DEL MAR, Calif. – Blingismything was beaten 2 3/4 lengths in the Grade 2 Royal Heroine Stakes at Santa Anita on June 27, the victim of a tough journey on the final turn of the one-mile turf race. Jockey Tyler Baze was forced to wait at a pivotal point, and Blingismything finished sixth behind Fanticola.
Could she have won? It’s a tough question for trainer Eric Kruljac to answer.
“She would have been right there, within a half-length,” he said on Wednesday.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Some look at the field for Saturday’s Grade 1, $1.25 million Whitney Stakes and see seven Grade 1 stakes winners among its 10 entrants. Hall of Fame trainer Shug McGaughey looks at the field for the 88th Whitney Stakes and thinks, “There are some question marks.”
One of those questions surrounds his horse, Honor Code, who is coming off an electrifying performance in winning the Grade 1 Metropolitan Handicap, a one-turn, one-mile race two months ago at Belmont Park. Honor Code must answer the question if he can be equally as effective around two turns.
DEL MAR, Calif. – Trainer Dan Hendricks has a busy weekend ahead of him. He’ll be sending out Om in the Grade 3, $150,000 La Jolla Handicap on Sunday at Del Mar but will be jetting out to Colorado Springs, Colo., on Friday to see his father inducted into the Pro Rodeo Hall of Fame on Saturday.
“It works out so I can make it back for the race,” Hendricks said.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – The Saratoga summer of 2014 was, in his own words, “storybook” for trainer Jimmy Jerkens. Nine wins from 28 starters capped by a memorable one-two finish in the Travers Stakes with V. E. Day nosing out Wicked Strong.
Nearly a year later, it is just a memory.
The first condition book for the Fall Festival at Parx Racing is out, and the purses are staggering.
Purses at Parx will average $500,000 a day during the festival, which will run Aug. 29 through Oct. 20. Last Friday, Parx added five $150,000 stakes to its schedule for the festival.
Sheldon Russell won two races at Laurel Park last weekend while accepting his first mounts since being injured in a spill on the Pimlico turf course April 25.
Russell had three mounts Friday and won a turf maiden race in his final ride of the day. He won again Sunday and in all went 2 for 13 over the weekend. His winners were trained by Niall Saville and Wayne Potts. They paid $20 and $10.80.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Jockey Michael Straight, paralyzed in a riding accident at Arlington Park in 2009, is learning how to walk again with the help of ReWalk, a bionic walking-assistance system that uses leg attachments powered by a backpack battery.
Straight, a 29-year-old Saratoga native, has taken as many as 21 steps by himself at one time with the aid of this machine, which he first started learning how to use last summer.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Reload was running with King Kreesa from the top of the stretch to the eighth pole in last month’s Forbidden Apple Stakes when all of a sudden he couldn’t keep up.
“I thought he probably bled,” trainer Shug McGaughey said.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Trainer D. Wayne Lukas said that Mr. Z, the winner of the Ohio Derby in June, remains on schedule for the Grade 1 King’s Bishop at Saratoga on Aug. 29.
Lukas said Tuesday that in hindsight, he regretted not entering Mr. Z in last Saturday’s Jim Dandy Stakes, noting that it became a four-horse field when Monmouth Park raised the Haskell Invitational’s purse to $1.75 million and lured Competitive Edge and Upstart.
