ELMONT, N.Y. – Javier Castellano didn’t have to share top riding honors this summer at Belmont Park.
Castellano won two races on Sunday’s closing-day program and finished the meet with 56 victories, two more than Irad Ortiz Jr., for his third straight Belmont spring-summer crown. Last year, Ortiz won the final race of the meet, which enabled him to tie Castellano for leading rider honors.
DEL MAR, Calif. – The past few months have been difficult ones for trainer Art Sherman as California Chrome was stabled eight time zones away, pointing for races Sherman thought inappropriate, but he got the call he hoped for over the weekend when Duncan Taylor of Taylor Made Farm in Kentucky informed Sherman that California Chrome would be sent back to Sherman with the intent of racing him next year at age 5.
“That picked my head up,” Sherman said Sunday.
With the Haskell Invitational two weeks away, Mike Dempsey, Monmouth Park’s director of racing, and stakes coordinator Dan Dufford are beating the bushes to round up rivals to take on Triple Crown winner American Pharoah.
It’s not an easy assignment.
Not only is American Pharoah the No. 1 ranked horse in the country, horsemen have other options that weekend besides the Grade 1, $1 million Haskell, which is a Win and You’re In for the Breeders’ Cup Classic.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Three potential starters for the Grade 2 Jim Dandy Stakes on Aug. 1 worked on Saturday, including reigning Breeders’ Cup Juvenile champion Texas Red, who was the last horse to breeze over a slower-than-usual main track at Saratoga.
With exercise rider Emilia Harris aboard, Texas Red came out after 9:30 a.m. to work over a chewed-up racetrack, barely getting out of an open gallop early before finishing with some interest down the stretch. He was officially credited with a half-mile in 51.40.
DEL MAR, Calif. – Xoxo, Baruta, and Zipessa are bound for stakes later this summer after impressive wins in optional-claiming and allowance races Friday at Del Mar.
Baruta won a six-furlong allowance race for fillies and mares by 3 3/4 lengths, closing from last of six under jockey Flavien Prat. She was timed in 1:09.61, winning on dirt for the first time since the 2012 season in Brazil at the start of her career.
“It was a race we wanted to try, and it worked,” trainer Richard Mandella said.
STANTON, Del. – Lovely Maria came out of her fifth-place finish in the Delaware Oaks last week in good shape and is pointing to the Grade 1 Alabama at Saratoga, according to trainer Larry Jones.
The Delaware Oaks was the first start for Lovely Maria since her victory in the Kentucky Oaks 10 weeks earlier. She tired in the stretch of the Delaware Oaks as the 3-10 favorite and was beaten 6 1/4 lengths.
GRAND PRAIRIE, Texas – The stakes-winning mare Final Trick has three foals racing on the Sunday program at Lone Star. All of the entrants are by the stallion My Golden Song, and all were bred in Texas. The card closes out the meet at Lone Star.
Final Trick’s first representative is Man of Stature, a 3-year-old who will vie for favoritism in the opener, a first-level allowance at a mile on turf. Cliff Berry has the mount for the partnership of Wayne Sanders and Larry Hirsh. Man of Stature is trained by Bret Calhoun.
GRAND PRAIRIE, Texas – As the Lone Star Park meet was coming to a close last year, there was a hopeful feeling that historical racing might be approved to help sagging purses in Texas. And by the fall, rules providing for the electronic pari-mutuel game were adopted by the Texas Racing Commission.
Frosted, the Wood Memorial winner and Belmont Stakes runner-up, worked five furlongs in 1:01.90 on Friday over Saratoga’s main track in preparation for the Grade 2, $600,000 Jim Dandy on Aug. 1.
Daily Racing Form’s Mike Welsch timed Frosted’s opening three furlongs in 36.03 seconds and his final quarter in 25.87. He galloped out six furlongs in 1:16.16.
Trainer Kiaran McLaughlin, who was at Belmont, said Frosted worked by himself after having a fast move in company last weekend.
ELMONT, N.Y. – Janet Reid, who has worked in the horse identification office for nearly 34 years, will be leaving the New York Racing Association when the Belmont meet ends Sunday.
Reid, 58, has been the chief horse identifier since January 2007. Carol Dolan will take over that role beginning with the Saratoga meet.
The house Reid shares with her husband, Pat, went up in flames in March, and they are in the process of having the home rebuilt.
“I felt it important that I stay to oversee the construction,” said Reid, who opted to retire now rather than go to Saratoga.
