DEL MAR, Calif. – Trainer Phil D’Amato is hoping a rider change will reverse the fortunes of Papacoolpapacool when the two-time stakes winner starts Sunday in the $250,000 Del Mar Derby.
D’Amato said Tiago Pereira will ride Papacoolpapacool in the Grade 2 Del Mar Derby, replacing Gary Stevens. Stevens is not sitting the race out. He is booked to ride Om, the runner-up in the Grade 2 La Jolla Handicap on Aug. 9.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – One horse conspicuous by her absence when entries were drawn for Saturday’s Grade 1 Spinaway was Off the Tracks, whose connections had been pointing her to the race since her 3 1/4-length victory in the Grade 3 Schuylerville on opening day.
Just across the Tennessee state line, the grass is indeed greener on the other side: Purses have reached nearly obscene heights at Kentucky Downs.
Fueled largely by what track officials euphemistically call “historical racing machines,” Kentucky Downs will offer per-day purses projected at more than $1 million at a meet that starts full blast Saturday. Fields will be maxed out and wagering will be spirited throughout the five-day meet, as evidenced by the 130 horses on the 10-race Saturday card.
Gulfstream Park will offer a stakes program worth a record $11.61 million in purses during the 2015-16 championship meet, which begins Dec. 5.
The $1 million Florida Derby will again highlight the schedule and is the marquee event on the April 2 card, which includes eight stakes with purses totaling $2.4 million.
DEL MAR, Calif. – With the belief that American Pharoah “deserves the chance to be in the sport’s premier year-end event,” his owner and breeder, Ahmed Zayat, confirmed Thursday that American Pharoah would remain in training and point to the Breeders’ Cup Classic, mirroring the comments trainer Bob Baffert made 48 hours earlier.
While Baffert came around sooner that Zayat, the final call was, ultimately, up to Zayat, who in the immediate aftermath of American Pharoah’s loss in the Travers Stakes last Saturday at Saratoga said he was leaning “60-40” toward retirement.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – After winning a Grade 3 and a Grade 2 stakes already this year, Effinex gets his first opportunity to win a Grade 1 when he runs in Saturday’s $600,000 Woodward Stakes at Saratoga.
Effinex, a New York-bred son of Mineshaft, was one of eight horses entered for the Woodward, which goes as race 10 on a 12-race card at the Spa. First post Saturday and for the entire Labor Day weekend is 12:30 p.m. Eastern.
Steven J. Pini, the longtime track superintendent at Suffolk Downs and the 2009 recipient of the Sam McCracken Memorial Award for lifetime contributions to New England racing, died Sept. 1 after suffering a sudden heart attack. He was 63.
Pini had been overseeing the main track and turf course preparations as the track readies to reopen for training on Friday and 13 live races on Saturday.
Sheer Drama is settled back in at her Gulfstream Park base after winning last weekend’s Personal Ensign Stakes at Saratoga, and the plan is for her to train locally up to the Breeders’ Cup Distaff, trainer David Fawkes said Wednesday.
Sheer Drama shipped home Sunday and was scheduled to return to the track Thursday. She now has paired up Grade 1 wins, the Personal Ensign score last Saturday coming as an encore to her Delaware Handicap win July 18. Fawkes said Sheer Drama’s schedule up to the Breeders’ Cup will be the same as it was for the Personal Ensign.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Ceisteach, the winner of the Grade 3 Robert G. Dick Memorial at Delaware in her last start, drew post 4 and heads a field of nine entered in Saturday’s Grade 3, $200,000 Glens Falls Stakes for fillies and mares at 1 3/8 miles.
Ceisteach, trained by Tom Proctor for Glen Hill Farm and Hill ‘n’ Dale Equine, also won the Keertana Stakes at this 1 3/8-mile distance at Churchill on May 16.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Trainer Chad Brown will send out the trio of Takeover Target, Money Multiplier, and Winter Springs in a field of eight entered for Saturday’s Grade 3, $300,000 Saranac Stakes for 3-year-olds going 1 1/8 miles on turf.
Takeover Target, who drew post 2, is coming off a win in the Grade 2 National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame Stakes on Aug. 7, his third win from five career starts. Winter Springs, in his U.S. debut, finished sixth, beaten 4 1/4 lengths, in the Hall of Fame.
