SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – The talented New York-bred Bar of Gold once again will seek her first graded stakes victory when she runs in Wednesday’s Grade 2, $200,000 Honorable Miss Handicap at Saratoga.
Bar of Gold is 4 for 4 against New York-breds but is winless in eight graded stakes tries. Last summer at Saratoga, she finished second to Cavorting in the Grade 1 Test and Grade 2 Prioress.
On Saturday morning, Bar of Gold blew out three furlongs in 36.44 seconds.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Stopchargingmaria, the 2015 Breeders’ Cup Distaff winner, will miss next Sunday’s Grade 3, $200,000 Shuvee Handicap due to a cough, trainer Pletcher said Saturday.
Pletcher still will be well represented in the race by Curalina, the Grade 1 La Troienne winner, who worked a solid half-mile in 47.86 seconds Saturday morning over the Saratoga main track.
Pletcher said if he didn’t have his radio to communicate with the exercise rider, Curalina “might have went a little quicker.”
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – The anticipated meeting between Preakness winner Exaggerator and Belmont Stakes winner Creator in next Saturday’s Grade 2, $600,000 Jim Dandy Stakes at Saratoga likely will not materialize after the connections of Exaggerator said their horse most likely will skip the race.
Exaggerator put in a subpar workout Saturday morning over the Saratoga main track, getting his first quarter-mile in 24.44 seconds and his last quarter in 25.72. He did not gallop out very strongly.
DEL MAR, Calif. – Enola Gray extended her unbeaten streak to three races in Friday’s $147,000 Fleet Treat Stakes for 3-year-old California-bred fillies at Del Mar, enhancing trainer Phil D’Amato’s deep team of prospects in the division for late summer.
Keeping them apart will be tricky.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – All-sources handle on Friday’s opening-day card at Saratoga was $17,763,037, a less than 1 percent increase compared to last year’s figure of $17,706,202.
Ontrack handle Friday was $4,703,479, a 6.6 percent decline from last year’s figure of $5,040,927.
The New York Racing Association announced attendance as 32,980, a 5.1 percent decrease from last year’s figure of 34,783. NYRA, as it did last year, counts season passes sold in its daily attendance count whether those ticketholders were here or not.
Surgical Strike, a close fifth last out in the $1.25 million Belmont Derby Invitational, is likely to make his next start in the Grade 1 Secretariat on the Aug. 13 Arlington Million card, trainer Ben Colebrook said.
Surgical Strike won the Arlington Classic here May 28 by a head over One Mean Man, a narrow win that took on added luster when One Mean Man returned to win the American Derby on Million Preview Day.
Modesty Stakes winner Faufiler is a likely runner in the Beverly D. Stakes on Aug. 13 at Arlington, trainer Graham Motion said Thursday. ‘
The Niarchos family’s Flaxman Holdings Ltd., which owns Faufiler, also was considering sending a horse from Ireland for the Beverly D., but Motion said it now appears likely they will be represented by Faufiler.
“She’s being strongly considered for that race,” Motion said. “She’ll breeze next week. I usually give them three weeks after a race. My only reservation with her is the long ship.”
In the featured eighth race July 14 at Canterbury Park, Diamond Joe sat in third off the speed going one mile on the main track, started his run at the top of the stretch, and collared the leaders in the final furlong. And if you know anything about Diamond Joe, you know what happened next – he won.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – The success of trainer Kiaran McLaughlin’s Saratoga meet will primarily boil down to one day – Aug. 6. That’s the day he will run many of his big stakes horses, led by Frosted, who on Friday worked five furlongs in 1:00.56 over the synthetic surface at the Greentree facility in Saratoga Springs.
