DEL MAR, Calif. – Bob Baffert said before the meet that he was loaded with 2-year-old fillies, and he was spot on. When American Gal won her debut Sunday, she became the third Baffert-trained prospect for the Grade 1, $300,000 Del Mar Debutante on Sept. 3, following American Cleopatra and Noted and Quoted.
“I might run all three in there,” he said, referring to the Debutante.
Baffert said American Gal, owned by Kaleem Shah, “had been working really well” prior to Sunday’s race.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – After riding horses six days a week – many in the morning and in the afternoon – the last thing a jockey wants to do is work a horse on a dark day.
But after guiding Kentucky Oaks winner Cathryn Sophia through a sensational six-furlong workout Tuesday morning, three-time Eclipse Award winner Javier Castellano was happy to have yielded part of his morning off.
The Grade 3, $1 million Delta Downs Jackpot for 2-year-olds will once again be the centerpiece of the track’s 32-race stakes schedule during the upcoming meet, Delta Downs announced Tuesday. Purses for the stakes program will total $4.6 million.
Delta opens for an 84-date meet Oct. 19. The season will run through March 11.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - Tepin, North America’s reigning female turf champion, returned to the work tab Tuesday for the first time in 3 1/2 weeks, breezing a slow half-mile in 53.07 seconds over the Oklahoma turf course.
Tepin is preparing for a start in the Grade 1, $1 million Woodbine Mile on Sept. 17.
Under jockey Florent Geroux, filling in for injured rider Julien Leparoux, Tepin went off in fractions of 13.44 seconds and 26.89 for the opening quarter. She picked it up only slightly in the lane, getting her final quarter in 26.18.
DEL MAR, Calif. - Beholder, the defending race winner of the Pacific Classic, will need to be at her best to face the likes of California Chrome and Dortmund in this year's Pacific Classic on Saturday at Del Mar, but she gave off every indication Tuesday morning that she's ready for a top effort in the Grade 1, $1 million race when she polished off a half-mile in 47 seconds without any appreciable effort.
Rajiv Maragh, who suffered multiple back and rib fractures in a spill at Belmont Park on July 10, 2015, is progressing toward a return to the saddle but isn’t targeting a specific date.
Maragh, who spent the better part of the last eight months in south Florida undergoing physical therapy, has moved back to New York to continue that process. He visited his specialist Friday in Manhattan and came up to Saratoga to visit.
Though he looks fit, Maragh said he’s still not strong enough to ride.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Trainers often say they wish they had one more week or one more work before running their horse in a race.
Trainers who had horses pointed for the Grade 1, $500,000 Fourstardave got the extra week, and on Monday, many put their horses through an extra work in preparation for the race that will now be run this Saturday.
DEL MAR, Calif. – Klimt and Big League, who finished first and second in the Grade 2 Best Pal on Saturday, both will start in the Grade 1, $300,000 Del Mar Futurity on closing day, Sept. 5, according to their trainers.
Klimt gave trainer Bob Baffert a record eighth win in the Best Pal.
“It was a nice, easy race for him,” Baffert said. “They didn’t go that fast early. That Futurity is going to be loaded. Klimt has the right style.”
DEL MAR, Calif. – While the Pacific Classic understandably is the focal point Saturday, there are two significant stakes on the undercard, both on turf, including the Grade 1, $300,000 Del Mar Oaks for 3-year-old fillies.
Mokat, the winner of the Grade 2 San Clemente here on July 23, is the best of the local runners in the 1 1/8-mile Del Mar Oaks, but the race picked up a significant invader on Monday when trainer Bill Mott decided to send Harmonize to the race. Harmonize most recently finished fifth in the Grade 1 Belmont Oaks behind Catch a Glimpse.
DEL MAR, Calif. – Trainer Phil D’Amato nominated Midnight Storm and Obviously to Sunday’s Grade 2, $200,000 Del Mar Mile but will take the divide-and-conquer approach with those two grass runners. Midnight Storm will run here, while Obviously will head out of town.
Midnight Storm won the Grade 2 Eddie Read Stakes on July 17, his fourth win in five starts on this course. He completed his preparation for the Del Mar Mile with a five-furlong drill in 1:01.40 on the main track Sunday.
