DEL MAR, Calif. – American Pharoah, the Triple Crown winner, galloped about 1 1/4 miles Wednesday at Del Mar, his second morning on the track after arriving in the wee hours Tuesday.
He jogged on Tuesday but on Wednesday was back to galloping, and he will continue to gallop until his next workout, which will be no later than Monday. He will have all his workouts at Del Mar in advance of his next scheduled start, the Haskell Invitational at Monmouth Park on Aug. 2.
DEL MAR, Calif. – Super Majesty, the unbeaten 3-year-old filly, and Kentuckian, who disappointed in his two-turn debut in the Los Alamitos Derby, both worked Wednesday at Del Mar for trainer Jerry Hollendorfer, who said he was considering sending both to Saratoga for, respectively, the Test and the King’s Bishop.
Super Majesty, with Alex Solis aboard, went a half-mile in 50 seconds. Kentuckian, with Mike Smith up, went a half-mile in 48 seconds. They worked alone, about an hour apart.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - Trainer Ian Wilkes says he thinks Viva Majorca can be a force in the sprint division during the second half of the season. He will get his first opportunity to find out if his theory is correct here at Saratoga on Aug. 1 when Viva Majorca tries Grade 1 sprint competition for the first time in the six-furlong Alfred G. Vanderbilt Stakes.
Good Lord will be trying for a rare achievement Saturday as one of seven older horses in the $50,000 Don Bernhardt at Ellis Park.
Trained by Forrest Kaelin, Good Lord has won the 6 1/2-furlong Bernhardt the last three years. He will break from post 4 when ridden by Miguel Mena.
Good Lord, an 8-year-old Florida-bred by Greatness, has 14 wins from 70 career starts. He was sixth in the 2011 Bernhardt before winning every year from 2012 to 2014.
Sebastian Saez has been held blameless for the disqualification of his mount, Snickerboxer, from first to third in the final race Saturday at Ellis Park, but the 16-year-old apprentice still has a three-day suspension hanging over him.
Saez was suspended for a July 5 incident in which Ready by You was disqualified from second to seventh. His agent, Julio Espinoza, said the penalty will be appealed.
Saez is the younger brother of Juan Saez, who easily led the Ellis standings last summer before being fatally injured in an October spill at Indiana Grand.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Fame in racing came easily to Joe Santos as a young boy, but now he’s working hard for a more lasting reward.
In the spring of 2003, Santos had his image splashed virtually everywhere as an 8-year-old when his father, Jose Santos, rode Funny Cide to win the Kentucky Derby and Preakness. Now just days from his 21st birthday, Joe Santos is working daily as the agent for jockeys Didiel Osorio and Jack Gilligan while three semesters away from earning a college degree.
Jockey Natasha Fritz will ride for the first time in 2015 on Friday at Hazel Park after breaking her tibia in a March training accident.
Fritz, 27, was Hazel Park’s third-leading Quarter Horse jockey by wins last year, and topped the Quarter Horse standings during the final Mount Pleasant Meadows meet in 2013. While primarily a Quarter Horse rider in Michigan and Indiana, Fritz has also taken occasional Thoroughbred mounts and has won stakes on Arabians.
The Grade 1, $750,000 Delaware Handicap drew a field of seven when entries were taken Tuesday.
The Saturday race is for fillies and mares and will be run at 1 1/4 miles. Favoritism will likely go to Sheer Drama, Frivolous, or Rosalind.
Delaware Park has also carded the Grade 3, $200,000 Kent Stakes, a 1 1/8-mile turf race for 3-year-olds, and two $50,000 stakes, the Hockessin and the Carl Hanford.
Lone Star Park has requested a 50-date Thoroughbred meet for 2016, according to an application made to the Texas Racing Commission. The track has asked to open on April 7 and run through July 17.
Lone Star again plans to race on a Friday through Sunday schedule most weeks, with three Thursdays and two holiday Mondays in the mix. The track is seeking a 26-date meet for Quarter Horses next year, from Sept. 16 through Nov. 12.
Dates are expected to be on the agenda during the August meeting of the Texas Racing Commission.
Jim Byers will call the races for the final week of the Lone Star meet, which runs from Thursday night through Sunday afternoon. John Lies, the regular announcer at Lone Star, has left for Del Mar to serve as simulcast host during the Southern California meet that starts Thursday.
“It’s going home,” said Lies, who was raised in the San Diego, Calif., area.
Lies, 38, has served as simulcast host for Del Mar since 2007. In addition to Lone Star, he is the track announcer for Kentucky Downs and Will Rogers Downs.
