ELMONT, N.Y. - Clearly Now recorded his most impressive victory of 2013 at Belmont Park when he won the Grade 3 Bold Ruler Handicap at seven furlongs. He returns to Belmont for Saturday’s Grade 3, $400,000 Belmont Sprint Championship, also at seven furlongs, which drew a field of nine.
The Belmont Sprint Championship was formerly named the James Marvin, and it retains its Grade 3 status. The James Marvin had been run on opening day at Saratoga.
Jockey David Cabrera is closing in on his first career title, but he’s not taking anything for granted as he moves into the final two weeks of the meet at Lone Star Park. Cabrera had an eight-win advantage in the standings heading into Thursday night’s card and is working to hold off a colony that includes the meet’s second-leading rider, Luis Quinonez.
“We’ll try to do our best and see if we get it,” said Cabrera, a 21-year-old native of Guanabuato, Mexico.
California Chrome is two weeks into his summer vacation in central California, while plans are underway for his comeback to training and a possible public appearance in August at Del Mar.
California Chrome is turned out at Harris Farms in Coalinga, Calif., where he was foaled and raised. He is scheduled to remain there until approximately Aug. 1, when he returns to trainer Art Sherman’s base at Los Alamitos.
ELMONT, N.Y. – As a gelding, Gailo Chop was ineligible to compete in Europe’s classic races for 3-year-olds, including France’s 2000 Guineas and French Derby. However, if he hadn’t been gelded, Gailo Chop might not have been good enough to compete in those races.
CYPRESS, Calif. – Trainer Doug O’Neill needed 27 winners to secure the championship at the 38-day spring-summer meeting that ended last weekend at Santa Anita. If O’Neill cracks double digits in wins at the current Los Alamitos summer meeting, he might earn consecutive titles.
The summer meeting began Thursday and has two four-day weeks through July 13. With so few racing dates, a trainer will not need many winners to be prominent in the standings.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. - Ramon Morales, one of the leading trainers in Puerto Rico, will take up residence on the local backstretch this weekend with a string of 25 horses for track owner Frank Stronach. Morales, who has won more than 1,200 races, including 82 stakes, spent the last several days at Stronach’s Adena Springs Farm in Ocala, Fla., picking the horses he will bring back to Gulfstream for the summer, including a large contingent of 2-year-olds.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. - Trainer Kathy Ritvo could have run her 3-year-old Fast Anna in this Saturday’s $75,000 Cherokee Run Stakes. Instead, she’s taking the more conservative route with the promising son of Medaglia d’Oro, who’ll go postward as the odds-on favorite to capture a 6 1/2-furlong first-level allowance Sunday.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Trainer Jose Garoffalo said Wildcat Red bounced out of his easy victory in last Saturday’s Quality Road Stakes at Gulfstream Park in good order and that he has mapped out plans to get his multiple graded stakes winner ready for the Grade 1 Haskell Invitational at Monmouth Park on July 27.
“Right now, the Haskell is our first option,” Garoffalo said. “I hope to breeze him here on the 13th, ship to New Jersey a couple of days after that, and then work him at Monmouth on the 20th.”
Retama Park near San Antonio has made notable changes to its most prestigious races, the El Joven and La Senorita stakes for 2-year-olds at a mile on turf. The races have been moved up a month, positioning them as potential stepping-stones to the Breeders’ Cup, while the purse for each has been boosted from $75,000 to $100,000.
