SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - After convincingly winning the two Grade 1 route races for 3-year-old fillies at Saratoga, Songbird arrived back in Southern California early Monday morning with her unbeaten record intact and with a hardened core for the more difficult challenges that lay ahead.
Songbird came out of her seven-length victory in Saturday’s Alabama “beautifully,” trainer Jerry Hollendorfer said Sunday afternoon.
DEL MAR, Calif. - Hard Aces, the Grade 1 winner who finished eighth of nine in the $1,001,380 Pacific Classic on Saturday, emerged from the race with a cut on a foreleg and will not race again until the Santa Anita autumn meeting.
Trainer John Sadler said Sunday that Hard Aces needed “a few” stitches for the injury. He speculated Hard Aces was struck by a rival leaving the gate. Hard Aces was sixth for much of the race before fading in the stretch under jockey Santiago Gonzalez to finish 25 lengths behind race winner California Chrome.
DEL MAR, Calif. - Masochistic will have a new, but familiar, jockey when he starts as the likely favorite in the $200,000 Pat O’Brien Stakes at Del Mar next Saturday.
Tyler Baze has been booked to ride Masochistic in the Grade 2 race at seven furlongs, replacing Mike Smith. Smith is booked to ride the Travers Stakes program at Saratoga that day. Baze is familiar with Masochistic, having ridden the 6-year-old gelding four times in 2015, including to two stakes wins.
DEL MAR, Calif. - Ashleyluvssugar led Saturday’s $252,415 Del Mar Handicap by five lengths going into the turn, a point in the race trainer Peter Eurton sensed defeat.
“I thought they’d swallow me at the quarter pole,” Eurton said.
Ashleyluvssugar had led by six lengths on the backstretch and Eurton feared the gelding would have little left for the stretch.
Ashleyluvssugar had just enough, winning the Grade 2 race by a nose over Metaboss for his first stakes win in 15 months.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. _ The connections of Mohaymen have re-routed their multiple graded-stakes-winning 3-year-old from next Saturday’s $1.25 million Travers at 1 1/4 miles to the $500,000 King’s Bishop Stakes at seven furlongs on the same card, trainer Kiaran McLaughlin said Sunday.
Mohaymen, fourth as the favorite in the Grade 2 Jim Dandy on July 30, will be making his first start around one turn since he won the Grade 2 Nashua at a mile last Nov. 4, his second career start.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Not that he really needs any more help, but Flintshire, the top male turf horse in North America, might have some assistance in the form of a rabbit when he runs in next Saturday’s Grade 1, $1 million Sword Dancer Stakes at Saratoga.
Inordinate, disqualified from an off-the-pace allowance win on Belmont Stakes Day, is expected to be entered by Juddmonte Farms and trainer Chad Brown as a pacemaker for Flintshire, who will seek his third win in as many tries this year in the 1 1/2-mile Sword Dancer.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – If there were any doubt about whether Exaggerator would run in next Saturday’s Grade 1, $1.25 million Travers Stakes, it was removed after the three-time Grade 1-winning 3-year-old put in a solid five-furlong workout over Saratoga’s main track Saturday.
Exaggerator, in his only breeze since he won the Grade 1 Haskell on July 31, worked in 1:00.97, getting his final quarter in 24.17 seconds. He then galloped out six furlongs in 1:14.65. The time was less important to his connections than how the work was done.
DEL MAR, Calif. – Stellar Wind, the champion 3-year-old filly of 2015 who beat Beholder in the Grade 1 Clement L. Hirsch Stakes on July 30, worked a half-mile in 49 seconds on Saturday.
The workout was the first for Stellar Wind since the Clement L. Hirsch and represents the start of her preparation for an autumn campaign. Trainer John Sadler said Stellar Wind will have two additional workouts at Del Mar before the stable ships to Santa Anita in early September.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – The addition of blinkers has been a major reason for the big strides Mind Your Biscuits has made over the past couple of months. But it was blinkers off here Friday when Mind Your Biscuits, the winner of the Grade 2 Amsterdam, turned in his final prep for next Saturday’s Grade 1 King’s Bishop.
Working in the fog, which shrouded part of the course, Mind Your Biscuits breezed an easy half-mile in 48.16 seconds shortly after 7 a.m. before galloping out five-eighths in 1:01.18, much to the delight of trainer Robert Falcone Jr.
DEL MAR, Calif. – Taris, the millionaire winner of the Grade 1 Humana Distaff at Churchill Downs in May and five other stakes in her career, has been sold privately and retired from racing, according to new owner Craig Bernick.
Taris will be owned by Bernick, John Sikura, and Scott Heider and will be bred to Curlin in 2017, Bernick said.
