SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – In between disappointments in Saturday’s Grade 2 Jim Dandy at Saratoga and Sunday’s Grade 1 Haskell Invitational at Monmouth Park, trainer Chad Brown won eight consecutive races, including seven straight on Sunday.
Brown’s streak started in Saturday’s 11th race at Saratoga, where Durable Goods won a maiden race on turf. Wake Island, also trained by Brown, was second.
DEL MAR, Calif. – Stellar Wind finished second in the 2015 Breeders’ Cup Distaff and fourth last year after stumbling at the start. Her third and final try in the race will be at Del Mar on Nov. 3, a date that trainer John Sadler is constantly reminded is fast approaching.
“They’ve got that countdown sign outside the track,” he said Monday of a sign prominently displayed at the corner of Via de la Valle and Jimmy Durante. “It dropped under 100, now it’s in the 90s. That’s not that far away.”
DEL MAR, Calif. – Avenge, third in last year’s Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Turf, is set to make her second start of the year Saturday in the Grade 2, $200,000 Yellow Ribbon Handicap, a 1 1/16-mile grass race for older females. The field is shaping up as the largest of the four stakes at Del Mar this weekend.
Louisiana Downs will run nothing but stakes races on Saturday. The nine-race program features the $60,000 Prelude, which is a prep for the Super Derby; the annual Louisiana Cup of divisional stakes for Louisiana-breds; and a couple of turf stakes moved north from Evangeline Downs.
Purses for the card total $460,000. The program is the first of two major stakes days at Louisiana Downs, and the races are expected to produce starters for the Super Derby card of stakes Sept. 9. First post Saturday is 3:15 p.m. Central.
Texas Chrome is scheduled to arrive in New Mexico on Thursday morning for Saturday night’s $200,000 Downs at Albuquerque Handicap, trainer Allen Milligan said Monday. Texas Chrome is the 122-pound highweight.
The Downs at Albuquerque Handicap is the meet’s premier offering for Thoroughbreds. It will be run over 1 1/8 miles and drew a field of 10. Lindey Wade has the mount on Texas Chrome, who will break from the rail, a draw that suits the horse, said Milligan.
“I think it’s fine with him,” he said. “I’d rather be on the inside than the outside.”
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Frostmourne, who rolled to a six-length victory in the Grade 3 Kent Stakes at Delaware Park on July 15, most likely will make his next start in the Grade 1 Secretariat Stakes at Arlington Park on Aug. 12, trainer Christophe Clement said Sunday.
On Sunday at Saratoga, Frostmourne worked a half-mile in 49.58 seconds in company with Disco Partner, whom Clement is pointing to the Grade 1 Fourstardave here on Aug. 12.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Though Coal Front most likely will make his next start in the Grade 1 H. Allen Jerkens Memorial on Aug. 26 at Saratoga, trainer Todd Pletcher said Sunday that he will keep all options open regarding the undefeated 3-year-old’s next start.
Coal Front ran his record to 3 for 3 with a 1 1/2-length victory in last Saturday’s Grade 2 Amsterdam Stakes at Saratoga. He has won his first three starts by a combined 10 3/4 lengths. Coal Front, a son of 2011 Travers winner Stay Thirsty, earned a 105 Beyer Speed Figure for the Amsterdam.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Cool Catomine gave trainer John Ross his first victory in the Prince of Wales Stakes on dirt at Fort Erie Race Track on July 25. Evidently, the addition of blinkers following the colt’s seventh-place finish in a maiden race over 1 1/16 miles on Woodbine’s Tapeta on June 10 has positively affected his form.
Ross said he consulted with jockey Luis Contreras following that June 10 start, and Contreras recommended adding blinkers for Cool Catomine’s next race, which resulted in his July 2 maiden victory.
Wine List will have leading jockey Tyler Gaffalione aboard for the first time when a four-day race week begins Thursday with a $43,000 allowance as the highlight of a nine-race card.
Wine List, a 7-year-old gelding with a couple of long layoff lines in his past performances, was one of 12 horses sent to Gulfstream earlier this year by Louisiana-based trainer Ron Faucheux partly because of the suspension of turf racing at Evangeline Downs for the balance of the year. Gaffalione has surged once again to his customary spot atop the Gulfstream jockey standings.
A five-week drought between six-figure stakes at Gulfstream Park will come to an end this weekend, but it’s not just the leadoff events in the popular Florida Sire Stakes series that will catch the attention of racing fans.
Gunnevera also will be back in action at the south Florida track as a huge favorite in the $100,000 Tangelo Stakes, adding to the allure of a weekend that also will include the $100,000 Dr. Fager and $100,000 Desert Vixen on Saturday.
