SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Saturday’s Grade 1 Vanderbilt Handicap was drawn Wednesday with eight starters, but lost one of its major players earlier that morning when trainer Ron Moquette withdrew Whitmore from consideration for the race due to a minor foot issue.
Moquette said Whitmore, who would have been the 123-pound highweight if he started, had a pulse in his foot Wednesday caused by an injury he believed his horse incurred on the flight from Kentucky the previous day.
Retama Park near San Antonio will have six stakes for Thoroughbreds during its meet, which opens Sept. 1.
James Leatherman, the track’s racing secretary, said the El Joven and La Senorita, which are longtime fixtures for 2-year-olds on turf, are scheduled for Oct. 14. The Texas Horse Racing Hall of Fame Stakes and Fiesta Mile will share a card Oct. 21. Retama also has a pair of 2-year-old divisions of the Texas Stallion Stakes on Nov. 4.
Leatherman said Retama will race Friday and Saturday nights through Nov. 11.
Lone Star is scheduled to close its Thoroughbred meet Sunday and plans to run a similar meet next year, according to information provided by director of racing Bart Lang.
Lone Star has asked the Texas Racing Commission for a 50-date Thoroughbred meet for 2018. The season would open April 19 and race through July 29.
Lone Star also has requested a 26-date Quarter Horse meet for 2018, from Sept. 14-Nov. 10.
Ivan Fallunovalot, a multiple stakes-winning sprinter who captured the Grade 3 De Francis Memorial Dash last November at Laurel, had his first work since March on Sunday at Lone Star Park. He went three-eighths under jockey Rita Helton in 33.80 seconds, the fastest of 27 works at the distance.
Fear the Cowboy will be breaking new ground in his career when he runs next month at Mountaineer Park. It will be the first West Virginia start for the 5-year-old horse, who has spent most of the spring and summer at Evangeline Downs in Opelousas, La.
“He’s run at 11 different racetracks,” trainer Efren Loza Jr. said.
Loza said Fear the Cowboy is targeting the $200,000 West Virginia Governor’s Stakes on Aug. 5. The horse is coming off a second-place finish by a head to Eagle in the $100,000 Michael G. Schaefer Memorial Stakes on July 15 at Indiana Grand.
ARLINGTON HEIGHTS, Ill. – Ghost Hunter, whose 46th career start produced the first graded stakes win of his career last month in the Grade 3 Arlington Handicap, remains on track to race Aug. 12 in the Arlington Million.
“We’re still on pace to run,” said Jamie Ness, who trains Ghost Hunter for Triple K Stables. “He’s doing fine.”
ARLINGTON HEIGHTS, Ill. – As many as about a dozen European shippers could be headed overseas to race at Arlington on the Million program here Aug. 12.
Heading the list of prospective runners supplied by the International Racing Bureau, which will coordinate travel and logistics for the horses that come to Arlington, is Deauville, the Aidan O’Brien-trained 4-year-old who won the Grade 1 Belmont Derby Invitational last summer and went on to finish a close third facing older rivals in the Million.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – His dominant victory in the Kentucky Derby and disappointing effort in the Preakness behind him, Always Dreaming kicks off the second half of his 3-year-old season Saturday in the Grade 2, $600,000 Jim Dandy Stakes at Saratoga.
Girvin lost a heart-breaking head bob to Irap in the June 24 Ohio Derby, but he has flourished since that race, according to trainer Joe Sharp, and settled in nicely at Saratoga. He’s one of a handful of contenders Sunday in a salty renewal of the Grade 1 Haskell at Monmouth Park.
The Ohio Derby was Girvin’s first start in seven weeks, following the Kentucky Derby. He tracked the pace in the 1 1/8-mile race and then moved up to challenge for the lead nearing the far turn when a horse came up inside him at the same time another advanced to his outside.
The Haskell Invitational, which will be run for the 50th time Sunday, has long been known for luring the stars of the 3-year-old division to Monmouth Park. But this year is different, and the race’s strength instead comes from its depth.
That the Haskell has lured such an interesting group is quite an accomplishment since division leader Always Dreaming and Preakness winner Cloud Computing are staying at Saratoga for the Jim Dandy. The race also will be without trainers Bob Baffert and Todd Pletcher, two of the Haskell’s biggest supporters.
