ELMONT, N.Y. – Onus, who set a turf-course record in winning an allowance race last Saturday at Belmont Park, is unlikely to run back in the Grade 1 Just a Game on June 11, according to trainer Shug McGaughey.
McGaughey is targeting the Grade 1 Diana on July 23 with Onus, and he may look at the $100,000 Perfect Sting on July 2 as a prep. McGaughey is pointing Tapitry, second in the Beaugay, to the Just a Game.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Tepin will breeze Saturday morning at Churchill Downs as the standout turf mare begins serious preparations for her much-awaited next start June 14 in the Queen Anne Stakes at Royal Ascot.
“It’ll be a pretty strong move,” said trainer Mark Casse. “Then she’ll have an easier work before she leaves” for England on June 4.
ELMONT, N.Y. – Upstart, who finished fifth to Effinex in the Oaklawn Handicap after winning the Grade 3 Razorback, is pointing to the Grade 1 Metropolitan Handicap on June 11 at Belmont Park.
Last Saturday, while the racing world was focusing on the Preakness, Upstart blitzed four furlongs in 46.06 seconds over the Belmont Park main track. He wore blinkers for the work and will race in blinkers for the first time in the Met Mile.
“The track was very fast anyway, but he made it look even faster,” trainer Rick Violette said.
ELMONT, N.Y. – The Stephen Foster Handicap is still more than three weeks away, but probable race favorite Effinex had his most serious workout for the race on Wednesday, drilling seven furlongs in 1:27.40 over the Belmont Park training track.
On Preakness Day at Pimlico, Sal Sinatra, president of the Maryland Jockey Club, acknowledged at a press conference that, “The talk of moving the Preakness to Laurel has quieted down.”
On Preakness Day 2015, Sinatra said moving the middle leg of the Triple Crown was a possibility.
Sinatra said last Saturday that he and Tim Ritvo, chief operating officer of The Stronach Group, which owns Pimlico and Laurel Park, may have jumped the gun.
In the wake of the highly disappointing news that Kentucky Derby winner Nyquist will miss the 148th Belmont Stakes because of an illness, the other 3-year-olds being pointed to the June 11 classic at Belmont Park are continuing unaffected with their preparations.
While Nyquist remained in his stall Wednesday at Pimlico in Baltimore, his Preakness conqueror, Exaggerator, visited the racetrack for the second straight morning.
Fifteen runners were nominated for Monday’s Grade 3, $100,000 All American at Golden Gate Fields, but there’s one familiar name missing.
Alert Bay, the winner of the Grade 3 San Francisco Mile, was not nominated to the All American.
ELMONT, N.Y. – Trainer Michelle Nevin said the Grade 1, $500,000 Ballerina at Saratoga on Aug. 27 is the long-term goal for Paulassilverlining, the 3 1/4-length winner of Saturday’s Grade 3 Vagrancy Handicap at Belmont. What she does between now and then remains undecided.
Paulassilverlining added the Vagrancy to an earlier victory in the Grade 3 Distaff at Aqueduct. She earned duplicate Beyer Speed Figures of 95.
“I thought it went the way it was supposed to go,” Nevin said. “We’ll see how she comes out of this and see what’s around before we decide what’s next.”
ELMONT, N.Y. – Lightstream’s last-to-first victory in Saturday’s $100,000 Soaring Softly Stakes on turf not only kept the filly undefeated but gave trainer Brian Lynch plenty to think about when plotting out the rest of the 3-year-old filly’s year.
Lightstream hit the side of the gate at the break but circled the field to win the seven-furlong Soaring Softly by a half-length.
“Only good ones do that – come from where she came from,” Lynch said Monday.
ELMONT, N.Y. – Unified, the undefeated 3-year-old who won the Grade 2 Peter Pan Stakes on May 14, could make his next start in the Grade 3, $150,000 Pegasus Stakes at Monmouth Park on June 19, trainer Jimmy Jerkens said Monday.
The Pegasus is run at 1 1/16 miles and is a good way to ease the speedy Unified into races run around two turns. The $100,000 Matt Winn Stakes at Churchill Downs at 1 1/16 miles on June 18 and the $500,000 Ohio Derby at Thistledown at 1 1/8 miles on June 25 are also run around two turns.
