LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Forever Unbridled, last seen finishing third behind Beholder and Songbird in their memorable duel in the Breeders’ Cup Distaff last fall, is expected to make her 5-year-old debut later this month at Churchill Downs after getting an extended rest.
Trainer Dallas Stewart said Forever Unbridled likely will return in the Grade 3, $100,000 Chicago Handicap, a seven-furlong race to be run here June 24.
Danzing Candy became the second Bob Baffert trainee to put up a 107 Beyer Speed Figure at Lone Star Park this season when he captured the Grade 3, $200,000 Lone Star Handicap on Sunday. The big number came on the heels of Mor Spirit’s 107 performance in the Grade 3, $200,000 Steve Sexton Mile on May 7.
The races are the richest offerings of the meet at Lone Star.
“Long range for those horses that I ran there is the Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile at Del Mar,” said Baffert, who is based in Southern California. “That’s the long range.”
Despite having been held only four times, the $500,000 Penn Mile was bumped up to a Grade 2 last fall by the North American Graded Stakes Committee. When the turf race for 3-year-olds is renewed Saturday evening, it will be the highest-ranked race ever run at Penn National Race Course, which opened in 1972.
ELMONT, N.Y. – Trainer Kiaran McLaughlin sent out Frosted to a memorable victory in last year’s Grade 1 Metropolitan Handicap. This year, he plans to send out the enigma that is Mohaymen in the 124th renewal of the Met Mile, run on the June 10 Belmont Stakes card.
Mohaymen won the first five starts of his career, including four Grade 2 stakes, before losing his next five starts. In his 4-year-old debut this year, he finished fourth, 14 lengths behind Connect, in the Grade 3 Westchester.
ELMONT, N.Y. – While trainer Brian Lynch will be running a longshot in Meantime in the Belmont Stakes on June 10, he will have a couple of shorter-priced horses in a pair of graded stakes here June 9.
Lynch is pointing Lightstream to the Grade 3 Bed O’ Roses Invitational and Noholdingback Bear to the Grade 2, $250,000 True North.
On Saturday, that duo worked in company. Lightstream, who started about two lengths behind Noholdingback Bear, went five furlongs in 59.64 seconds, and Noholdingbackbear went in 1:00.04.
ELMONT, N.Y. – Oscar Performance, last year’s Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf winner, will seek to rebound from a pair of disappointing efforts to begin his 3-year-old campaign when he heads a field of eight entered for Saturday’s Grade 3, $200,000 Pennine Ridge Stakes at Belmont Park.
Oscar Performance went 3 for 4 at age 2, including a win in the Grade 3 Pilgrim here and the BC Juvenile Turf at Santa Anita. In two starts this year, he has finished fifth, beaten three lengths, in the Transylvania at Keeneland, and last in the Grade 2 American Turf at Churchill Downs.
ARCADIA, Calif. – Illuminant, who won her second stakes of 2017 in the Grade 2 Monrovia on the hillside turf course Saturday, could have two starts at the Del Mar summer meeting.
Trainer Mike McCarthy is considering the 5-year-old Illuminant for two Grade 2 stakes on turf worth $200,000 each – the Yellow Ribbon at 1 1/16 miles on Aug. 5 and the John C. Mabee Stakes at 1 1/8 miles on Sept. 2. Illuminant missed the 2016 Del Mar summer meeting because of back issues.
The purse of the Great Lady M. Stakes for female sprinters at Los Alamitos on July 8 has been increased from $150,000 to $200,000, allowing the race to be recognized as a Grade 2 event, according to racing secretary Bob Moreno.
Moreno said the increase took place after recent discussions between the Thoroughbred Owners of California and track management. The increase was announced Sunday.
ARCADIA, Calif. – Jockeys Tyler Baze and Corey Nakatani have been suspended for three days for causing separate incidents of interference in the third race last Friday.
Nakatani was cited for crossing over without sufficient clearance on Diplodocus entering the far turn. Diplodocus finished second, but there was no change in the order of finish.
Baze was cited for an incident in the stretch in which he attempted to ride Eckersley through an opening along the rail without sufficient room. Baze was cited for careless riding on Eckersley, who finished fifth.
ARCADIA, Calif. – With the chance for a placing in a Grade 1 race and at least $24,000 in prize money, Faithfully might start in a short field in Saturday’s $400,000 Beholder Mile at Santa Anita.
As of Monday, the Beholder Mile for fillies and mares had three probable starters – the champions Finest City and Stellar Wind, and Vale Dori, who has won six consecutive starts since October.
Bob Baffert trains Vale Dori, who worked five furlongs in 59.60 seconds at Santa Anita on Monday. Baffert timed her through a half-mile in 47 seconds.
