It’s gotten to the point that 4-year-old Hay Dakota looks like a solid Grade 3 sort of turf-route horse, but trainer Joel Berndt still is leaning against shipping him to Arlington for either the Grade 3 Stars and Stripes over 1 1/2 miles or the Grade 3 Arlington Handicap over 1 1/4 miles on July 8.
Instead, he could bide his time and point Hay Dakota to the $50,000 Brooks Field Stakes on Aug. 26 at Canterbury, perhaps with some interim start as yet undetermined.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Woodbine Oaks winner Holy Helena was made the 3-1 morning-line favorite in a 13-horse field of Canadian-bred 3-year-olds for the 158th running of the $1 million Queen’s Plate at the pick-your-post draw on Wednesday.
Owned by Stronach Stable and trained by Jimmy Jerkens, Holy Helena will be making just her fourth start on Sunday, from post 3, in the 10-furlong test. Her Oaks rider, Luis Contreras, was aboard when the athletic daughter of Ghostzapper worked an easy five-eighths in 1:01.80 on the Tapeta on Monday.
Trainer Carlos Martin sent out Morning Breez for a good-looking debut win last Friday at Belmont Park. A New York-bred 2-year-old colt, Morning Breez came from just off the pace to score by 4 1/4 lengths while covering 5 1/2 furlongs in 1:04.16.
“He came out of the race great,” Martin said. “He has a lot of class, and we thought he might give us more in a race than we’d asked him for in the mornings.”
Ken McPeek likely will have starters in both the Belmont Derby Invitational and the Belmont Oaks, Grade 1 races that will be run at 1 1/4 miles over the inner turf July 8. The Belmont Derby has a purse of $1.2 million, and the Belmont Oaks will be worth $1 million.
The July 8 Stars and Stripes Festival card also will include the Grade 2, $750,000 Suburban at 1 1/4 miles; the Grade 3, $400,000 Dwyer, a one-mile race for 3-year-olds; and the Grade 2, $350,000 Belmont Sprint Championship at seven furlongs.
ARCADIA, Calif. – The apprentice jockey who collected suspension days in the winter and spring at Santa Anita is collecting wins this summer.
Evin Roman, a 19-year-old native of Puerto Rico, has stormed to the fore of the jockey standings in Southern California in recent weeks and could win the riding title for the Santa Anita spring-summer meeting that ends Tuesday.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Fabio Arguello Jr., best known for winning the 1992 Kentucky Oaks aboard Luv Me Luv Me Not, is making another comeback in the saddle.
Arguello, 44, is named on one mount Saturday at Ellis. The Colombia native suffered a serious leg fracture in a February 2014 spill at Sam Houston and actually returned to riding 11 months later but stopped again after two mounts “because it just didn’t feel right,” said Arguello.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – With the July 8 Belmont Sprint Championship expected to get such top sprinters as Mind Your Biscuits, Unified, and A. P. Indian, trainer Ben Colebrook thought he’d wait a little longer before sending Limousine Liberal to New York to try the heavy heads again.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Trainer John Hancock will run two fillies Friday night in the Debutante Stakes on the final card of the Churchill Downs spring meet. Then he and the horses will make the westward trek back to their home base, Ellis Park, pulling in somewhere around 1:30 in the morning.
“Got my own rig,” said Hancock.
Seven-pound apprentice rider Hector Diaz Jr. will begin riding at Monmouth Park on Friday, according to his New York agent, Tim Micallef.
Diaz has been based in New York since he started out in November. He is 26 for 271, a win average of 9 percent, with all but one of his wins coming at either Belmont Park or Aqueduct. Diaz will be represented by agent Shawn Klotz at Monmouth.
The plan is to build up Diaz’s business at Monmouth and then return to New York following Labor Day weekend.
In sports, nothing lasts forever, but for a number of years it seemed as if Ben’s Cat, the pride of Maryland, just might. Now 11, and a step or two slower than he used to be, King Leatherbury has made the decision to retire him.
Leatherbury bred and owns the Maryland-bred gelding. He trained him through eight seasons on the racetrack.
