SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - West Coast’s dominant 3 1/4-length victory in Saturday’s Grade 1, $1.25 million Travers Stakes only further muddied an already jumbled 3-year-old picture, with fall plans unclear for him and many of his vanquished.
West Coast was due to return to California on Monday. Later this week trainer Bob Baffert and owner Gary West will meet to discuss what might be next for West Coast, who went gate to wire under Mike Smith in the Travers for his fourth consecutive victory.
DEL MAR, Calif. - Maria Falgione’s bucket list has one less item.
The 38-year-old apprentice jockey won with her first career mount at Del Mar on Saturday when Tee Em Eye ($13.60) closed from off the pace in a $16,000 claimer for sprinters. After an awkward start, Tee Em Eye rallied five-wide on the turn to take the lead in the final furlong.
“It’s the most incredible thing that’s happened to me,” Falgione said an hour after the win.
Falgione is a full-time exercise rider for Mike Machowsky, who trains Tee Em Eye.
DEL MAR, Calif. - Stellar Wind, the winner of consecutive Grade 1 races for fillies and mares in California in recent months, may not start again until the Breeders’ Cup Distaff at Del Mar on Nov. 3.
Trainer John Sadler said over the weekend that Stellar Wind could benefit from a break of three months between her latest start, a win in the Grade 1 Clement Hirsch Stakes on July 30, and the BC Distaff.
“Stellar Wind could train into the Breeders’ Cup,” Sadler said. “She runs so well fresh. I’m not 100 percent sure what we’ll do.”
DEL MAR, Calif. - Giant Expectations has come a long ways in one year.
At this time last year, Giant Expectations was fighting a lung infection that forced him out of training. He was a maiden with an uncertain future.
“We fooled around trying to get it under control,” trainer Peter Eurton recalled Sunday. “We weren’t getting anywhere. We probably wasted two months.”
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - By the Moon turned a rare double Saturday at Saratoga by winning the Grade 1, $500,000 Ballerina. She is now a Grade 1 winner at ages 2 and 5.
Trained throughout her career by Michelle Nevin, By the Moon was precocious enough to win the Grade 1 Frizette in fall 2014 at Belmont Park. She came close to winning Grade 1 races as a 3-year-old and as a 4-year-old, but was denied both times.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - Given her propensity to run well fresh, Forever Unbridled will most likely train up to the Breeders’ Cup, her connections said Sunday morning, the day after their horse beat Songbird in the Grade 1 Personal Ensign at Saratoga.
In which Breeders’ Cup race Forever Unbridled will run remains to be decided.
Owner Charles Fipke said Sunday he would consider running Forever Unbridled against males in the $6 million Breeders’ Cup Classic at Del Mar on Nov. 4.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - Sadler's Joy used an eye-catching burst of speed to make up for an awful start in the Grade 1 Sword Dancer at Saratoga on Saturday, running by all six of his rivals in the final furlong of the 1 1/2-mile turf race to win by a half-length under Julien Leparoux.
The victory was the first in a Grade 1 for owners Rene and Lauren Woolcott, who race as Woodslane Farm. Sadler's Joy is the second Grade 1 winner bred by the Woolcotts. They had previously bred four-time Grade 1 winner Tonalist, a winner of $3.6 million.
Heza Streakin Legacy qualified for the $3 million All American Quarter Horse Futurity at Ruidoso Downs, but was not allowed to be entered back in the finale by the stewards on Friday because of a positive hair test for clenbuterol during an out of competition testing program in New Mexico.
“It’s kind of something unprecedented,” said Izzy Trejo, executive director of the New Mexico Racing Commission.
The Sonoma County Fair’s 11-day meet showed a decline in ontrack wagering and all-sources wagering this summer.
Ontrack wagering at Santa Rosa declined 11 percent to $2,787,809 from $3,120,021 in 2016. All-sources handle, including out-of-state and advance-deposit wagering, was down 14 percent to $10,553,939 from $12,253,383.
