A one-mile optional-claiming race for fillies and mares is the main even when racing resumes at Gulfstream Park on Thursday.
A field of eight will contest the headliner, led by Double Entendre. She returns to more suitable company after being overmatched in three consecutive stakes races, two of them graded, since winning her debut and being purchased privately during the winter.
While the home team came up empty in the three main events on Saturday’s Summit of Speed program, several locally based horses turned in notable performances during the afternoon, including the once-beaten 3-year-old filly Dearest and the undefeated 2-year-old Three Rules.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Sir Dudley Digges caught Amis Gizmo in the final strides to win the 157th running of the $1 million Queen’s Plate at Woodbine on Sunday and now looks set for a run at the Canadian Triple Crown.
Owner Ken Ramsey said after the race that Sir Dudley Digges would be pointed toward the $500,000 Prince of Wales Stakes at Fort Erie on July 26, the second jewel of the Canadian Triple Crown. The Prince of Wales will be run over 1 3/16 miles on dirt.
ARCADIA, Calif.- The champions Beholder and Stellar Wind had five-furlong workouts at Santa Anita on Sunday in advance of a potential second meeting of the year in the $300,000 Clement Hirsch Stakes at Del Mar on July 30.
Beholder and Stellar Wind were first and second in the Grade 1 Vanity Mile at Santa Anita on June 4.
Sunday, Beholder, a three-time champion who was honored as the 2015 champion older mare, was timed in 1:00.80. Stellar Wind, the champion 3-year-old filly of 2015, was timed in 1:01.40.
ARCADIA, Calif.- Trainer Keith Desormeaux had a quick summary of his 2016 season after he left the winner’s circle following Dalmore’s win in the $100,000 Affirmed Stakes at Santa Anita on Saturday.
“It’s been an amazing year,” Desormeaux said.
This year, Desormeaux has won two seven-figure races, and his first classic, with Exaggerator, who won the $1,000,690 Santa Anita Derby in April and the $1.5 million Preakness Stakes on May 21.
ARCADIA, Calif.- Illuminant, the winner of the Grade 1 Gamely Stakes at Santa Anita on May 30, is likely to make her next start in the $700,000 Beverly D. Stakes at Arlington Park on Aug. 13.
Aron Wellman, the president of the Eclipse Thoroughbred partnership that owns Illuminant, said on Sunday that the Grade 1 Beverly D. is preferred over the $200,000 Yellow Ribbon Stakes at Del Mar on July 16.
“That’s the direction we’re pointing to,” he said. “We’ve ruled out the Yellow Ribbon at this point. The Beverly D. seems like the right thing.”
ELMONT, N.Y. - Nearly a year to the day she last stepped on the inner turf course at Belmont Park, Lady Eli was back on that surface again Sunday morning for a half-mile workout she completed in 52.20 seconds.
Working by herself under exercise rider Walter Melasquez, Lady Eli went her first quarter-mile in 26.62 seconds and her second quarter in 25.58 in what basically amounted to a leg-stretching exercise. The work was done around a triple set of orange cones that kept all workers off the part of the course utilized for racing.
CYPRESS, Calif. – California Chrome, preparing for his first start since winning the Dubai World Cup three months ago, worked seven furlongs on Saturday at Los Alamitos in 1:26.40, after which trainer Art Sherman said he “wanted a little stronger work.”
Sherman said the track was a little slower than it had been in recent days, and head clocker Russ Hudak confirmed that, but Sherman still seemed as though he expected more from California Chrome, who, per usual, worked at 5:30 a.m. with exercise rider Dihigi Gladney aboard.
This article was updated at 9:30 a.m. on Saturday, July 2, 2016
The New York Racing Association placing judges posted an incorrect fourth-place finisher in the eighth race at Belmont Park on Friday.
Akatea (No. 1, $3.40) won race 8. There was a dead heat for second between Now Power (4) and Jc's Shooting Star (5). The correct fourth-place finisher, according to Martin Panza, senior vice president of racing operations at NYRA, was Coming Attraction (2), but the race was made official with Paige (3) incorrectly posted in his place.
