SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Abel Tasman, the winner of Sunday’s Grade 1, $300,000 Coaching Club American Oaks, shipped back to Southern California on Monday. Whether she returns to Saratoga for the Grade 1, $600,000 Alabama here on Aug. 19 will be determined at a later date.
Abel Tasman has already shipped three times this year and posted Grade 1 victories in the Kentucky Oaks at Churchill Downs, the Acorn at Belmont, and the Coaching Club, which she won by a head over Elate.
DEL MAR, Calif. – Drefong, last year’s champion male sprinter, is scheduled to make his first start since winning the Breeders’ Cup Sprint when he heads a large, talented field for the $300,000 Bing Crosby Stakes going six furlongs Saturday.
It’s the first Grade 1 race of the Del Mar meet.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Trainer Jason Servis said Monday that Firenze Fire came out of his victory in Saturday’s Grade 3 Sanford Stakes in good order and that he’ll be pointed next for the Grade 1 Hopeful at seven furlongs on closing day of the Saratoga meet.
Firenze Fire, a son of Poseidon’s Warrior, rallied to a one-length victory over favorite Free Drop Billy in the six-furlong Sanford to remain perfect in two starts. He is owned and was bred by Ron Lombardi’s Mr. Amore Stable.
The first half of the year was not the smoothest for McCraken, who had to overcome two minor injuries, but the second season for 3-year-olds is just beginning, and there is still time for the Ghostzapper colt to prove that he belongs with the best of the division.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Emancipation, a full brother to 2013 Kentucky Derby winner Orb, and Fayeq, a half-brother to 2009 Preakness winner Rachel Alexandra, are part of a six-horse field entered in Wednesday’s fourth race, a first-level allowance race at 1 1/8 miles.
Emancipation and Fayeq lack the necessary experience to run in Friday’s $100,000 Curlin or Saturday’s Grade 2, $600,000 Jim Dandy, said their respective trainers, Shug McGaughey and Kiaran McLaughlin.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Go Bro notched a massive upset at 44-1 when he won the Grade 2 King Edward Stakes for trainer Mike Keogh and owner and breeder Gustav Schickedanz on the Queen’s Plate card July 2.
It was the first graded stakes score for the 6-year-old son of Proud Citizen, who appears to have found a niche going long. Go Bro made eight starts in 2016, all in sprints, and picked up two victories. He then started in the Jacques Cartier Stakes on opening day April 15, but following that start, Keogh decided to change things up.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Grade 3 Selene Stakes winner Grizzel was a 39-1 longshot when she traveled to Belmont Park for the Grade 1 Belmont Oaks on July 8, but her fifth-place finish after holding the lead in the stretch pleased trainer Mike Doyle.
“She ran great,” he said. “It’s unfortunate she didn’t place. I really thought she could run well, and she did. The way it set up, they ran so much faster earlier in the race than they did in the Belmont Derby. She may be suspect in going that far. A mile and an eighth might be as far as she wants to go.”
ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Leading trainer Mark Casse is off to a quick start in 2-year-old racing at Woodbine this season, with eight wins from 24 starts. Two victories have come from Blueblood, who is now 2 for 2 after winning the Victoria Stakes on July 8 by three-quarters of a length over five furlongs on the Tapeta.
The California Horse Racing Board will conduct an investigation into why Trapalanda was not identified as a gelding until approximately 20 minutes before he won a $50,000 claiming race for maidens at Del Mar on Saturday, track stewards said.
The announcement that Trapalanda had been gelded since his last start was made to the public before he ran in the fifth race, the first leg of the pick six, but long after the start of other multi-race wagers, such as the pick five and the pick three.
DEL MAR, Calif. - Three years have passed since Big Macher won the Grade 1 Bing Crosby Stakes at Del Mar, the track’s leading sprint. Since then, Big Macher has been to Dubai – where he was fifth in the $2 million Golden Shaheen in March 2015 - and gone 18 months between starts because of a suspensory injury.
Big Macher won his comeback race in the Thor’s Echo Handicap for California-breds at Santa Anita on June 11, and will run in the $300,000 Bing Crosby Stakes on Saturday.
