SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - Pleased with the way Mr Speaker has trained on dirt over the last month, trainer Shug McGaughey on Sunday confirmed the multiple turf and synthetic stakes winner a starter for the $1.25 million Travers Stakes next Saturday at Saratoga.
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DRF Past Performances
ARLINGTON HEIGHTS, Ill. -- What, after his stirring win in the Arlington Million, could Hardest Core possibly do for an encore?
The rest of the summer and the autumn will tell that tale, though the story of Hardest Core already reached an extremely satisfying denouement Saturday at Arlington.
DEL MAR, Calif. -- Istanford is likely to run in one-mile turf races, and possibly meet older fillies and mares this fall after winning her second consecutive stakes in Friday’s $96,350 Sandy Blue Handicap for 3-year-old fillies.
Ridden by Rafael Bejarano, Istanford ($4.60) led throughout and won by 3 1/4 lengths over 16-1 Miss Machiavelli, finishing a mile on turf in 1:34.81. By the Gone West stallion Istan, Istanford won the Grade 2 San Clemente Handicap over a mile on turf on July 19, the most prestigious win of her 11-race career.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. -- Still unsure why Palace Malice ran so poorly in the Grade 1 Whitney two weeks ago, trainer Todd Pletcher equipped the multiple Grade 1 winner with blinkers for a workout on Saturday morning. Though Palace Malice worked a half-mile in 48.94 seconds, Pletcher said he is unsure whether he will use them on the colt in the Grade 1 Woodward on Aug. 30.
“Just wanted to try them again and see,” Pletcher said. "I always thought the horse was a possible candidate for blinkers. I thought he worked well, but he always works well. Hard to gauge.”
Two of the fastest works on Saturday’s monstrous main track work tab came from Florida invaders Fast Anna and C Zee, a couple of fleet 3-year-olds preparing for the Aug. 23 Grade 1 King’s Bishop.
Fast Anna was the first of the pair to go, zipping five furlongs in 58.61 off a 34.15 three-eighths split. C Zee went a half mile in 46.40 after posting a 21.78 opening quarter.
Trainer Kathy Ritvo said despite posting the bullet work, Fast Anna could hardly blow out a match by the time he got back to the barn.
About 4 ½ hours after Wise Dan began the parade of Grade 1-winning horses working in Saratoga around 5:30 Saturday morning, Close Hatches ended it with an effortless half-mile move in 47.85 seconds over Oklahoma training track.
In her first and only local work before Friday’s Grade 1, $500,000 Personal Ensign, Close Hatches went her first quarter in 24.02 seconds and came through the lane in 23.93 under exercise rider Neal Poznansky. Close Hatches galloped out five furlongs in 1:01.63 and six furlongs in 1:15.34.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Led by Belmont Stakes winner Tonalist and Jim Dandy winner Wicked Strong, four of the 10 horses expected to compete in next Saturday’s $1.25 million Travers Stakes put in timed workouts Saturday morning at Saratoga.
A fifth horse, Coltimus Prime, worked in hopes of running in the Travers, but his connections didn’t like what they saw and have removed the Prince of Wales Stakes winner from consideration for the race.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Anyone harboring doubts as to whether Wise Dan might not be quite the beast he has been during his last two Eclipse Award-winning campaigns after undergoing emergency colic surgery earlier this year, may have changed their opinion had they happened to be at Saratoga at the crack of dawn on Saturday to catch the champion at work.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Al Khali has competed in the last four runnings of the Grade 1 Sword Dancer, but he was not ready to run in Sunday’s 40th renewal of the $500,000 race at Saratoga.
Al Khali, an 8-year-old son of Medaglia d’Oro, finished third in the Sword Dancer in 2010 and 2011, second to Point of Entry in 2012, and fifth last year. He has not run since last year’s Sword Dancer but is still in training.