Troubled by illness and minor injury in recent months, Firing Line may be trained up to the Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile at Santa Anita on Nov. 4, trainer Simon Callaghan said on Thursday.
Firing Line, second in the 2015 Kentucky Derby, missed the Harry Brubaker Stakes at Del Mar on Aug. 24 because of a strained muscle. The 4-year-old has resumed training, Callaghan said.
Enola Gray is on schedule for a start in the $75,000 Beverly J. Lewis Stakes for 3-year-old fillies at Los Alamitos on Sept. 10 after missing a start in late August at Del Mar because of illness.
Trainer Phil D’Amato said on Friday that Enola Gray showed a presence of mucus on Aug. 28 that kept from starting in the $100,000 Torrey Pines Stakes for 3-year-old fillies that day. Enola Gray was the 4-5 favorite on the morning line for the Torrey Pines Stakes. She figures to be a strong favorite in the Lewis Stakes, run at six furlongs.
The $300,000 Del Mar Futurity on Monday will have one of its smallest field in years.
Friday, six runners were entered – Chasing Aces, Dynamic Ruler, Klimt, Midnight Pleasure, Straight Fire, and Vegas Itch. Dynamic Ruler and Vegas Itch will be longshots and were late additions to the field.
Klimt won the Grade 2 Best Pal Stakes on Aug. 13, but Straight Fire, a maiden race winner by 10 1/2 lengths in his second start on Aug. 6, is expected to be favored.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Todd Pletcher has come to terms with the fact that he won’t win his seventh straight Saratoga training title and his 13th overall. Chad Brown is slowly allowing himself to believe he will win his first.
Brown, who has finished second to Pletcher the last five years, entered the final four days of the meet with a 36-27 lead over Pletcher. Brown won his 37th race of the meet when Munchkin Money won Friday’s second race. Brown missed a Saratoga record-tying 38th win when Dujac lost a nose decision in race 3.
DEL MAR, Calif. – Beholder worked three furlongs in 37.40 seconds at Del Mar on Friday, preparing for what are expected to be two tough races at the Santa Anita autumn meeting.
Friday’s exercise was the first workout for Beholder since a second to California Chrome in the $1 million Pacific Classic on Aug. 20.
DEL MAR, Calif. – A few days after Arrogate arrived back at Del Mar following his victory last Saturday in the Travers Stakes at Saratoga, trainer Bob Baffert brought him out of his stall to show visitors. Baffert joked that Arrogate was “the fastest horse in the world,” then got out a measuring stick to see how tall Arrogate currently stood – just over 16-2 hands, if you’re scoring at home – before remarking about Arrogate’s steel-gray coat, “He looks a lot like Spectacular Bid.”
ARLINGTON HEIGHTS, Ill. - The Illinois-bred 4-year-old filly Streamline, unraced since finishing second in the Grade 1 Apple Blossom on April 15, is back on the work tab and readying for a fall campaign that will lead to what trainer Brian Williamson hopes is another successful meet at Oaklawn Park this winter.
ARLINGTON HEIGHTS, Ill. – Wellabled didn’t take to the main track at Saratoga, ruling out an intended start in the Saratoga Special. Instead, he raced there on turf in the $100,000 Skidmore Stakes over 5 1/2 furlongs on Aug. 19, setting a frantic pace before getting nailed on the wire and finishing second.
But now Wellabled is back on Arlington’s Polytrack, over which he scored a sharp debut win this summer, and he is set to start next Saturday in the Grade 3 Arlington-Washington Futurity.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Takeover Target and Reporting Star, both scratched from the Grade 1 Fourstardave two weeks ago, were among the 10 horses entered Thursday for Monday’s Grade 2, $250,000 Bernard Baruch Handicap.
Takeover Target, trained by Chad Brown, prefers ground with give in it but did win the Grade 2 National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame Stakes here last summer over firm turf.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Trainer Jonathan Sheppard’s streak of winning a race at Saratoga for 47 consecutive years is in jeopardy.
His best chance at the meet, Castle Hill, finished second as the favorite in a steeplechase allowance race on Thursday, making Sheppard winless with 12 starters at the meet. That was his third runner-up finish of the meet.
Sheppard has one starter Saturday, King’s Obsession, in a tough first-level allowance race on dirt, and one starter, War Baby, a 3-year-old filly, in a maiden turf race on Monday.
