ARCADIA, Calif. – The fillies In the Air Tonight and Lil’ Bit Bossy and the colt Rumble King gave California breeder Terry Lovingier a sweep of the three maiden races for statebred juveniles at 4 1/2 furlongs at Santa Anita on Sunday.
All three are set to run in stakes this summer.
Lovingier co-owns each of the winners. All are by Stay Thirsty, who stands at Lovingier’s Lovacres Ranch in Warner Springs, Calif.
ARCADIA, Calif. – After a narrow loss in her 2024 debut in early March, Adare Manor completed a perfect spring campaign with a second win in the Grade 2 Santa Margarita Stakes for fillies and mares at Santa Anita on Sunday.
The win builds toward an expected start in the Grade 1 Clement Hirsch Stakes at Del Mar on Aug. 3, and a chance to gain a fees-paid berth to the Breeders’ Cup Distaff at Del Mar on Nov. 2.
Senor Buscador, winner of the $20 million Saudi Cup in February and third in the $12 million Dubai World Cup in March, is tentatively scheduled to return to racing in the Grade 2 San Diego Handicap at Del Mar on July 27.
The 6-year-old Senor Buscador is currently based with trainer Richard Baltas at San Luis Rey Downs training center in northern San Diego county, not far from Del Mar. Senor Buscador will rejoin longtime trainer Todd Fincher’s stable next week when Fincher sends a group of horses to San Luis Rey Downs in advance of the Del Mar meeting that begins on July 20.
Exaulted won the Grade 1 Shoemaker Mile at Santa Anita in a career-defining performance in 2023, but will miss the same race on Monday, trainer Peter Eurton said on Friday.
“We’re going to wait and find another race for him,” Eurton said.
Exaulted has not raced since he finished second to Du Jour in the Grade 2 Del Mar Mile last September. He missed the Breeders’ Cup Mile at Santa Anita last November after being scratched on race week.
With only a minor chance of rain into the weekend, soggy Churchill Downs could get back onto the grass course as soon as Saturday. And if the filly Love Appeals gets back on grass in the Sunday feature, she can get back to the winner’s circle for the first time in 13 months.
Brad Cox didn’t win the Kentucky Derby, didn’t win the Preakness, but don’t shed a tear for the man. Cox comes into summer with a typically loaded stable that includes leading older dirt-route horse in both the female and male divisions.
Golden Gate Fields resumes racing on Saturday for the first time in a week after cancelling racing last Sunday and Friday this week because of a lack of entries.
Golden Gate Fields will close on June 9.
Since mid-April, Golden Gate Fields has cancelled five days of racing as the stable area population has dwindled with some horses being sent to other circuits. There were approximately 700 horses housed at Golden Gate Fields aside from unraced 2-year-olds, a track official said earlier this month.
A colt who has never run in a stakes and has not raced beyond a mile is expected to start in Monday’s Grade 2 Hollywood Gold Cup at 1 1/4 miles at Santa Anita.
If there is a time to try a new distance in a once-prestigious race, trainer Bob Hess, Jr., is ready to do so with the improving Ashcroft.
Owned by Craig Netwig and Debra Barkley’s GMT Racing Stables, the 4-year-old Ashcroft has won his last two starts since late March, both at a mile at Santa Anita – a maiden race on March 24 and an allowance race on April 27.
Del Mar has cut overnight purses by approximately 8 percent for its summer season from July 20 to Sept. 8, continuing a downward trajectory of prize money at Southern California tracks for more than a year.
Del Mar officials told the California Horse Racing Board earlier this year that purses were overpaid by approximately $2 million in 2023. The purse cuts for the forthcoming meeting are an attempt to recoup some of that deficit. Purses were lower at the track’s 2023 autumn meeting compared to the same season in 2022.
He has been a Daily Racing Form writer and chartcaller, a steward at tracks in several states, a morning-line oddsmaker, and a television commentator.
In June, Jon White, 68, a longtime fixture in racing in California, will add another category – retiree.
White plans to retire at the end of the current Santa Anita meeting on June 16, Santa Anita announced earlier this week.
White has written the morning-line at Santa Anita since 2009 and at Del Mar since 2020. He was recently inducted into the Washington Racing Hall of Fame.
