SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Uncle Sigh, unraced since finishing 14th in the 2014 Kentucky Derby, returns to the races Sunday in a seven-furlong race restricted to New York-breds.
It will be Uncle Sigh’s first race against statebred company since he won a maiden race at Aqueduct by 14 1/2 lengths on Dec. 27, 2013. He then finished second in the Withers and Gotham – both Grade 3 events over Aqueduct’s inner track – and fifth in the Wood Memorial before his Kentucky Derby run.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Frosted, the Grade 1 Wood Memorial winner and runner-up in the Belmont Stakes and Jim Dandy, worked a slow half-mile in 51.45 seconds Friday over Saratoga’s main track in preparation for the Grade 1 Travers Stakes on Aug. 29.
Working just after the track opened at 5:30 a.m., Frosted went an opening quarter in 25.84 seconds under exercise rider Rob Massey and a second quarter in 25.51. He galloped out five furlongs in 1:05.34.
DEL MAR, Calif. – Apprentice jockey Cassidy Clerisse won her first Thoroughbred race with her first mount at Del Mar on I Buy Gold in Thursday’s fourth race.
Clerisse, 20, guided I Buy Gold ($63) on the inside in the stretch to score an upset win in a $14,000-$16,000 claimer for non-winners of three at six furlongs. I Buy Gold is trained by Antonio Soto, who said Clerisse has exercised horses at his ranch in Riverside, Calif., in recent months.
DEL MAR, Calif. – The recent 2-year-old turf maiden winners Arcature, Hollywood Don, and Imflatoutsweet are likely to resurface in $100,000 stakes on Labor Day weekend.
Imflatoutsweet won a one-mile race for fillies Thursday in her first start on turf. She is a candidate for the Del Mar Juvenile Fillies Turf at a mile Sept. 7. Trainer Jerry Hollendorfer said he hopes the race will lead to the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf at Keeneland on Oct. 30.
DEL MAR, Calif. – Triple Crown winner American Pharoah galloped 1 1/2 miles Friday at Del Mar, two days before a scheduled workout Sunday.
The winner of the Haskell Invitational at Monmouth Park on Aug. 2, American Pharoah was ridden Friday by exercise rider Manny Avila, who was substituting for regular exercise rider Jorge Alvarez. Trainer Bob Baffert said Alvarez was away because of a death in the family.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Valid looked good blowing out three furlongs from the quarter pole in 35.60 seconds here Friday. The question is: What does trainer Marcus Vitale do with him next?
Valid finished second behind his nemesis, Bradester, in the Grade 2 Monmouth Cup on Aug. 2. He also was third behind that rival in the Grade 3 Salvator Mile four weeks earlier at Monmouth Park.
Vitale said he could run Valid at Monmouth Park in the Cliff Hanger or Iselin, but he’d rather run him at Saratoga.
Fair Grounds will jump right into its Quarter Horse meet on Saturday with 10 trials for its richest race of the season, the Louisiana Quarter Horse Breeders Association Sale Futurity. The finale, which last year was worth $286,560, will close out the meet Sept. 5.
Fair Grounds has packed much into its 10-date meet. The trials have drawn 93 horses on a card that begins at 4 p.m. Central. Trainer Kenneth Roberts will have horses in eight of the 10 trials, while trainer Michael Taylor will be represented in seven of the trials.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Hammers Vision, a debut winner on turf on closing day of the Belmont Park spring-summer meet, will try dirt for the first time in the Grade 2, $200,000 Saratoga Special at 6 1/2 furlongs. Hammers Vision, a son of Court Vision, was one of six 2-year-olds entered Friday for Sunday’s Saratoga feature.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – He didn’t make it to the races until almost midway through his 4-year-old season, but Boot Scootn Daddy has been worth the wait.
A 4-year-old gelding by Scat Daddy, Boot Scootn Daddy has won both of his starts, both this year at Monmouth Park, and now he tries Saratoga in a $90,000, second-level allowance race at a mile that goes as Saturday’s eighth race.
Hardly a well-kept secret, Boot Scootn Daddy won his debut May 17 in a nine-horse field as the even-money favorite.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Wedding Toast, the five-length winner of the Grade 1 Ogden Phipps in her last start, will not make the Grade 1 Personal Ensign on Aug. 29 and instead will point to the Grade 1 Beldame at Belmont Park on Sept. 26, trainer Kiaran McLaughlin said Thursday.
McLaughlin said Wedding Toast has had some little issues – “mainly a foot” – and although she’s been in training, she hasn’t had a timed workout since July 17.
