CYPRESS, Calif. – Moreno, who finished eighth in the $501,500 Gold Cup at Santa Anita last Saturday as the 4-1 third choice, will be pointed for the $1,250,000 Whitney Stakes at Saratoga on Aug. 8, a race he won in 2014.
Trainer Eric Guillot said on Wednesday that he would like to start the 5-year-old multiple stakes winner in a race in which he might be the lone speed.
“He loves that track,” Guillot said. “It sounds like a good plan of attack.”
Racing resumes in Maryland after a four-week break as the sport shifts 28 miles south from Pimlico Race Course to Laurel Park.
This will be the first time Laurel has held more than a single card in July in more than a decade. Earlier this year, an agreement was renegotiated that left these racing dates to Colonial Downs, which has not raced since 2013.
Laurel had been scheduled to open Aug. 1 but modified its original dates request and will race three days a week until Timonium opens at the Maryland State Fair on Aug. 28.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Work All Week not only won the Breeders’ Cup Sprint and a division championship last year, he also has the distinction of not finishing worse than second in his last 15 starts coming into Sunday’s Grade 2 Smile Sprint.
But the champion sprinter won’t be the only member of the Smile Sprint lineup able to boast about such a remarkable record of consistency. Like Work All Week, Grande Shores has finished first or second in each of his last 15 starts, a skein that extends back to January 2014.
Six stakes races – three for Thoroughbreds – will be featured during Oak Tree at Pleasanton’s final weekend, two this Saturday and four Sunday.
Thirteen runners, including impressive debut winner Ibelievewewillwin, were nominated to Saturday’s $50,000-added Juan Gonzalez Memorial for 2-year-old fillies at 5 1/2 furlongs. Jeff Bonde has nominated four runners, including Santa Anita winner Later My Love and local winner Marquee Cat.
The $10,000 Jack Robinson for Quarter Horses is also scheduled for Saturday.
Increases in account wagering and out-of-state wagering helped spur a 4.4 percent increase in handle on the track’s races during the recently completed Golden Gate Fields winter-spring meeting. The meeting, which ran from Dec. 26 through June 14, comprised 98 days of racing, one fewer than the 2013-14 meet.
Average daily handle on Golden Gate’s races increased 5.5 percent, to $1,549,620 from $1,468,765 in 2013-14.
Daily average ontrack wagering on Golden Gate’s races dropped 2.6 percent from the last winter-spring meet.
The 19-year-old jockey Ricardo Gonzalez is becoming the go-to guy in big races on the Northern California racing circuit.
Gonzalez won the biggest races for older horses at the recently concluded Golden Gate Fields meeting, guiding G. G. Ryder to wins in the Grade 3 San Francisco Mile on turf and Grade 3 All American on the main track.
CYPRESS, Calif. – The 1,380-foot stretch at Los Alamitos is the longest in the nation, and can sometimes be a test for more than the horses.
Turning for home, horses have a few strides before they reach the quarter pole, leaving jockeys to judge the appropriate time to ask for maximum run. Opinions differ on the best way to ride the track.
“You have to stay in striking distance,” said jockey Drayden Van Dyke. “It’s hard to make up ground with the long stretch.”
OPELOUSAS, La. – Louisiana’s best are all set to go Saturday at Evangeline Downs for the annual Louisiana Legends Night program. A total of eight stakes restricted to horses bred in the Bayou State will be worth $775,000. All divisions will be represented except for 2-year-olds, who will have center stage to themselves July 11, when the two divisions of the $100,000 D.S. “Shine” Young Futurity will be contested.
