DEL MAR, Calif. – Fashion Plate will run in a graded stakes at Del Mar next weekend, but trainer Simon Callaghan is undecided between Saturday’s $300,000 Del Mar Oaks over 1 1/8 miles on turf or Sunday’s $150,000 Rancho Bernardo Handicap for fillies and mares over 6 1/2 furlongs. Fashion Plate may be entered in both races before a decision is made, possibly as late as Saturday.
“I think we’ll consider both races,” he said Sunday.
While Cassatt’s victory in the Grade 3 Monmouth Oaks on Saturday was impressive, owner Rick Porter saw both the positive and the negative.
He knows Cassatt, a lightly raced, long-striding daughter of Tapit trained by Larry Jones, has vast potential, but he also realizes she has a lot of growing up to do. Cassatt was hot in the paddock, a bit fractious in the starting gate, and bobbled when the gate opened.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Trainer Michael Matz received a phone call last week from a racing department official at Arlington Park to remind him to pre-enter Somali Lemonade in the Grade 1 Beverly D to be run next Saturday.
After watching his Grade 1 Diana Stakes winner work Sunday morning in Saratoga, Matz was grateful to have received the call.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Shug McGaughey stopped just short of committing Mr Speaker to the Grade 1 Travers, but following another solid workout Sunday morning over Saratoga’s main track, it would certainly be surprising if he doesn’t run in the $1.25 million race for 3-year-olds here on Aug. 23.
DEL MAR, Calif. - Clubhouse Ride, the winner of the Grade 2 Californian Stakes at Santa Anita on May 31, worked seven furlongs in 1:26.40 on the Polytrack surface at Del Mar on Saturday in preparation for the $1 million Pacific Classic on Aug. 24.
Trained by Craig Lewis, Clubhouse Ride was second to Pacific Classic hopeful Majestic Harbor in the $500,000 Gold Cup at Santa Anita on June 28.
DEL MAR, Calif. - Story to Tell, who finished last of six in the Grade 2 Best Pal Stakes on Aug. 3, will not start for the remainder of the Del Mar meeting.
Trainer Dan Hendricks said this week that Story to Tell will be pointed to the Barretts Juvenile at the Los Alamitos September meeting. The Barretts Juvenile is restricted to horses who have gone through the sales ring at Barretts.
Story to Tell, who won the W.L. Proctor Stakes at Los Alamitos in July, was purchased for $200,000 at the Barretts March sale of select 2-year-olds in training this year.
DEL MAR, Calif. - Jockey Elvis Trujillo, who leads the standings here with 16 wins through Friday, was suspended three days for causing interference in a race Thursday, a penalty he plans to appeal, according to his agent, Tom Knust.
Trujillo was cited for his ride on John’s Success, who finished third in a maiden claimer over six furlongs in Thursday’s third race. The suspension is scheduled to start Thursday and run for three racing days, through Saturday. A successful appeal would allow the 30-year-old Trujillo to continue riding until the case is heard.
DEL MAR, Calif. – Master the Blues created a pleasant problem when she won Friday’s $96,560 Daisycutter Handicap at Del Mar. She earned too much money to be eligible for her next start, the $90,000 CERF Stakes on Sept. 3.
The CERF Stakes is run over six furlongs for fillies and mares who have not earned a first-place purse of $50,000 or more since March 1. In the Daisycutter, Master the Blues earned $56,640.
“She won too much,” trainer Bob Hess Jr. said.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Tonalist, the Belmont Stakes winner and the runner-up as the favorite in the Grade 2 Jim Dandy, worked five furlongs in 1:03.21 on Saturday over the Oklahoma training track as he prepares for the Grade 1, $1.25 million Travers Stakes here Aug. 23.
Amsterdam Stakes winner Coup de Grace likely will be favored when he returns to Saratoga in two weeks for the Grade 1 King’s Bishop. But there certainly will be no shortage of challengers awaiting his arrival, three of whom worked over the main track here Saturday.
C. Zee, who finished a game second in the Amsterdam after being hard used throughout while breaking from the rail, zipped through a 47.21-second half-mile work for trainer Nick Zito with exercise rider Maxine Correa aboard.
