SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Upstart came out of his fourth-place finish in the Grade 1 Travers Stakes well enough that trainer Rick Violette is planning to run him back in the $1 million Pennsylvania Derby at Parx on Sept. 19.
“I’m giving him every opportunity,” Violette said Friday at Saratoga. “He came out of the race pretty good. I’ll breeze him next weekend, and if we like what we see, we’ll go.”
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Jockey Mike Luzzi was arrested Thursday by Saratoga Springs police and faces two felony and two misdemeanor charges as the result of an altercation he had with his wife, Tania.
Luzzi, 45, was arrested at 12:33 a.m. Thursday and charged with criminal mischief in the third degree (felony), strangulation (felony), assault in the third degree/intent physical injury (misdemeanor), and endangering the welfare of a child (misdemeanor).
DEL MAR, Calif. – Shared Belief, the champion 2-year-old male of 2013, has started a light exercise program of walking at the Pegasus Training and Equine Rehabilitation Center in Redmond, Wash., the first stage in a planned comeback after injuring his hip in the Charles Town Classic in West Virginia in April.
Trainer Jerry Hollendorfer said Shared Belief is walking a couple of times a day and is being exercised on an AquaCiser, which allows him to walk underwater.
“He seems to be coming along well,” Hollendorfer said Thursday.
DEL MAR, Calif. – Triple Crown winner American Pharoah is scheduled to be paraded in the paddock and on the racetrack between races Sunday.
American Pharoah jogged on the main track Friday, his first exercise since a second-place finish to Keen Ice in the Travers Stakes at Saratoga on Aug. 29. American Pharoah is expected to make his next and final start Oct. 31 in the Breeders’ Cup Classic at Keeneland.
American Pharoah will be walked in the paddock and onto the racetrack midway through Sunday’s 10-race program, which begins at 2 p.m. Pacific.
DEL MAR, Calif. – Baruta has been a busy mare at Del Mar this summer, winning an allowance race in the first week of the meet in July and finishing second in the Grade 3 Rancho Bernardo Handicap on Aug. 16.
There is time for one more start and a potential first stakes win Sunday in the $80,000 CERF Stakes for fillies and mares at six furlongs.
“I hope I’m not running her in one race too many, but she seems like she’s good right now,” trainer Richard Mandella said.
DEL MAR, Calif. – Trainer Jeff Mullins had an ideal start to the Del Mar summer meeting, winning with four of his first seven starters July 16-18. Mullins could finish the meeting Monday with an equally strong flourish.
Rockin Bayou is the stable’s hope Monday in the $300,000 Del Mar Futurity, the top race of the summer meeting for 2-year-olds. American Pharoah won the 2014 Del Mar Futurity.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Tonalist, third in the Grade 1 Whitney last out, was briefly under consideration for Saturday’s Grade 1 Woodward Stakes, but ultimately his connections opted to stick to the plan and point him to the Grade 1 Jockey Club Gold Cup at Belmont Park on Oct. 3.
Tonalist, who won last year’s Gold Cup, worked five furlongs in 1:01.98 on Thursday over Saratoga’s Oklahoma training track.
Track clockers caught Tonalist in fractions of 12.80 seconds, 24.66, 49.03 and had him galloping out six furlongs in 1:15.45.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Though Bar of Gold won her first two starts sprinting, trainer John Kimmel always thought the New York-bred daughter of Medaglia d’Oro would ultimately be better going a route of ground. So far, that hasn’t been the case.
Coming off a very strong second-place finish in the Grade 1 Test going seven furlongs, Bar of Gold will shorten up to six furlongs for Sunday’s Grade 2, $300,000 Prioress Stakes.
Bar of Gold drew post 7 in an 11-horse field for the Prioress, which is topped by Test winner Cavorting, who drew post 10.
DEL MAR, Calif. – Wild in the Saddle, refreshed from an early-summer trip to the farm, won her second stakes of 2015 in the $108,330 Tranquility Lake Stakes for fillies and mares Wednesday at Del Mar.
Wild in the Saddle ($40.40) won the Tranquility Lake at 1 1/16 miles by three-quarters of a length over My Monet.
Wild in the Saddle was given a break at owner Nadine Anderson’s farm in Hemet, Calif., after a fourth-place finish behind division leader Beholder in the Grade 3 Adoration Stakes at Santa Anita on June 13.
Santa Anita will reopen for training Saturday in advance of the autumn meeting that begins Sept. 26.
In recent weeks, the barn area was closed, with stables relocating primarily to Del Mar, Los Alamitos, and the San Luis Rey Downs training center. The barn area was closed in mid-July, coinciding with the start of the Del Mar summer meeting and allowing track maintenance crews to paint, repair stalls, and improve drainage in a space that can house 2,000 horses.
The track’s stable area reopened Friday. Most Santa Anita-based stables will begin leaving Del Mar on Sunday.
