SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – The New York Racing Association will offer a late pick-five wager over the final four days of the Saratoga meet, Friday through Monday.
The wager will be on the last five races on the card. On Friday, it’ll be on races 6 through 10; on Saturday and Sunday, races 8-12; and Monday, races 7-11.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Tepin followed a very good work last week on turf with an even better one Monday, breezing five furlongs in 58.40 seconds over the Oklahoma turf course as she continues preparations for the $1 million Woodbine Mile on Sept. 17.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – The complexion of next Monday’s Grade 1 Hopeful at Saratoga changed dramatically over the weekend with the news that Theory, arguably the most impressive debut-winning 2-year-old male at the meet, would not run again this year due to a physical issue.
Theory, a son of Gemologist trained by Todd Pletcher, is being sent to WinStar Farm to be examined for a potential injury to his right foreleg, according to Elliott Walden, president and chief executive of WinStar, which owns the colt with China Horse Club.
DEL MAR, Calif. – Nyquist, the Kentucky Derby winner and champion 2-year-old male of 2015, is likely to remain at the San Luis Rey Downs training center until running in the Grade 2, $1 million Pennsylvania Derby at Parx on Sept. 24, according to trainer Doug O’Neill.
Nyquist went to San Luis Rey Downs three weeks ago when O’Neill said he was going through a growth spurt. Nyquist used a swimming pool to stay fit and had his first work since the Haskell last Saturday.
DEL MAR, Calif. – The Del Mar Debutante on Saturday is the first of four graded stakes that will be run over the final three days of the meet, which ends Labor Day with the Grade 1, $300,000 Del Mar Futurity for 2-year-olds at seven furlongs.
The presence of maiden winners Chasing Aces and Straight Fire – who own the fastest Beyer Speed Figures among 2-year-olds in the country – is expected to keep the Futurity field small. As of Monday, only Klimt and Midnight Pleasure were certain to face them.
DEL MAR, Calif. – With last weekend’s conquest of Saratoga still fresh, trainer Bob Baffert was back on the scene at Del Mar on Monday morning, working his three Del Mar Debutante prospects in hopes of knocking off that Grade 1 race on Saturday for the eighth time.
American Cleopatra, American Gal, and Noted and Quoted – each a winner of a maiden race for 2-year-old fillies in her last start – all worked five furlongs Monday, with extensive gallop-outs designed to have them fit for what is shaping up as a very competitive race.
DEL MAR, Calif. – Trainer Vann Belvoir went to the 2012 Barretts January mixed sale in Pomona, Calif., to fulfill a request from a breeder in Washington: Find an inexpensive broodmare.
Belvoir spent a grand total of $1,000 on Dances On Water, a 5-year-old unraced mare by In Excess, for owner and breeder John Parker. Dances On Water is no longer a cheap broodmare. She is the dam of Gold Rush Dancer, a three-time stakes winner.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Trainer John Kimmel scratched Bar of Gold out of her scheduled turf debut in last Friday’s $150,000 Yaddo for New York-bred fillies and mares after the ground came up yielding. On Monday, he worked her a sharp half-mile over the Oklahoma turf in 46.42 seconds.
“We didn’t want her to race over a yielding course in her first start on turf,” Kimmel said. “The turf was soft, so how do you get a barometer on whether she can handle it or not?”
The final four-day stretch of the Ellis Park meet gets under way with the lone Thursday card of the meet. The date was added late to the schedule to make up for the July 4 rainout.
The nominal feature of the eight-race Thursday card is a $39,000 allowance at 6 1/2 furlongs (race 6), but perhaps the most interesting race directly follows as the seventh. It’s a wickedly tough maiden sprint that drew an oversubscribed field of well-bred 2-year-old fillies.
Big fields are expected in the four stakes and all the overnight races that will open the eagerly awaited Kentucky Downs meet Saturday.
Entries for the first of five programs at the turf-only track in south-central Kentucky are to be drawn Wednesday, and racing secretary Tyler Picklesimer said he expected his staff to be swamped.
“There’s a huge amount of anticipation for this meet,” said Picklesimer. “Horsemen from New York and California and everywhere else are coming. We’re ready for them.”
