SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Far From Over, undefeated in three career starts, will step back into stakes company in Sunday’s $100,000 Alydar Stakes.
Far From Over, the winner of the Grade 3 Withers in 2015, returned from a 16-month layoff to win a second-level allowance race at Belmont by 1 1/2 lengths.
Trainer Todd Pletcher felt a race like the Alydar, for horses who have not won a graded stakes this year, was a better spot to run him than Saturday’s Grade 1 Whitney.
DEL MAR, Calif. – Green With Eddie’s victory in Wednesday’s $100,000 Graduation Stakes for California-bred juveniles at Del Mar has left owners Paul and Zillah Reddam and trainer Doug O’Neill facing a pleasant problem for early September.
Green With Eddie is well suited for two stakes in the final days of the Del Mar summer meeting. The options include the $150,000 I’m Smokin Stakes for California-breds at six furlongs on Sept. 2 or the $300,000 Del Mar Futurity, a Grade 1 at seven furlongs on Sept. 5.
DEL MAR, Calif. – A downhill turf sprint at Santa Anita is the next start for Breeders’ Cup Turf Sprint candidate Alsvid, third behind Lord Nelson in the Grade 1 Bing Crosby on July 31 at Del Mar.
Trainer Chris Hartman said Thursday that Alsvid will start in the Grade 3 Eddie D. Stakes on Sept. 30, opening day of the Santa Anita fall meet. “That’s the plan,” Hartman said. “The only races he’s run on turf were five furlongs; he needs a little more distance.”
The Eddie D. is 6 1/2 furlongs, a distance Hartman believes “should hit him right in the grill.”
Dazzling Falls, the 24-year-old Nebraska-bred who ran in the 1995 Kentucky Derby after winning the Arkansas Derby, made a special appearance last Saturday at the Horsemen’s Park meet in Omaha, Neb. A race was named in his honor, and while he was on the grounds, he was stabled with his old trainer, Chuck Turco.
“He had a blast,” Turco said. “I think he thought he was going to run. He was excited. He wasn’t nervous. He was a gentleman. It was really neat. The people that were there really enjoyed it. It was nice to bring him out and show him to the people.”
Departing is entered in the seventh race Saturday at Mountaineer, the $200,000 West Virginia Governor’s Cup. Departing has been to Mountaineer before, in 2013, when he won the West Virginia Derby.
Tom Drury trains Departing now, but Al Stall trained him then, and one race after Departing starts on Saturday, Stall will try to win the Grade 2, $750,000 West Virginia Derby for the second time. On Friday at Saratoga, Stall will put Forevamo on a van bound for Chester, W.Va., with hopes that the colt can duplicate Departing’s success.
Jackson’s G G gave Dennis Milligan, who is her breeder, owner, and the Arkansas treasurer of state, a memorable day at the races on July 20. She was the first of his two homebred winners on the card at Louisiana Downs, and her win in the featured allowance put her in the field for the track’s $50,000 Louisiana Cup Filly and Mare Sprint on Saturday.
“In my nearly 30 years in racing, I don’t think I’ve ever won two races in a day,” said Milligan, 58.
Sebastian Saez, 17, just lost his bug and began riding at Arlington for the first time about two weeks ago, but he was immediately well mounted and has gotten off to a good start here, winning with five of his first 17 mounts.
Saez is the younger brother of New York-based jockey Luis Saez and the late Juan Saez, who was killed in a fall at Indiana Grand in 2014.
ARLINGTON HEIGHTS, Ill. – Trainer Aidan O’Brien has won the Grade 1 Secretariat Stakes for 3-year-olds the last two years and in three of the last five seasons, and while he might win it again this year, it won’t be with Deauville. That’s because the 3-year-old Deauville, who won the Grade 1 Belmont Derby in his last start, will try to beat older horses in the Arlington Million on Aug. 13.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Exaggerator, the winner of the Grade 1 Haskell Invitational and the leader of the 3-year-old male division, returned to the track Wednesday, galloping 1 1/2 miles over Saratoga’s main track.
Exaggerator got a little distracted coming through the stretch the first time as he veered in several paths under exercise rider Peedy Landry, who was basically letting the horse do as he pleased.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Gettysburg, who was used as a pacesetter for stablemate Creator when that horse won the Belmont Stakes, worked five furlongs in 1:01.26 over the Oklahoma training track Wednesday.
Equipped with blinkers, equipment he has not worn in any race, Gettysburg went his first quarter in 25.25 seconds and his last quarter in 23.61. He galloped out six furlongs in 1:15.62.
