SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – It certainly won’t be easy for trainer Graham Motion to find a replacement for the recently retired turf champion Main Sequence.
Motion will not throw that burden upon Messi, despite two eye-catching allowance victories in as many starts, but if Motion is to score a repeat in the Grade 1 Sword Dancer – upgraded to $1 million and moved to the undercard of the Travers this year – Messi is the one who could provide it.
DEL MAR, Calif. – American Pharoah was eager for activity during a one-mile jog at Del Mar on Friday, the first exercise for the Triple Crown winner since a victory in the Haskell Invitational at Monmouth Park on Aug. 2.
Shortly after 8 a.m., American Pharoah jogged a slow mile in a clockwise direction under exercise rider Jorge Alvarez. Staying close to the outside rail, American Pharoah went around the track at a leisurely pace and wanted to do more, Alvarez said later.
DEL MAR, Calif. – She’s Not Here will start in the richest race of her career in the $200,000 Yellow Ribbon Stakes at Del Mar on Sept. 6 following a win in an optional claimer at a mile on turf Thursday.
Ridden by Mike Smith, She’s Not Here ($25.60) closed from last in a field of six to win by 1 3/4 lengths over 25-1 Beat of The Drum.
“I didn’t expect her to run as big,” trainer Vicki Oliver said.
Oliver said the result justifies a start in the Grade 2 Yellow Ribbon Stakes, which is run at 1 1/16 miles on turf for fillies and mares.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Materiality, the Grade 1 Florida Derby winner, has been retired after being diagnosed with a soft-tissue injury, his connections announced Friday.
Materiality, a son of Afleet Alex trained by Todd Pletcher, won 3 of 5 starts and earned $686,028. He had been pointing to the Jim Dandy Stakes on Aug. 1, but his connections were not happy with the way he trained. Subsequent evaluation revealed the injury.
VANCOUVER, British Columbia – Trainer Steve Henson said Square Dancer came out of his dramatic win in the $100,000 Redekop Classic last Monday in excellent shape, but he wasn’t sure where the horse would make his next start. With Scott Williams aboard, Square Dancer rallied from well back to nip Modern by a nose in the 1 1/8-mile race for 3-year-olds and up.
“He’s a very sound horse and is doing great,” said Henson. “I am just taking it one day at a time for now, though.”
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – All-sources handle at Gulfstream Park continues to show steady gains as the evolution of the south Florida racing circuit shifts into greater permanence.
Daily handle for July at Gulfstream averaged more than $5.7 million, an increase of 10 percent from the comparable period in 2014. That’s the third-highest handle figure in North American racing for this time of year, behind only Saratoga and Del Mar.
DEL MAR, Calif. – Veteran jockey Patrick Valenzuela, who has not ridden in any capacity since January 2014, can return to the saddle soon.
On Thursday, the California Horse Racing Board announced that the 52-year-old Valenzuela has been granted an exercise rider’s license in a stipulated agreement between the two parties. He will not be eligible to ride races through the term of his current license, through Oct. 31, the racing board said.
AUBURN, Wash. – Before he became a sensation as the nation’s leading apprentice, and long before he became a trainer with the audacity to beat the Europeans on their own turf, Wesley Ward was a scrappy kid in small-town Washington with outsized dreams and a smile that could light up a room. On Saturday night at Emerald Downs, Northwestern horsemen will salute a native son when Ward is inducted into the Washington Racing Hall of Fame.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Ocean Knight, sidelined since a seventh-place finish March 7 in the Tampa Bay Derby, returns to the races Saturday in a second-level allowance race at seven furlongs at Saratoga.
Among those he will face is Havana, the winner of the Grade 1 Champagne in 2013.
Ocean Knight won the first two starts of his career, including the Grade 3 Sam F. Davis, before running an inexplicably poor race in Tampa. He was kept in training and had been under consideration for the Wood Memorial before being sent to the farm for a break.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – For the second time this year, Palace Malice is on the comeback trail.
Palace Malice, the 2013 Belmont Stakes and 2014 Metropolitan Handicap winner, makes his second start of the year Sunday in the $100,000 Alydar Stakes, and if his connections thought they were landing in a soft spot, they were mistaken.
Palace Malice meets 11 rivals in the Alydar, including stablemate Mylute; Golden Ticket, the dead-heat co-winner of the 2013 Travers; and the in-form Matrooh in the 1 1/8-mile race.
