Summer is showtime for precocious California 2-year-olds, and though a handful already won impressively at Santa Anita, Los Alamitos, and Churchill Downs, the elite typically emerge in summer at Del Mar.
In the 40-year history of the Breeders’ Cup, some 15 BC Juvenile winners and 12 BC Juvenile Fillies winners made summer starts at Del Mar. During the same period, eight colts who raced as 2-year-olds at Del Mar in summer won the Kentucky Derby the following spring.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – A powerful storm with heavy rain and strong winds blew through Saratoga on Tuesday night, knocking down large tree branches and even downing a power line on the backside. Fortunately, there were no injuries to horses or humans reported.
A downed power wire adjacent to Clare Court prompted the New York Racing Association to shut power off in that area. Power was restored Tuesday night, and the power infrastructure was fully repaired Wednesday.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – A Grade 1 win at 2 and a decent third in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies figured to have prepared Candied to be a major factor in the 3-year-old filly division this year.
It hasn’t quite worked out that way. Yet.
But there is the second half of the year to rectify that. Saturday, Candied will see where she stacks up against the division’s best when she faces multiple Grade 1 winner Thorpedo Anna in the Grade 1, $500,000 Coaching Club American Oaks at Saratoga.
Proven as a turf sprinter, the 3-year-old filly Invincible Molly will start at a mile on turf for the first time in Saturday’s Grade 2 San Clemente Handicap at Del Mar, part of the opening day of the famous track’s summer season.
The distance may suit Invincible Molly, trainer Jeff Mullins said on Wednesday.
“Everybody that has ridden her says she needs to go to two turns,” he said.
Invincible Molly has won three of her last five starts in England and California, all at six furlongs on turf, including an allowance race at Santa Anita on May 11.
OCEANPORT, N.J. – Jockey Irad Ortiz Jr. administered a left-handed pop of the riding crop to the 3-year-old colt Mindframe at about the eighth pole in a March 30 maiden sprint at Gulfstream Park. Not that Mindframe needed encouragement. Making his career debut, Mindframe looped rivals on the turn and already had put them all to bed when Ortiz, dishing out as many lessons as he could in the colt’s first start, gave his mount a taste of what a real race might feel like.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - Trainer D. Wayne Lukas brought Seize the Grey over to the main track to work six furlongs in 1:11.90 early Tuesday morning at Saratoga, after which he announced his intention to bypass Saturday’s $1 million Haskell at Monmouth Park to run the Preakness winner in the Grade 2 Jim Dandy here a week later.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Brightwork was among the juvenile stars of last summer at Saratoga, winning both the Grade 3 Adirondack and Grade 1 Spinaway Stakes.
Brightwork unsuccessfully tried two turns in the Alcibiades and Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies before going to the sidelines for the winter. During her time away, Brightwork had a minor chip removed from a knee. She is nearing a return to the races in the Grade 1 Test on Aug. 3, trainer John Ortiz said.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Thorpedo Anna, winner of the Kentucky Oaks and Acorn Stakes already this year, on Sunday drew post 3 in a field of five entered for Saturday’s Grade 1, $500,000 Coaching Club American Oaks at 1 1/8 miles.
Thorpedo Anna will take on the Todd Pletcher-trained pair of Candied, a Grade 1-winning filly at 2, and Leslie’s Rose, the Grade 1 Ashland winner who finished second to Thorpedo Anna in the Acorn. Intricate, the Grade 2 Golden Rod Stakes winner at 2 and runner-up in two of three stakes this year, and Barbratina complete the field.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – With his Triple Crown participant Resilience sidelined until at least the fall, trainer Bill Mott is turning to some other 3-year-olds in his barn he hopes can get him to the Travers Stakes next month.
Batten Down, winner of the Grade 2 Ohio Derby in June, is targeting the Grade 2, $500,000 Jim Dandy Stakes here on July 27.
Timeout, who got his maiden victory on June 15 at Aqueduct, was one of six 3-year-olds entered in Friday’s $135,000 Curlin Stakes, a listed stakes for 3-year-olds who have not won a graded stakes at a mile or over this year.
Apprentice jockey Erik Asmussen won the riding title at the Lone Star Park meet that closed on Sunday. He had a four-win day Saturday that included three stakes victories on the Stars of Texas Day program of five stakes races.
Asmussen won a total of 48 races to secure his first title over Harry Hernandez, who won 36 races.
