Sunny Ridge, the winner of the Grade 3 Withers at Aqueduct in January, is back in training, according to his owner and breeder, Dennis Drazin, and will be pointed to the Grade 1 Haskell Invitational at Monmouth Park on July 31.
Sunny Ridge, a gelded New Jersey-bred by Holy Bull, won the Sapling Stakes at Monmouth last summer and was second in the Grade 1 Champagne and Grade 3 Delta Jackpot prior to the Withers.
Although all of the stalls at Monmouth Park have been allocated for its summer meet, which begins Saturday, there were only about 800 horses on the grounds as of Monday, according to Bob Kulina, the president of Darby Development, the operator of the Oceanport, N.J., track.
Some horses have not yet arrived from their winter stables, according to Kulina, and 100 to 150 horses who eventually will be at Monmouth are at Parx Racing, which has been under an equine herpes quarantine since April 1.
“The herpes situation at Parx is hurting us right now,” Kulina said.
The first post-Kentucky Derby graded stakes at Churchill Downs is the Grade 3 Louisville Handicap on May 21, but that doesn’t mean a graded-stakes horse won’t make an appearance here in the meantime.
Acapulco, the winner of the Group 2 Queen Mary Stakes last summer, will tune up for a return overseas by running here this Saturday in the featured Unbridled Sydney, a $65,000 overnight stakes for filly-and-mare turf sprinters. Acapulco is pointing to the Group 1 Commonwealth Cup next month at Royal Ascot.
Whitmore, a disappointing 19th in the Kentucky Derby, is being considered for a turnback in distance by going next in the seven-furlong Woody Stephens on the June 11 Belmont Stakes undercard, said trainer Ron Moquett.
Whitmore was a respectable third in the Arkansas Derby before running poorly at Churchill, but Moquett said nothing is physically wrong with the horse.
“He’s happy, and we’re happy,” he said. “We’ll talk about it and see if the Belmont race is where we want to head.”
Trainer Rusty Arnold intends to target the Grade 1 Alabama at Saratoga this summer with Weep No More, who finished seventh at 6-1 in the Kentucky Oaks, according to assistant Jack Bohannan.
“She’s being sent to Keeneland and might get a couple weeks off at the farm,” said Bohannan. “The Alabama, with maybe a race before, is the tentative plan, as I understand it.”
The winner of the Grade 1 Ashland in her prior start, Weep No More incurred a spot of trouble along the rail near the five-furlong pole in the Oaks before failing to make a serious bid.
Plans for Kobe’s Back
ARCADIA, Calif. - Kobe’s Back, the leading sprinter in California this year, was third in the $500,000 Churchill Downs Stakes last Saturday and probably will have two more starts in advance of the Breeders’ Cup Sprint at Santa Anita in November.
ARCADIA, Calif. - Doug O’Neill, who won his second Kentucky Derby last Saturday with juvenile champion Nyquist, will start his first 2-year-old colt of the year Friday, when Bourque runs in a maiden special weight race at 4 1/2 furlongs at Santa Anita.
O’Neill has a solid record with first-time starters and expects Bourque to be prominent in the sprint.
“He’s got fairly good speed,” O’Neill said. “He’s not a rocket.
“He’s doing everything right. We haven’t asked him for a ton in the morning.”
ARCADIA, Calif. – The Santa Anita Derby on April 9 ended for Iron Rob before it truly began. A longshot, Iron Rob struggled with the footing on a sealed and sloppy track and finished last of eight.
“He slipped coming out of the gate,” trainer George Papaprodromou said. “He didn’t get a hold of the track.”
Charles Town has canceled its Wednesday and Thursday cards because the resurfacing of its racing surface has not been completed due to wet weather.
Charles Town last raced April 23. It had planned to do a semi-annual resurfacing of its track and reopen Friday, May 6, but rocks were found in material being added to the racing surface, which required the material to be sifted. Recent rains have delayed completion of the project, and last week’s Friday and Saturday cards were canceled.
