Runner was because he is bred to go long on grass.
Wayne Catalano has won more than 2,700 races since he switched from riding to training in 1983. One of those wins came with future Kentucky Derby winner Animal Kingdom in a 2-year-old maiden race, while hundreds more came for owner Frank Calabrese, with whom Catalano has had a volatile off-and-on relationship the last two decades or so.
With Kentucky Downs in session and the Keeneland yearling sale starting Monday in Lexington, Ky., horse trainers and their automobiles will be in continuous motion over the next couple of weeks.
Few will be busier than Mike Maker. The two-time defending champion trainer at Kentucky Downs, he makes Louisville his home base, but his Lexus SUV will be hurtling up and down Interstates 65 and 64 as he looks to further his name with current and future trainees.
VANCOUVER, British Columbia – Trainer Blaine Wright is hoping Riser dominates the Grade 3, $150,000 British Columbia Derby at Hastings on Saturday like Wright has dominated the trainer standings at Emerald Downs this year.
Wright has all but clinched his second straight training title. He’s won with 48 of his starters at the meet for an exceptional 36 percent strike rate. His closest pursuer, Joe Toye, has 32 wins. Wright has also won 10 stakes at the meet, including three on Washington Cup Day.
DEL MAR, Calif. - St Patrick’s Day, a full brother to 2015 Triple Crown winner American Pharoah, is likely to run in the Grade 1 FrontRunner Stakes for 2-year-olds at Santa Anita on Sept. 30 after beating maidens Saturday.
Trained by Bob Baffert for Susan Magnier, St. Patrick’s Day led throughout a maiden race at 6 1/2 furlongs to prevail by a half-length over Instilled Regard, a first-time starter bought for $1,050,000 earlier this year.
St Patrick’s Day was timed in 1:17.81.
DEL MAR, Calif. - Cambodia may take owner Don Robinson and trainer Tom Proctor to the Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Turf at Del Mar on Nov. 4 on the merits of her recent starts.
Cambodia swept the two Grade 2 turf stakes for fillies and mares at the Del Mar summer meeting – the Yellow Ribbon Handicap at 1 1/16 miles Aug. 5 and Saturday’s John Mabee Stakes at 1 1/8 miles. The Mabee is run at the same distance as the BC Filly and Mare Turf.
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.”
