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.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Three days into the Saratoga meet and nobody’s been able to solve the pick six yet.
After Major Force ran down Cookie Crisp in Sunday’s 11th race, it created a three-day carryover of $577,107 into Monday’s nine-race program. The pick six will start on race 4 (2:40 p.m. eastern). There are three turf races in the sequence – including the $200,000 Caress Stakes – but there was rain in the forecast Sunday night into Monday.
Jorge Navarro set a Monmouth Park record for wins in a day by a trainer when he won half of the 10 races on the Sunday card.
Navarro sent out the winners of races 1, 2, 3, 5, and 9. Valentino's Day finished second, beaten a neck, in race 5 for Navarro but was placed first by the stewards after an inquiry and jockey's objection.
Navarro's winners were Don't Tell ($3.80), Mandeville ($6.80), Bun Bun ($4.40), Valentino's Day ($3), and Fire Mission ($7.40).
DEL MAR, Calif. – There was only a brief celebration among Accelerate's connections Saturday night following the Pacific Classic because of an early work call Sunday morning.
The champion Stellar Wind – like Accelerate owned by Kosta and Pete Hronis, trained by John Sadler, and ridden by Victor Espinoza – worked at 6:30 Sunday morning in preparation for this Sunday’s Grade 1, $300,000 Clement Hirsch Stakes, in which Stellar Wind is the defending race winner.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - Having won back-to-back Grade 1 victories the last two months, Lady Eli has positioned herself for a run at an Eclipse Award that, to date, has been the only thing that has eluded the gutsy 5-year-old mare.
