Senor Buscador, winner of the $20 million Saudi Cup in February, will have a new rider when he starts for the first time since March in the Grade 2 Pat O’Brien Stakes at seven furlongs at Del Mar on Aug. 24.
Joe Talamo has been working Senor Buscador in recent months, and will replace Junior Alvarado. Trainer Todd Fincher said on Friday that Alvarado has obligations at Saratoga on Aug. 24, a day with five Grade 1 stakes at that track including the Travers Stakes for 3-year-olds.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – With nine winners from his first 22 starters here thus far this summer, trainer Saffie Joseph Jr. is having himself a whale of a Saratoga meet. But next Friday, his sights will be set on Charles Town, where he’ll send a handful of his troops to compete in stakes, including both defending champion Skippylongstocking and 2023 Wood Memorial winner Lord Miles in the $1 million Charles Town Classic.
The New York Racing Association will offer 50 stakes worth $10.35 million in purses at the 31-day Belmont at the Big A fall meet which runs Sept. 13 through Nov. 3.
With the ongoing construction at Belmont Park, this will be the third year that the Belmont Park fall meet is being conducted at Aqueduct.
Del Mar is altering first post times on Fridays beginning this weekend. Racing will begin at 3 p.m. Pacific instead of 4 p.m. through Sept. 6.
Later this month, the track is moving forward post times on other days. Beginning on Aug. 31, racing will start at 1:30 p.m. on Thursdays, Saturdays, and Sundays through the end of the season on Sept. 8.
Earlier post times will allow the track to run additional races before sunset.
Northern California jockey Irving Orozco faces months of recovery after sustaining broken ribs, a collapsed lung, and spinal fractures in a one-horse spill at the Sonoma county fair in Santa Rosa on Sunday.
Orozco was aboard Strength of Autism when the 3-year-old gelding fell in the stretch while racing in second. Strength of Autism was not racing near other runners when he fell.
“It happened so fast,” Orozco said. “It didn’t give me time to react. It was one of those things. Stuff like that rarely happens.
“I’m glad it wasn’t any worse.”
She has won her last three starts, became a stakes winner in her latest outing, and commands loads of respect in Saturday’s Grade 1 Del Mar Oaks on turf.
The description not only fits Iscreamuscream, who is expected to be favored in a projected field of eight, but also the Maryland shipper Whiskey Decision.
Harrah’s Columbus, the first new racetrack to be built in Nebraska in decades, is set to open its inaugural meet Friday with purses augmented by revenues from a casino attached to the track.
Five races are scheduled for the opening card, which attracted only 26 total starters. Two of the races drew fields of four, while the $15,000 Amadevil Stakes for Nebraska-breds attracted seven horses.
Win N Your In is one of the fastest 2-year-old fillies in the country based on Beyer Speed Figures and next month she’s headed for the first leg of the Florida Sire Stakes at Gulfstream Park.
Trainer Carlos David said Tuesday that Win N Your In is targeting the $100,000 Desert Vixen division. It will be run over six furlongs on Sept. 7.
Win N Your In won at the distance last Saturday at Gulfstream in the $95,000 Sharp Susan. It was her second straight victory following a maiden special weight over 5 1/2 furlongs on July 6.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Trainer Todd Pletcher has been on a good run with his 2-year-olds recently with Showcase winning the Grade 2 Saratoga Special and Tenacious Leader and Uncaged recording solid maiden wins.
While those horses may now be headed to stakes beyond this meet, Pletcher is hoping to get Mentee, his first 2-year-old winner of 2024, to the Grade 1 Hopeful on Sept. 2.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Locked, a Grade 1-winning 2-year-old of 2023 who went to the sidelines in late winter with a ligament injury, returned to the work tab Monday, breezing three furlongs in 38.45 seconds over Saratoga’s main track.
It was his first on-track work since February, though trainer Todd Pletcher said Locked had breezed a couple of times at Stonestreet Farm in Ocala, Fla., before being sent to him earlier this month.
