SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – After taking on the best 3-year-old fillies in training, House Rules will get significant class relief in an $85,000 first-level allowance race going 1 1/8 miles on Sunday’s card.
House Rules, a daughter of Distorted Humor, will go out for trainer Jimmy Jerkens after making the first eight starts of her career for Jimmy’s father, the Hall of Fame trainer Allen Jerkens, who is now based in south Florida.
Louisiana Downs is seeking to make a significant change to the structure of its race week for 2015.
The track would like to run on a Wednesday-through-Saturday basis in a departure from its traditional Thursday-through-Sunday schedule, said Trent McIntosh, director of racing operations for Louisiana Downs.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Without many options for Noble Moon – and with the 3-year-old finally ready to run – trainer Leah Gyarmati said he will go in the Grade 1, $500,000 King’s Bishop here next Saturday.
Noble Moon, the winner of the Grade 2 Jerome Stakes in January, has not run since finishing sixth in the Grade 1 Wood Memorial at Aqueduct on April 5. Gyarmati had several stops and starts on the colt, mostly due to foot issues. Noble Moon was scratched from the Amsterdam Stakes here July 26 due to a foot abscess.
DEL MAR, Calif. – Bayern, the winner of the Haskell Invitational at Monmouth and a leading candidate for the Travers Stakes next Saturday at Saratoga, will have one more workout next week at Del Mar before traveling, according to trainer Bob Baffert.
Baffert on Friday said Bayern worked five furlongs, and went out six furlongs, on Thursday, though Bayern did not make the official work tab. Baffert said he had Bayern going out six furlongs in “1:11 and change.”
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – In Wicked Strong, trainer Jimmy Jerkens will have one of the favorites for next Saturday’s $1.25 million Travers Stakes at Saratoga. In V. E. Day, Jerkens will send out one of the intriguing longshots in the “Mid-Summer Derby.”
On Friday, Jerkens sent out V. E. Day for a stamina-building seven-furlong workout in 1:30.17 over the Saratoga main track. He galloped out a mile in 1:42.62.
DEL MAR, Calif. – Minutes after winning the 2,000th race of his career at Del Mar Thursday, Tyler Baze was walking from the winner’s circle to the jockeys’ room following that day’s third race when he was met by a longtime friend.
“It’s about time,” Baze’s buddy said. “What were you waiting for?”
“I wasn’t waiting,” he said, flashing a broad grin.
Baze, 31, went two weeks without a winner, a span of 46 races, before the breakthrough victory. He was as much delighted as relieved when he rode Kate’s Event in the $50,000 claimer over a mile for the milestone win.
DEL MAR, Calif. – Mystery Train has won seven stakes in Argentina in the last 18 months. Even with those credentials, trainer Darrell Vienna said he is unsure what to expect when Mystery Train makes his American debut in the $1 million Pacific Classic on Aug. 24.
Recently purchased by Jed Cohen, Mystery Train has been in California since late July. On Thursday, the 4-year-old had his second workout since arriving, running seven furlongs in 1:27 on the Polytrack synthetic surface.
Vienna said Mystery Train will work five furlongs next Thursday.
AUBURN, Wash. – Nominations for the Grade 3, $200,000 Longacres Mile came out this week, and a glance at the list of 25 confirmed what had become increasingly apparent over the past few weeks: Stryker Phd, the leading handicap horse at Emerald Downs and unbeaten in two starts this year, likely will be a heavy favorite Aug. 24 in the 79th running of the Northwest’s richest race.
EAST BOSTON, Mass. – The celebration in the winner’s circle Wednesday for Mrs. Bean, the only horse with a perfect record at Suffolk Downs this year, turned out to be her retirement party.
“Unfortunately, after the race, she came back sore, so she’s going to be retired,” said John Assimakopolous, who runs trainer David Jacobson’s 13-horse stable here. “At the first sign of anything that would ever hurt her, we were sure that right away, that would be it. We’re not going to take any chances with her. Now we’ll be good to her because she’s been good to us.”
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Alpha returns to his favorite track Sunday, when he runs in the $100,000 Alydar Stakes at Saratoga.
Alpha has recorded four of his six victories at Saratoga, including a dead-heat win in the Travers in 2012 and a front-running score in last year’s Grade 1 Woodward Stakes. He also won the Grade 2 Jim Dandy in 2012 and a maiden race here in 2011.
