Michael Ritvo recently became a journeyman rider and won his first race without an apprentice weight allowance June 29 at Parx Racing.
Ritvo, 21, made good use of his apprenticeship, winning 194 races from 1,168 mounts with purse earnings of more than $4.4 million.
Ritvo began riding at Gulfstream Park in March 2014. He won 29 races there before moving north to ride at Delaware Park in September, where he quickly won 31 races before the meet ended.
Normandy Invasion came out of his comeback race in good shape, according to trainer Larry Jones.
Normandy Invasion finished second in a Delaware Park allowance on July 1. He was herded wide into the first turn of the 1 1/16-mile race by eventual winner Our Caravan and jockey Alex Cintron, took the lead easily nearing the stretch, but was beaten three-quarters of a length when Our Caravan came on again.
Normandy Invasion was making his first start since the 2014 Met Mile. He fractured sesamoids and had surgery following a training accident last September.
Larry Jones is ready to start the second half of his season Saturday when he runs Kentucky Oaks winner Lovely Maria in the Grade 3 Delaware Oaks. He is pointing his other star filly I’m a Chatterbox to the Grade 1 Coaching Club American Oaks on July 26 at Saratoga.
Jones swept the winter/spring stakes for 3-year-old fillies in Louisiana and Kentucky with Lovely Maria and I’m a Chatterbox.
ELMONT, N.Y. – Overshadowed by the stakes action Saturday at Belmont was the terrific performance by Matrooh in a third-level allowance race featuring the return of the multiple stakes winner Samraat. Matrooh, trained by Chad Brown, dueled with Samraat through a half-mile in 46.12 seconds and three-quarters in 1:10.46 before putting him away and holding at bay Catholic Cowboy.
ELMONT, N.Y. – It’s Take 2 for Cozmic One.
The first foal out of the wildly popular Horse of the Year Zenyatta, Cozmic One will make his second career start Wednesday at Belmont Park in a $75,000 maiden race. The 1 1/16-mile race goes as the seventh (4:26 p.m. Eastern) on the nine-race program.
Cozmic One finished last in his debut at Santa Anita, a two-turn, one-mile race April 17.
The New York Racing Association will split the Grade 1 stakes traditionally run on the same day at its Belmont Park fall meet and conduct them over two Saturdays, according to a schedule released Monday by the organization.
Two Grade 1 races – the Jockey Club Gold Cup and Flower Bowl – as well as the Grade 2 Kelso will be run Oct. 3. One week earlier on Sept. 26, the Joe Hirsch Turf Classic, Vosburgh, and Beldame – all Grade 1 races – will be run along with the Grade 2 Gallant Bloom and Grade 3 Pilgrim.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Singwiththebirds, a 3-year-old half-sister to 2013 Canadian Horse of the Year Up With the Birds, debuted in style on the Woodbine turf course June 26, and trainer Malcolm Pierce thinks he has a quality filly on his hands.
“She’s a pretty special filly, I think,” he said. “She had trained very well, and unfortunately, she was scratched at the gate the first time she was supposed to run. There was another horse scratched beside her this time. We got the job done, and she’s quite a nice little filly that we’re hoping is stakes-caliber.”
ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Deceptive Vision was on track to start in last Sunday’s Grade 2 Dance Smartly Stakes but was not entered due to ankle swelling, trainer Malcolm Pierce said. Deceptive Vision had been training up to the Dance Smartly off a runner-up effort to Sky Treasure in the Grade 2 Nassau Stakes here May 23 after winning the Grade 3 Doubledogdare Stakes on dirt at Keeneland in April.
Pierce wasn’t sure how the injury came about but took a cautious approach with the multiple graded stakes winner.
ELMONT, N.Y. - Lady Eli’s dominant victory in Saturday’s Grade 1, $1 million Belmont Oaks Invitational not only kept her unbeaten but continued to validate the belief of her trainer, Chad Brown, that she is the “best filly of her age group” regardless of surface.
