ELMONT, N.Y. – Exaggerator, the three-time Grade 1-winning 3-year-old who finished 11th as the favorite in the Travers, was set to leave Saratoga on Friday morning and van to Churchill Downs, where he will continue preparations for the Grade 2, $1 million Pennsylvania Derby at Parx on Sept. 24.
CYPRESS, Calif. – Free Rose, the winner of two graded stakes for 3-year-olds on turf at Del Mar, including the $253,105 Del Mar Derby last Sunday, will remain with his own age group this fall, trainer Richard Baltas said.
Baltas said Free Rose is likely to start in the $200,000 Twilight Derby at 1 1/8 miles on turf for 3-year-olds at Santa Anita on Nov. 4. Races such as the Breeders’ Cup Mile at Santa Anita on Nov. 5 are not in the plans.
“I would like to keep him against 3-year-olds since he’s a gelding,” Baltas said. “Maybe next year we can have him against older horses.
Zia Park in Hobbs, N.M., will open for a 53-date meet Saturday with a new twist to its racing schedule, a new voice calling the races, and a new surface over which the horses will be running. The season continues through Dec. 13.
Zia plans to run straight Thoroughbred cards on Mondays and Tuesdays, while Quarter Horses will be featured on Saturdays and Sundays. Fred Hutton, director of racing operations for Zia, said the change is designed to cater to both ontrack and offtrack patrons.
ARLINGTON HEIGHTS, Ill. – Twelve 2-year-olds, topped by Wellabled and Star Empire, were entered in Saturday’s Grade 3, $100,000 Arlington-Washington Futurity, the final stakes race of the 2016 Arlington meet.
The Futurity is carded as the last eight races Saturday and is immediately preceded by the $75,000 Arlington-Washington Lassie, which also lured 12 entrants and looks wildly competitive.
ARLINGTON HEIGHTS, Ill. – Mister Marti Gras, a 9-year-old millionaire, has been retired from racing by owner-breeder Bob Lothenbach and trainer Chris Block.
“I’m proud to say he retires extremely sound and happy,” Block said. “He deserves a chance at a second career.”
Trainer Tom Amoss is synonymous with Fair Grounds as a 10-time title winner at the New Orleans track, but it was at Louisiana Downs that he got his first big break.
“It was the Shreveport meet in 1987,” Amoss recalled. “I only had a few horses, and it was that meet where I attracted the attention of John Franks. He gave me some horses.”
ELMONT, N.Y. – Comfort and Touchofstarquality, the one-two finishers from the $100,000 State Dinner Stakes here on July 4, head a five-horse field entered for Saturday’s inaugural Seattle Slew Stakes. The Seattle Slew, as was the State Dinner, is run at 1 1/16 miles.
Comfort defeated Touchofstarquality by 3 1/4 lengths in the State Dinner, then finished second to Frosted in the Grade 1 Whitney at Saratoga.
ELMONT, N.Y. – Coming off a solid Saratoga meet with five wins from 33 starters, trainer Brian Lynch is making plans for the fall that include the return of one of his better horses, Heart to Heart.
Heart to Heart, who won three consecutive graded stakes from last November through February, worked a half-mile in 47.20 seconds over the Belmont main track on Wednesday. It was his third work since returning from a vacation following a fourth-place finish as the favorite in the Grade 1 Shoemaker Mile at Santa Anita in June.
ELMONT, N.Y. – Protonico, a four-time graded stakes winner, will make his 5-year-old debut Friday in a $90,000 allowance race going a mile that goes as the third race on Belmont Park’s opening-day card.
Protonico, who won the Grade 2 Alysheba at Churchill Downs in May 2015, has not run since finishing sixth behind Effinex in the Grade 1 Clark at Churchill Downs last Nov. 27.
ELMONT, N.Y. – Chad Brown’s record-setting Saratoga meet included four wins with 2-year-olds on dirt, highlighted by Practical Joke’s neck victory in Monday’s Grade 1 Hopeful Stakes.
Practical Joke, who also recorded a maiden win at Saratoga, may not even have been Brown’s most impressive 2-year-old winner of the meet. Favorable Outcome won his debut by six lengths on Aug. 20, running six furlongs in 1:09.87.
Both horses are owned by Seth Klarman and Bill Lawrence, and both are being considered for the Grade 1 Champagne at Belmont Park on Oct. 8, Brown said Wednesday.
