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.
DEL MAR, Calif. – Trainer Steve Miyadi has been fined $5,000 and suspended 30 days after Run for Retts tested positive for the prohibited substances methamphetamine and amphetamine following the $100,500 Soviet Problem Stakes at Los Alamitos last December.
DEL MAR, Calif. – Taris, the winner of the Grade 1 Humana Distaff for female sprinters at Churchill Downs in May, will not start this summer because of a minor injury.
“She’s got a little bone bruising,” trainer Simon Callaghan said. “It’s minor. We have to realign our sights.”
Callaghan said on Friday that he remains hopeful that Taris can start in the Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Sprint at Santa Anita on Nov. 5.
“She won’t run here, and she won’t run at Saratoga,” Callaghan said. “We’ll look to Santa Anita and maybe prep for the Breeders’ Cup.”
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Cathryn Sophia made her first local appearance Friday, breezing a half-mile over the Oklahoma training track with jockey Javier Castellano aboard. According to Daily Racing Form clocker Mike Vesce, Cathryn Sophia completed the distance in 50 seconds, going very easily before galloping out five-eighths in 1:03.60
“Javier was very happy with her,” said trainer John Servis, who was not on hand for the work. “I’m just using this work as a stepping-stone to start moving forward to see where we’re at with her.”
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Trainer Rick Violette said he doesn’t really like to work older horses from the gate. But he made an exception here Friday with the star of his stable, the multiple graded stakes winner Upstart, who sizzled four furlongs from the gate in 46.31 seconds with jockey Irad Ortiz Jr. aboard.
Upstart has shown a tendency to break tardily, and Violette was hoping Friday’s experience might help alleviate that problem prior to the Grade 1 Whitney here on Aug. 6.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – In her first workout since her triumphant trip to Royal Ascot, Tepin breezed a half-mile in 50.39 seconds Friday morning in preparation for a likely start in the Grade 1, $500,000 Fourstardave Handicap here on Aug. 13.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Stradivari, who ran in two of the three Triple Crown races, suffered a career-ending injury during a workout Friday morning at Saratoga.
According to trainer Todd Pletcher, Stradivari has a lateral condylar fracture and an axial fracture of a sesamoid in his right foreleg. As of Friday afternoon, he was resting comfortably in a stall at the Rood and Riddle Equine Hospital in Saratoga Springs. The hope is that he continues to do well over the weekend and can undergo surgery Monday.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – The dog days of summer might qualify as downtime for some folks on the Kentucky racing circuit, but not Buff Bradley.
Bradley was as busy as ever this week. After having to grin and bear the disqualification of Nawlins Kitty from first to eighth Wednesday in the $100,000 Ta Wee Stakes at Indiana Grand, Bradley was getting ready to board a New Jersey-bound plane the following morning to run Divine Warrior on Saturday in the Grade 3 Jersey Shore at Monmouth Park.
