SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Trainer Nick Zito got the meet off to a good start Monday, saddling back-to-back winners Another Incident and Tony B. He’s hoping his good fortune will continue here Friday, when he sends out his Grade 2 winner Spot in the wide-open Curlin Stakes.
Spot, the winner of Gulfstream Park’s Swale Stakes going seven furlongs in March, exits a fourth-place finish behind the red-hot Kid Cruz in the Grade 3 Dwyer.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – The well-traveled Prayer for Relief, who finished third in the Grade 2 Suburban Handicap when taking his game to New York for the first time on Belmont Stakes Day, will take on an even tougher assignment when wheeling back in the Grade 1 Whitney Handicap here Aug. 2.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – The colorful strips of tape Wise Dan wore on his hindquarters during training hours Tuesday and Wednesday may have looked alarming but were no cause for concern to the man they would matter to most, the two-time reigning Horse of the Year’s trainer, Charlie LoPresti.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Queen’s Plate and Woodbine Oaks winner Lexie Lou worked over the turf training course Wednesday in preparation for her next start here Aug. 10 in the $250,000 Wonder Where Stakes.
With the cones placed well out from the rail, Lexie Lou breezed five-eighths over firm ground in 1:01.80 before galloping out in her usual strong manner under jockey Patrick Husbands.
“Patrick said she went super,” trainer Mark Casse said. “We are all very pleased.”
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – On Fire Baby is scheduled to breeze Saturday at Churchill Downs before trainer Gary Hartlage decides what to do next with the multiple Grade 1-winning mare.
Hartlage backed off his stable star after On Fire Baby finished fifth in the June 14 Fleur de Lis at Churchill, but the trainer said the mare is showing spirited signs and the Saturday work could determine when and where she will race next.
Seven $50,000-added stakes will highlight the Sonoma County Fair’s 13-day racing meet beginning Friday in Santa Rosa, Calif.
The return of wine-country racing also means the return of turf racing in Northern California, with Santa Rosa hosting the only turf racing during the fair racing season. Five of the meet’s seven stakes are carded for turf, including two during opening weekend, the Wine Country Stakes for 3-year-old fillies and the Luther Burbank Handicap for fillies and mares. Both will be run at 1 1/16 miles.
DEL MAR, Calif. – The 2-year-old fillies Luminance and Tara’s Tango avoided one another Sunday, when they ended up in divisions of maiden races for their debuts, but they are on a collision course now for the Grade 1, $300,000 Del Mar Debutante on Aug. 30 following their impressive victories.
Luminance (57.39 seconds) ran her five furlongs a tick faster than Tara’s Tango (57.40 seconds), which left Luminance with the track record at day’s end; Tara’s Tango, who ran earlier in the day, held it for about two hours.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - Florida invader R Free Roll sizzled four furlongs in 45.94 shortly after the renovation break over the main track on Tuesday in preparation for the Grade 2 Honorable Miss Stakes here next Monday.
R Free Roll is coming off back-to-back stakes wins at Calder and Gulfstream Park for owner Richard Averill. She had been stabled with trainer Kirk Ziadie in Florida, but resides with trainer Dan Gargan while at Saratoga.
DEL MAR, Calif. – Last year’s Breeders’ Cup Sprint winner, Secret Circle, hasn’t been seen since the spring, but he is back in training at Los Alamitos, and trainer Bob Baffert said a defense of his Sprint title is the goal.
Secret Circle has raced just once since last year’s Breeders’ Cup Sprint; he was second in the Palos Verdes Stakes at Santa Anita in February. He was scheduled to run in the Count Fleet Stakes in April at Oaklawn Park but had to be withdrawn after mistakenly being tranquilized for his flight there just days before the race.
DEL MAR, Calif. – Led by Goldencents, an outstanding field of sprinters is set to contest the Grade 1, $300,000 Bing Crosby Stakes on Sunday at Del Mar.
Goldencents, who won the Santa Anita Derby and Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile during an outstanding campaign at age 3 last year, comes off a terrific runner-up effort behind Palace Malice in the Metropolitan Handicap at Belmont Park in his 2014 debut June 7. Rafael Bejarano, who rode him in the Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile but missed the Met Mile because of injury, is back aboard.
