The Southern California-based jockey Umberto Rispoli will begin a stretch of travel on Friday night, when he arrives in Texas to ride three stakes on Saturday’s card at Lone Star Park.
The track is putting on its annual Texas Turf Festival, and there are a total of four stakes worth $625,000. Rispoli rides What Say Thee in the $250,000 Texas Turf Classic, Stir Crazy in the $125,000 Wasted Tears, and Itzel in the $125,000 Chicken Fried Stakes.
Flat Hanby suggested he has a bright future with his dominant win in the Canterbury Park Derby last Saturday and trainer Boyd Caster said he would be pleased to see the horse “progress” into a candidate for the Grade 3, $400,000 Oklahoma Derby at his home track of Remington Park.
But before the Sept. 29 race, Caster said Flat Hanby will likely return to restricted company at his current base of Prairie Meadows. Caster said on Monday that Flat Hanby is under consideration for the $70,000 Iowa Stallion Stakes at one mile and 70 yards July 20.
Kentucky Oaks winner Thorpedo Anna and Kentucky Derby runner-up Sierra Leone were among the big names who returned to the work tab over the weekend in Saratoga.
Thorpedo Anna, the top 3-year-old filly in the country, on Saturday worked a half-mile in 49.25 seconds, her first breeze since winning the Grade 1 Acorn by 5 1/2 lengths on June 7 at Saratoga. Thorpedo Anna is targeting the Grade 1, $500,000 Coaching Club American Oaks on July 20 at Saratoga.
Batten Down, front-running winner of Saturday’s Grade 3 Ohio Derby at Thistledown, could make his next start in the Grade 2, $500,000 Jim Dandy on July 27 at Saratoga, trainer Bill Mott said.
Batten Down made the jump from the maiden ranks to graded stakes winner with a relatively easy 1 3/4-length score in the $500,000 Ohio Derby, a race where he was never seriously challenged on the front end.
“He was unchallenged early and got the job done,” Mott said. “He never got in a dogfight with anybody. He looked like a clear winner.”
Rich Strike, upset winner of the 2022 Kentucky Derby who hasn’t raced in nearly 14 months, arrived at trainer Bill Mott’s Saratoga barn on Saturday to continue training toward a possible return to racing later this year.
“He looks pretty good, galloped him the last two days and he went quite well,” Mott said Monday from Saratoga.
None Above the Law ended a 19-race losing streak with an upset win in Saturday’s $100,000 Bertrando Stakes for California-bred milers at Los Alamitos, a division the 5-year-old gelding will see more of in the near future.
Trainer Jorge Periban has selected the $150,000 California Dreamin’ Stakes at 1 1/16 miles on turf for statebreds on Aug. 3 at Del Mar as None Above the Law’s next start.
Ascendancy is bound for the Del Mar summer meeting after her third stakes win in Saturday’s $53,350 She’s a Tiger Stakes at the Alameda County Fair in Pleasanton, Calif.
Trainer O.J. Jauregui is contemplating a start in the meeting’s championship race for older fillies and mares, the Grade 1 Clement Hirsch Stakes at 1 1/16 miles on Aug. 3, he said Sunday.
Jockey Stewart Elliott will miss the remainder of the Lone Star Park meet after he was diagnosed with two hairline fractures in his tailbone, according to his agent, Scott Hare.
Hare said Elliott would return to action for the Remington Park meet that opens Aug. 16. The Lone Star season closes July 14.
Elliott was thrown from a 2-year-old during a post parade on the Lone Star Million Day card May 27, but he rode the program as well as the following week before notable pain starting setting in and he sought medical diagnostics.
All-sources daily average handle showed a decline, but gross handle increased at the spring meeting at Santa Anita that ended on Sunday, according to data compiled by Daily Racing Form.
The 29-day meeting, which began on April 19, had handle of $228.6 million, compared to handle of $223.7 million on a 28-day meeting at a similar time in 2023.
Average daily handle in 2023 was $7,991,590 compared to $7,884,438 this year.
ARCADIA, Calif. – The Chosen Vron, a 17-time stakes winner who was the 2023 California-bred Horse of the Year, is on schedule for the Grade 1 Bing Crosby Stakes at six furlongs at Del Mar on July 27.
A 6-year-old gelding, The Chosen Vron was nominated for Saturday’s $100,000 Bertrando Stakes at a mile on dirt for California-breds at Los Alamitos, but is not among the six entries for the race.
“We’re going to go straight into the Bing Crosby,” co-owner and trainer Eric Kruljac said earlier this week.
