SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – It was at Saratoga last summer that Top Decile began her career with a victory before going on to finish second in a pair of Grade 1 races, including the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies.
On Saturday, Top Decile returns to Saratoga to jump-start her 3-year-old season in a first-level allowance race for fillies and mares going seven furlongs on the dirt.
Top Decile hasn’t raced since finishing sixth in the Silverbulletday Stakes on Jan. 17 at Fair Grounds.
DEL MAR, Calif. – Trainer Mark Casse removed his small stable of approximately 12 runners from Del Mar on Wednesday and said Thursday he might not have runners in Southern California until next summer.
Casse had one win from six starters in the first half of the 40-day summer meeting at Del Mar. Last year, for the entire meeting, Casse had a larger stable that won five races from 34 runners. Casse had a regular presence at Del Mar in 2014 but left the stable’s day-to-day operations to an assistant this summer.
DEL MAR, Calif. – Spanish Queen, the winner of the Grade 1 American Oaks at Santa Anita in May and a notable absentee from Saturday’s $300,000 Del Mar Oaks, is out of training until 2016.
On Thursday, trainer Richard Baltas said a recent nuclear scan revealed an injury that will keep Spanish Queen out of training “for three to six months.” He declined to discuss the injury in detail.
“She’s got something going on,” he said. “She’ll be back. She will race again.”
DEL MAR, Calif. – Pretty N Cool began to impress trainer Bob Baffert in workouts before the stable left Santa Anita for Del Mar in mid-July. When the stable heads back to Santa Anita next month, Pretty N Cool might be an undefeated Grade 1 winner.
On Wednesday, Pretty N Cool won her stakes debut in the $200,000 Sorrento Stakes for 2-year-old fillies at 6 1/2 furlongs. She is likely to be favored Sept. 5 in the $300,000 Del Mar Debutante at seven furlongs, the top race of the summer meeting for juvenile fillies.
AUBURN, Wash. – After entries for the Grade 3, $200,000 Longacres Mile were drawn Thursday, Emerald Downs linemaker Rob Rao installed Stryker Phd the 9-5 morning-line favorite for Sunday’s main event. The late-running Stryker Phd has earned his lofty standing, and then some, winning six consecutive stakes races at Emerald Downs, including the 2014 Longacres Mile and, in his most recent start, the 1-1/16-mile Mt. Rainier Handicap in a six-length romp.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - Saturday has been designated as Allen Jerkens Day at Saratoga, to commemorate the life of the Hall of Fame trainer who died earlier this year in Florida.
A ceremony will be held with Jerkens family in the winner’s circle which will include replays of Jerkens’s greatest races and a video tribute from those who knew him well. There will also be a commemorative cover and a special section devoted to Jerkens in Saturday’s program.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Trainer Kiaran McLaughlin said Wednesday that the much-anticipated debut of Jess’s Dream, the 3-year-old son of Curlin and Rachel Alexandra, should not be too far off.
Jess’s Dream has had three works since shipping to Saratoga from Belmont earlier this summer, with the latest one going five furlongs in company with McLaughlin’s highly regarded 3-year-old maiden Markings in 1:00.14 last Thursday.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – King Kreesa did not receive the respect he obviously deserved in his last two starts, and he rewarded his backers with generous odds of 17-1 and 6-1 for his victories in the Grade 3 Poker and the Forbidden Apple stakes at Belmont Park.
On Saturday, King Kreesa figures to garner a lot more support despite moving up against even stiffer competition in the one-mile Fourstardave, which attracted a field of nine plus the main-track-only entrant Weekend Hideaway.
ARLINGTON HEIGHTS, Ill. – The Pizza Man is the lone cross-entry in the four International Festival of Racing events Saturday, but owner Richard Papiese told Arlington officials he is 99 percent sure he will opt for the Arlington Million over the American St. Leger.
ARLINGTON HEIGHTS, Ill. – Ron Paolucci has been known to make some unconventional decisions as a racehorse owner. Some of his moves with Ria Antonia and War Story raised eyebrows among the less adventurous, and now he’s sending a longshot to Chicago with hopes of upsetting the prestigious Beverly D. Stakes.
Paolucci instructed trainer Peter Walder to scratch Maid On a Mission last weekend from a $75,000 stakes at Gulfstream Park and run her instead in the Grade 1, $700,000 Beverly D. Stakes on Saturday at Arlington Park.
