SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Had things gone as planned, Wise Dan would have performed in front of thousands of fans at Saratoga on Saturday afternoon instead of a handful of early risers Saturday morning.
A bout of colic that required surgery in mid-May threw Wise Dan off schedule and basically blew the two-time Horse of the Year’s summer, including missing Saturday’s Grade 2 Fourstardave, a race he had won here the previous two summers.
Lukin Gilliland, an owner and breeder since 1965, died July 20, according to an official with Retama Park. Gilliland was a resident of San Antonio.
Gilliland was a co-founder, partner, and adviser in Oak Cliff Thoroughbreds, which is the breeder of the champion Sunday Silence. He also bred and raised Grey Daze, who recently captured the $365,260 Texas Quarter Horse Association Sale Futurity, the richest race run at Retama.
Gilliland was an attorney.
Bobby Walker Jr., the retired rider who was once a fixture at Louisiana Downs, has been diagnosed with testicular cancer, according to Jim Wells of the media department at Canterbury Park. Walker is a jockey agent at the Minnesota track. He told Wells his goal is to return home to West Monroe, La.
Walker, 53, won nearly 3,000 races in his career. He was in Fairview Southdale Hospital in Edina, Minn., on Thursday, and in order to get back to Louisiana, he will need medical transportation that will cost between $5,000 and $10,000, his daughter, Brittany, told Wells.
AUBURN, Wash. – If horses could portray human feelings, Harbor the Gold would likely be a proud poppa these days. Two of his progeny, Del Rio Harbor and Noosito, are expected to command the betting in Sunday’s $65,000 Emerald Downs Derby, and a handful of his babies will be featured in the Washington Thoroughbred Owners and Breeders Association’s yearling and mixed sale Aug. 26.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Fiftyshadesofgold, beaten a length when fourth in the Grade 1 Test Stakes, will not come back in the Grade 2 Prioress and instead will make her next two starts in Kentucky, trainer Bret Calhoun said.
Calhoun said that Fiftyshadesofgold, who is a multiple graded stakes winner at Churchill, will run next in the Grade 3, $100,000 Dogwood Stakes on Sept. 20 at Churchill Downs rather than the $300,000 Prioress Stakes here Aug. 30.
Louisiana Flyboy and Palmy Bay, who gave trainer Pat Mouton a stakes double last Saturday at Louisiana Downs, might not see action again until the fall. Mouton is in no rush with either horse, with Palmy Bay having earned a career-best Beyer Speed Figure of 100 for his win in the $50,000 Louisiana Cup Sprint and Louisiana Flyboy getting his first two-turn win in the $150,000 A.L. “Red” Erwin.
Eddie Graham trains off Runnymede Farm in Unionville, Pa. He has six horses under his care, four of whom are jumpers. He also conditions Hardest Core, a talented and improving turf marathoner who is likely to race next weekend in either the Grade 1 Sword Dancer at Saratoga or the $400,000 American St. Leger at Arlington Park. He also is pre-entered in the Arlington Million.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Trainer Dallas Stewart loves the way Unbridled Forever has trained since her runner-up finish to Stopchargingmaria in the Coaching Club American Oaks, and that includes the way she breezed Friday morning, going five furlongs in 1:00.46 over Saratoga’s main track.
Unbridled Forever went her first three furlongs in 35.75 seconds and got her final quarter in 24.71, according to Daily Racing Form ’s Mike Welsch, who caught her galloping out six furlongs in 1:14.94.
