CYPRESS, Calif. – The Los Alamitos summer meeting ended Sunday with an average all-sources handle of $5,070,966, a figure track officials expect will increase when live racing resumes for brief race meetings in September and December.
Attendance averaged 3,567, while average ontrack handle was $392,648.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Two-time defending Horse of the Year Wise Dan arrived at Saratoga on Monday morning, looking fit and ready to return to action less than two months after undergoing emergency colic surgery in Kentucky on May 16.
Trainer Charlie LoPresti was all smiles while showing off Wise Dan and talking about how well his star has progressed since the surgery, which was performed at Rood & Riddle Equine Hospital to repair a nephrosplenic entrapment that flared up just 13 days after his victory in the Grade 1 Woodford Reserve Turf Classic at Churchill Downs.
Hardest Core’s victory in the $50,000 Cape Henlopen Stakes on the Delaware Handicap undercard last Saturday made him a horse to follow in the coming months.
After being hard held early, Hardest Core was simply galloping as he completed 1 1/2 miles on turf in the Cape Henlopen, leaving his nearest of 10 rivals three lengths back. He earned a 91 Beyer Speed Figure and is now 2 for 2 for trainer Eddie Graham since being purchased out of last November’s Keeneland breeding stock sale for $210,000.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Look out, boys – here she comes.
Having dominated her own gender in four consecutive graded stakes – including Grade 1 staples such as the Kentucky Oaks and Mother Goose – the 3-year-old filly Untapable will take on males in the $1 million Haskell Invitational at Monmouth Park on July 27, trainer Steve Asmussen said Monday. The other option for Untapable would have been this Sunday’s Grade 1 Coaching Club American Oaks for 3-year-old fillies at Saratoga.
CYPRESS, Calif. – There was no urgency to plan a stakes at Del Mar for Doinghardtimeagain after she won Saturday’s $200,500 Great Lady M. Stakes at Los Alamitos. She could run in several races.
In her career, which includes five stakes wins, Doinghardtimeagain has won stakes in sprints and around two turns on synthetic and dirt tracks and has placed in stakes on turf. That has left owners Tom and Debbie Stull and trainer Jerry Hollendorfer with numerous choices.
ARLINGTON HEIGHTS, Ill. – The protagonists from Million Preview Day on Saturday at Arlington could all return for corresponding races on the Aug. 16 Arlington Million card.
That includes Divine Oath, who scored his first stakes win in the American Derby, rallying from sixth, splitting horses in upper stretch, diving to the rail, and catching Our Channel in the final yards. The victory was one of three in graded stakes Saturday for jockey Florent Geroux.
DEL MAR, Calif. -- Jockey Stewart Elliott, best known for winning the 2004 Kentucky Derby and Preakness Stakes on Smarty Jones,
will ride at Del Mar this summer, with his clients including trainer Mark Casse.
.Elliott was flying to California on Sunday and is scheduled to work horses on Monday.
Del Mar has a Polytrack surface, similar to what was in place this spring at Keeneland, where Elliott had great success, finishing second to Julien Leparoux while winning with 21 percent of his mounts.
DEL MAR, Calif. -- Candy Boy, second to Shared Belief in the Los Alamitos Derby on July 5, is likely to head out of town for the Grade 2, $750,000 West Virginia Derby at Mountaineer Racetrack on Aug. 2, trainer John Sadler said Sunday morning at Del Mar.
Candy Boy won the Robert Lewis Stakes at Santa Anita earlier this year, then was third to California Chrome in the Santa Anita Derby before finishing 13th in the Kentucky Derby after severe interference on the clubhouse turn. The Los Alamitos Derby was his first start since the Kentucky Derby.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Departing has never run at Saratoga, but the way he’s trained over the local oval the past two summers, one can’t blame trainer Al Stall Jr. for looking forward to finally starting his three-time graded stakes winner here early next month in the Grade 1 Whitney Handicap.
