ETOBICOKE, Ontario – While her fellow apprentices will be preparing for the apprentice jockey challenge on Wednesday at Woodbine, Jenna Bray will not be participating. Bray, who has won four races this season, will sit out the rest of the season to retain her 10-pound weight allowance into next year. Bray’s fifth career victory would see her weight allowance drop to five pounds.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Having already run him in the first two legs of the Canadian Triple Crown, trainer Josie Carroll wasn’t sure if the $501,600 Breeders’ Stakes was the right spot for Ami’s Holiday. But Ami’s Holiday showed Carroll that he was ready in the days leading up to the race, and on Sunday, he rallied from midpack to win his first classic event.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Larry Jones will send Coup de Grace back to Saratoga, hoping the horse can repeat his winning performance in the Grade 2 Amsterdam earlier this summer in Saturday’s Grade 1 King’s Bishop. But as was the case the last time, Jones himself will not make the trip.
“Right now, I don’t think I’m going to make it,” said Jones. “I’m pretty good getting through training hours, but I just can’t do the whole day. I can’t do the doubleheader. If I try, it would knock me out for the next three days. For now, I’m still just taking little baby steps.”
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Midway down the backstretch of the Jim Dandy Stakes on July 26, Kid Cruz was last of six runners – not surprising, perhaps, given his past-performance lines. But given that Kid Cruz had broken on top under jockey Irad Ortiz Jr. and was with the leaders entering the first turn, his position as the trailer was disconcerting to trainer Linda Rice.
Speaking from Canterbury Park, trainer Robertino Diodoro said that Edison came out of his romp in the Grade 3, $195,720 Canadian Derby at Northlands Park last Saturday in good shape.
Diodoro plans to ship Edison on Wednesday from Northlands to Canterbury, where he will be pointed toward the $200,000 Mystic Lake Derby on Sept. 13. Plan B is the Grade 3, $400,000 Oklahoma Derby at Remington Park on Sept. 28. If Edison runs in the one-mile Mystic Lake Derby, he would be returning to turf. Last year, Diodoro won the Oklahoma Derby with Canadian Derby winner Broadway Empire.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Will Take Charge will skip the Grade 1 Woodward Stakes on Aug. 30 and point to the Grade 1 Jockey Club Gold Cup at Belmont Park on Sept. 27, trainer D. Wayne Lukas said Monday.
Will Take Charge, last year’s 3-year-old champion, is 1 for 6 this year, with the win coming in the Grade 2 Oaklawn Handicap in April. Since then, Will Take Charge has lost three straight races, including a third-place finish in the Grade 1 Whitney here Aug. 2.
DEL MAR, Calif. – Bright Thought, the winner of the Grade 2 San Luis Rey Stakes at Santa Anita in 2013, was transferred from trainer Jorge Gutierrez to Phil D’Amato earlier this month and will start for the new stable in the $200,000 Del Mar Handicap on turf Saturday.
D’Amato, the former assistant to Mike Mitchell, is in his first year of training on his own.
DEL MAR, Calif. - When Irish Surf took a clear lead after a quarter-mile of the Grade 3 Cougar II Handicap at Del Mar on July 25, he essentially won the marathon race a mile from the finish. It will be almost impossible to utilize the same strategy in the $1 million Pacific Classic on Aug. 24.
Against a tougher field, and one loaded with horses that run or near the front, Irish Surf will have company early. Trainer Dan Hendricks said on Sunday that he was unsure whether he would tell jockey Elvis Trujillo to send Irish Surf early, or take a patient approach.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - Pleased with the way Mr Speaker has trained on dirt over the last month, trainer Shug McGaughey on Sunday confirmed the multiple turf and synthetic stakes winner a starter for the $1.25 million Travers Stakes next Saturday at Saratoga.
ARLINGTON HEIGHTS, Ill. -- What, after his stirring win in the Arlington Million, could Hardest Core possibly do for an encore?
The rest of the summer and the autumn will tell that tale, though the story of Hardest Core already reached an extremely satisfying denouement Saturday at Arlington.
