SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Corey Lanerie, who won his eighth Churchill Downs riding title during the spring-summer meet, will be a regular here for the second summer in a row. Lanerie is looking to get off to a fast start with five mounts on opening day, including One Minute for trainer Steve Asmussen in the Grade 3 Schuylerville and Lady Zuzu for D. Wayne Lukas in the Grade 2 Lake George.
Lanerie will be represented for the first time this summer by jockey agent Matt Muzikar.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – In a perfect world, trainer Leah Gyarmati would give Wonder Gal a little confidence booster against allowance company before the prestigious Alabama Stakes here Aug. 22. But with the timing for that “not quite right,” Gyarmati instead will try to get Wonder Gal that elusive first Grade 1 win in Sunday’s Coaching Club American Oaks.
Wonder Gal is Grade 1-placed four times but winless in six starts since capturing her career debut last summer at Belmont Park. She tuned up for the Oaks by breezing an easy half-mile in 50.51 seconds here Wednesday.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Todd Pletcher has been the dominant trainer at Saratoga over the last five summers based primarily on the success of his 2-year-olds, with 83 of his 174 wins (47.7 percent) coming from his juveniles.
Typically, it’s the colts who lead the charge. This year, however, it appears that if Pletcher is to enjoy success again, it will be ladies first.
“For whatever reason, we have more fillies than colts this year, and it seems like our fillies are a little stronger than our colts,” Pletcher said Tuesday at Saratoga.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – There are some new kids in town this summer at Saratoga, and it won’t take long to find out if everybody will be talking about them.
Trainers Mark Casse, Brian Lynch, Eddie Plesa, Joe Sharp, and Keith Desormeaux will be based at Saratoga this summer. Casse and Plesa are not necessarily new to the Spa, having had strings here before. But Casse has not had horses at Saratoga since 2012, and Plesa hasn’t been based here since 2005.
ELMONT, N.Y. – Celestine will bring a four-race winning streak into Friday’s Grade 2, $200,000 Lake George Stakes, but there’s a good chance she won’t even be favored in the 1 1/16-mile turf race for 3-year-old fillies.
Welcome to Saratoga.
The Lake George, which drew a field of 12, and the Grade 3, $150,000 Schuylerville, which drew eight 2-year-old fillies, are the co-features on the 10-race opening-day card. Entries were drawn Tuesday. Full fields abound, with six of the 10 races having oversubscribed. A total of 123 horses were carded for the opening-day program.
Wildcat Red, who finished third to Bayern and Albano in last year’s Haskell, is on the grounds at Monmouth Park and pointing to the $100,000 Teddy Drone on the Haskell undercard Aug. 2.
Wildcat Red won 3 of 10 starts last year and earned $848,600. He was given time off after injuring his right hind leg in the Sunshine Millions Classic at Gulfstream Park in January. He returned to the races in the Grade 2 Smile Sprint on July 5, finishing third behind Favorite Tale and Work All Week.
How does a lifelong racetracker measure time? Well, McLean Robertson, the leading trainer at Delaware Park, describes his life this way:
◗ “Ten years at Penn National.”
◗ “Ten years in Nebraska.”
◗ “Ten years in Chicago working for my dad.”
◗ “And, 10 years training on my own.”
Robertson, 41, is the son of trainer Hugh Robertson, not a household name, but a highly respected Midwest horsemen, who may be best known for running $1.5 million out of the Illinois-bred Polar Expedition between 1993 and 2000.
DEL MAR, Calif. – Catch a Flight is shortening up. Bayern and Sahara Sky are stretching out. Those three, plus the likes of Hoppertunity, make the Grade 2, $200,000 San Diego Handicap on Saturday a compelling race, even more so considering it is the local prep for the biggest race of the meet, the Grade 1, $1 million Pacific Classic on Aug. 22.
The San Diego, at 1 1/16 miles, sees Bayern, the Breeders’ Cup Classic winner, try to reverse his poor form in two prior starts this year, both around one turn.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Tencendur, runner-up to Mr. Z in the Ohio Derby and to Frosted in the Grade 1 Wood Memorial, is out for the year after suffering a fractured sesamoid in his left foreleg, his owner, Phil Birsh, said Tuesday afternoon.
Tencendur, a New York-bred son of Warrior’s Reward trained by George Weaver, was pointing to the Grade 2 Jim Dandy here on Aug. 1.
Birsh said it took three X-rays to find the injury, so he thinks it is minor enough that Tencendur could come back and race again next year.
DEL MAR, Calif. – The fastest guns in the West are set for a shootout Sunday at Del Mar, where Masochistic, Distinctiv Passion, and Kobe’s Back are scheduled to compete in the Grade 1, $300,000 Bing Crosby Stakes.
The six-furlong Crosby, named for Del Mar’s co-founder, offers a fees-paid berth to the Breeders’ Cup Sprint through the Win and You’re In program.
