With Idiomatic having all but conquered the distaff division leading her connections to entertain the idea of racing against older males, First Mission rising toward the top of the older horse division, and Hit Show a strong comeback winner of his 4-year-old debut, trainer Brad Cox already had some thinking to do about how and where to place horses in important dirt routes this summer. And after Highland Falls won the Grade 3, $275,000 Blame Stakes on Saturday at Churchill, Cox had another horse to consider for Grade 1 races at nine furlongs and beyond.
Skip to main content
Create Your DRF Account
New to DRF?
Everything you could possibly
need in one place
need in one place
Register
Don't have an account?
Register Here
DRF Past Performances
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Dornoch looks to restore somewhat of a tarnished image when he starts as a probable longshot in a field of 10 in Saturday’s $2 million Belmont Stakes at Saratoga.
Coming off a solid 2-year-old campaign, one in which he defeated Sierra Leone in the Grade 2 Remsen Stakes at Aqueduct, Dornoch’s 3-year-old campaign has been relatively underwhelming.
ARCADIA, Calif. – For all that he has accomplished on turf, winning 159 stakes since 2014, the two graded turf stakes for 3-year-old fillies at the Del Mar summer meeting have largely eluded Phil D’Amato.
D’Amato has one win in the Grade 2 San Clemente Stakes at a mile, with Bellabel in 2022, and one win in the Grade 1 Del Mar Oaks at 1 1/8 miles, with Going Global in 2021.
The Grade 2 Great Lady M. Stakes at Los Alamitos on July 6 will not include the 2023 Grade 1 winner Tamara.
Trainer Richard Mandella said on Monday that he was unsatisfied with Tamara’s latest workout on May 25 and will instead prepare the 3-year-old filly for a comeback at the Del Mar summer meeting, which begins on July 20.
Monday, June 3
Saratoga
Weather: Clear
Temperature: 58
Track: Fast
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – With all the heavy lifting over, Monday proved a relatively quiet day on the Belmont Stakes training front with much of the activity that did occur taking place early over the very popular Oklahoma training track.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – A set of seven horses trained by Charlie Appleby for Godolphin Racing put in workouts in rapid fire succession Saturday morning over the Oklahoma turf course in preparation for upcoming stakes engagements at next week’s Belmont Stakes Racing Festival at Saratoga.
Alan Buchdahl, who has served as back-up announcer at Santa Anita for decades, will call the races at Santa Anita for three days from June 7-9 while regular announcer Frank Mirahmadi works the Belmont Racing Festival at Saratoga.
Buchdahl, 67, is a familiar voice in Southern California racing. He called the Oak Tree at Santa Anita meeting in the 1970s and early 1980s and was briefly the track announcer at Hollywood Park in the early 1980s.
Aside from Anisette’s win in Monday’s Grade 1 Gamely Stakes for fillies and mares, trainer Leonard Powell had mixed results with his turf milers last weekend at Santa Anita.
While Flashiest won an allowance race on May 26, Air Force Red was only eighth in the Grade 1 Shoemaker Mile on Monday.
Overnight purses have been cut for the eight-day summer meeting at Los Alamitos from June 22 to July 7 compared to the track’s three meetings in 2023.
Los Alamitos recently released its condition book for the three-week season, detailing proposed races.
Some categories have been affected more than others.
A maiden race will be worth $41,000, down nearly 9 percent from a purse of $45,000 last year. A first-condition allowance race will have a purse of $44,000 compared to $47,000 last year, a decline of 6 percent.