Perfect Step has had a flawless summer at Gulfstream Park. She’s won all three of her starts at the meet and will attempt to make it four in a row Friday in the $75,000 Hard Worker.
“I think she’ll run well,” said Peter Walder, who on behalf of Matthew Newman and Aventura Stable claimed Perfect Step two starts ago.
A scheduling quirk and a blast of hot weather will present challenges as the San Joaquin Fair in Stockton begins a six-day meeting on Friday.
The heat was only the latest impediment racing officials faced. Only 31 Thoroughbreds signed up for five races on Friday as temperatures were predicted to hit 107 degrees during the first two days of the fair.
ARCADIA, Calif. – Point Piper, the well-bred colt who sprang a $62 upset in the $86,000 Harry F. Brubaker at Del Mar on Aug. 28, will jump into a Grade 1 for his next start, trainer Jerry Hollendorfer said on Wednesday.
The $300,000 Awesome Again, one of five Grade 1’s at Santa Anita on opening day, Sept. 26, is the target for Point Piper.
“I think he deserves a chance,” Hollendorfer said.
In fact, Point Piper could be one of the favorites.
Point Piper earned a career-best 95 Beyer when he won the Harry F. Brubaker by a half-length.
Brad Cox could have the biggest day of his 10-year training career Saturday. Led by Allied Air Raid in the Grade 2, $400,000 Super Derby at Louisiana Downs, he will send out horses in seven stakes among three tracks. It will be Cox’s busiest afternoon since he began training in December 2004.
“To say the least,” said Cox, 35. “Hopefully, it will be a profitable day.”
DEL MAR, Calif. – American Pharoah, the Triple Crown winner, was scheduled to head to Santa Anita early Thursday morning along with the remainder of trainer Bob Baffert’s horses that are still stabled here.
Baffert said he wanted to wait as long as possible to ship American Pharoah, owing to the excessive heat forecast for the area near Santa Anita this week. Temperatures are expected to hover around 100 degrees there all week.
DEL MAR, Calif. – Om, winner of the Del Mar Derby on Sunday, will be pointed to the Grade 2, $200,000 Twilight Derby on Oct. 24 at Santa Anita, according to trainer Dan Hendricks.
The Twilight Derby, like the Del Mar Derby, is at 1 1/8 miles on turf. Hendricks said Om proved he could handle that distance Sunday, but with important races like the Kilroe Mile and Shoemaker Mile on this circuit, he thinks a mile is where Om will be spotted next year at 4.
DEL MAR, Calif. – Trainer Jerry Hollendorfer claimed his first outright title at Del Mar’s summer meeting with 22 wins, two more than Peter Miller, with whom Hollendorfer shared the summer title last year. The Del Mar meeting closed Monday.
“Your goal is to try and do better every meet, and sometimes that works out,” Hollendorfer said. “You can never count on winning the meet title. We worked hard, did a good job, and are lucky to have the horses we have.”
DEL MAR, Calif. – Doug O’Neill won more stakes than any trainer at the Del Mar meeting, and he finished the summer season Monday with a win in the Del Mar Futurity with Nyquist only hours after stablemate Ralis won the Hopeful at Saratoga.
“It doesn’t get much better than that,” O’Neill said Tuesday morning. “It was a tremendous meet. Del Mar’s so unique. The competition is so strong, and you’ve got horses shipping in for stakes. I’m proud of my whole team – the owners, the staff.”
Churchill Downs opens its 11-day September meet Friday with an afternoon card and the likelihood of entries being considerably lighter than at Kentucky Downs, where purses are far higher.
Last September, field size at Churchill averaged 7.7 horses per race (versus 10.1 for Kentucky Downs). Turf racing will be limited at Churchill in deference not only to horsemen’s preferences for Kentucky Downs but also to preserve the course for the fall meet.
FRANKLIN, Ky. – Jockey Florent Geroux was on his way to winning for the fifth time Saturday at Kentucky Downs when race-caller John Lies excitedly asked: “How do you say high five in French?”
The strict translation is haute cinq, but with yet another huge day in the books for Geroux, a 29-year-old native of France, the next question is: How do you say encore in French?
(Trick question: Encore is a French word.)
