Grand Mo the First is scheduled to make his first start since the Kentucky Derby next month and will be moving back to turf for an upcoming stakes at Gulfstream Park, according to his trainer, Victor Barboza Jr.
The $95,000 Bear’s Den for 3-year-olds at a mile on turf Aug. 3 is the target for the horse, Barboza said Friday. Grand Mo the First was scheduled to have breezed on Tapeta on Saturday.
Monmouth houses one of the top one-turn 3-year-olds in North America, Book’em Danno, a smart winner of the Grade 1 Woody Stephens at seven furlongs in his most recent outing.
Trained by Derek Ryan, Book’em Danno wintered in Florida, traveling overseas to nearly win the one-mile Saudi Derby in February. Book’em Danno, who worked a bullet half-mile in 47 seconds Thursday at Monmouth, has northern New Jersey owners and is nominated to Friday’s Jersey Shore Stakes. But Ryan, reached by phone on Friday, remained coy regarding Book’em Danno’s next start.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Trainer Danny Gargan was fined $1,000 by the stewards for his behavior following Thursday’s Schuylerville Stakes when he yelled at the stewards on the phone in the winner’s circle and then hung up.
Gargan was upset after his filly Complexion – the co favorite in the race – reared up twice in the starting gate prior to the start of the Schuylerville, unseating jockey John Velazquez. She was reloaded and the gates were opened before he felt his filly was ready.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – The Queens M G, 44-1 winner of Thursday’s $175,000 Schuylerville Stakes, will likely be wheeled back in the Grade 3, $200,000 Adirondack Stakes on Aug. 4, trainer Saffie Joseph Jr. said Friday.
“Why wait so long?” Joseph said, referring to waiting for the Grade 1 Spinaway on Sept. 3. “Strike while the iron’s hot.”
Joseph was at Saratoga on Friday morning but on Thursday was stuck in a Florida airport, where he watched the race on his phone.
“We got delayed, but it made for a good flight,” he said.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Trainer Christophe Clement, a native of France who has been in the United States for more than three decades, officially became a U.S. citizen on Wednesday.
“I’ve been in the country for 35 years, so I already considered myself an American,” Clement, 58, said. “Now, I’m officially an American. It’s good. It makes it easier when I pay my taxes.”
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Just F Y I, the 2-year-old filly champion of 2023, has been turned out for the summer and will likely be aimed at a 4-year-old campaign, trainer Bill Mott said Friday.
Just F Y I is currently at the Fair Hill Training Center in Maryland, where she will likely remain out of training through the end of August.
Mott said since Just F Y I “can’t be ready for the Breeders’ Cup” he would like to just focus on a 4-year-old campaign, though he didn’t rule out having her ready for something in late fall.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – After turning in a trio of subpar performances to close out his 2023 campaign, trainer Phil Bauer didn’t know where he was at with Warrior Johny. But the veteran horseman is now pretty certain where he stands after watching Warrior Johny dominate a stakes-caliber field of older allowance horses by four lengths on opening day of the Saratoga season.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - It is looking increasingly less likely that Kentucky Derby winner Mystik Dan will make the Grade 1, $1.25 million Travers Stakes here on Aug. 24.
Trainer Kenny McPeek said Friday that he has sent Mystik Dan from Saratoga to Keeneland to train for the foreseeable future.
“I decided to get him back to the team down below, regular groom, regular rider,” McPeek said. “We’re not in a hurry to bring him back. I’m not going to press to make the Travers, let that come to us.”
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Even though it didn’t rain during the races Thursday, Mother Nature still had a negative impact on the opening-day card at Saratoga.
Heavy rain late Wednesday night and into the early hours of Thursday morning totaling 1.23 inches prompted the New York Racing Association to move all five scheduled turf races to the main track Thursday. There were 31 scratches in those races alone – one field was reduced to three horses – which put a damper on the betting.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Emma-Jayne Wilson surpassed Julie Krone’s earnings record for a female jockey on Thursday at Woodbine when scoring aboard the debuting Perfect Lady Bee for trainer Roger Attfield.
Wilson boosted her earnings to $90,152,742 aboard the Charles Fipke homebred, who was the 1,903th winner for the 42-year-old, from 14,300 mounts.
Julie Krone’s mounts earned $90,126,584 throughout a career that went from 1981 to 2004, during which she won 3,704 races on 21,412 rides.
