The first turf racing in nearly two months in Northern California may help the Sonoma county fair in Santa Rosa continue a modest trend of increased field sizes on the state’s fair circuit when the track’s three-week season begins on Friday.
Santa Rosa is the only track in Northern California with a turf course, following the permanent closure of Golden Gate Fields in Albany on June 9.
DEL MAR, Calif. – Straight No Chaser, winner of the Grade 3 Maryland Sprint Stakes in 2023, was withdrawn from Saturday’s Grade 1 Bing Crosby Stakes on race day at Del Mar after the 5-year-old horse developed “an issue,” trainer Dan Blacker said on Sunday.
Blacker said Straight No Chaser will undergo tests this week.
“It’s disappointing to see it at the 11th hour,” Black said of the scratch. “It’s disappointing for the team and the owners. We have to do what’s best for the horse.”
DEL MAR, Calif. – Fighting off challenges from two rivals through the final five furlongs, Parenting remained unbeaten after three starts with a neck win in a one-mile allowance race at Del Mar on Sunday.
The win was Parenting’s first start since an easy win by 7 1/2 lengths in the Affirmed Stakes for 3-year-olds at 1 1/16 miles at Santa Anita on June 9. Owned by Wathnan Racing, Parenting was considered for the Grade 1 Haskell Invitational at Monmouth Park on July 20, but was not shipped to the New Jersey track.
DEL MAR, Calif. – With two winning juveniles and a veteran 4-year-old in peak form, trainer Tim Yakteen had the best weekend of his 20-year career at Del Mar on Saturday and Sunday.
It all happened in the days before his 60th birthday on Monday.
Johannes, a 4-year-old colt, extended his 2024 winning streak to three graded stakes on turf with an attractive win against a strong field in Sunday’s Grade 2 Eddie Read Stakes at 1 1/8 miles on turf.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – War Like Goddess won the Grade 2 Glens Falls in 2021 and 2022 and was beaten a neck in the race last year.
Thursday, War Like Goddess will be in her stall in Bill Mott’s barn when the Glens Falls is run, the Hall of Fame trainer electing not to bring the 7-year-old mare back just three weeks after her victory in the Grade 3 Robert G. Dick Memorial at Delaware Park.
Instead, Mott will point War Like Goddess to the Grade 2, $500,000 Flower Bowl on Aug. 31.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Speak Easy, who came off a six-month layoff to win a first-level allowance race by 2 1/4 lengths here on Saturday, will be considered for the Grade 1 H. Allen Jerkens on Aug. 24, trainer Todd Pletcher said.
Speak Easy, a son of Constitution, won a seemingly loaded maiden race at Gulfstream Park on Jan. 27 and was entered in the Grade 2 Fountain of Youth on March 2 but was scratched when he ran off in the post parade, hit the inside rail, and suffered a few cuts. Speak Easy then had another minor setback when Pletcher was trying to continue his training.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – John Kimmel is one of just six people to have won a trainer’s title at Saratoga in the last 30 years. That was in 1997, when Kimmel won a race on the final day of the then 36-day meet to tie Bill Mott, who was winning or sharing the fifth of what would become nine titles.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Dr Ardito, the champion New York-bred older dirt male of 2023, has been retired from racing, co-owner Michael Dubb said Friday.
Dr Ardito came out of his fourth-place finish in the Commentator Stakes at Saratoga on June 9 with an issue that required time off. While Dr Ardito, a 6-year-old gelding by Liam’s Map, could have returned to racing, “we didn’t feel he’d return at the same level,” Dubb said.
Dubb, who owned Dr Ardito with Michael Caruso, named the horse for Dubb's close friend and physician, Dr. Anthony Ardito.
A clear win in Thursday’s Grade 3 Cougar II Stakes at 1 1/2 miles at Del Mar is likely to lead to the Grade 1 debut of Midnight Mammoth in the $1 million Pacific Classic at 1 1/4 miles on Aug. 31.
Midnight Mammoth started at an extended distance for the first time in the Cougar II and led throughout to win by 10 1/4 lengths in a 9-1 upset.
“I think the timing of the Pacific Classic is something to think about,” trainer Craig Dollase said on Friday. “He has an affinity for the track.”
Trainer Kristin Mulhall recently disbanded her California-based stable after a 22-year career to focus on development of a 67-acre horse property in Ohio.
In a conversation on Thursday, Mulhall did not entirely rule out returning to training at some point, perhaps in Kentucky, but said she will no longer be involved with racing on the West Coast. She said she recently sold her home near Santa Anita.
“No more California for me,” she said. “I shut down my barn at Santa Anita. I am going to be buying and selling riding horses, just traveling around and having a good time.”
