Trainer Wayne Catalano remained in the intensive-care unit of St. Alexius Hospital in northwest suburban Chicago as of Monday, but Catalano has made steady progress recovering from a severe illness that hospitalized him July 22.
Catalano has been in an induced coma since late last week and has been receiving oxygen to assist his breathing. The medication to induce the coma has been withdrawn, however, and Catalano’s level of oxygen has been reduced, according to his wife, Ren é e Catalano.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Willet has already earned owner-trainer Jimmy Iselin and his partners more than a half-million dollars in her patiently managed career. But Willet, 6, has yet to win a graded stakes, and that will be Iselin’s major goal this season for his talented New York-bred, who returns to Saratoga as the likely favorite in a statebred allowance race for fillies and mares Wednesday.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – The Travers really wasn’t on trainer Bob Baffert’s mind for his 3-year-old Bayern when he decided late last week to ship him across the country for Sunday’s $1 million Haskell Invitational at Monmouth Park.
It is now.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Trainer Larry Jones had a big weekend, winning two graded stakes, including the Amsterdam here Saturday with Coup de Grace, and sending out Albano to finish second in the Grade 1 Haskell at Monmouth. But Jones, who suffered two broken ribs, a bruised lung, and a serious head injury in a training mishap at Delaware Park on April 19, was not in attendance at either Saratoga or Monmouth to see his horses run.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – With a better post position and a little racing luck, Bahamian Squall may well have won the 2013 Alfred G. Vanderbilt and become a Grade 1 winner. Instead, he had to settle for second behind Justin Phillip after breaking from the rail and getting jammed up in traffic along the inside around the turn.
The Grade 2, $750,000 West Virginia Derby, the headliner on a nine-stakes card Saturday at Mountaineer Casino, Racetrack and Resort near Chester, has drawn a field of nine, including Candy Boy, who will ship in from Southern California for trainer John Sadler, and Tapiture, who is based at Saratoga with Steve Asmussen.
West Virginia Derby Day is the highlight of the racing year at Mountaineer and has a special 2 p.m. Eastern first post, rather than the usual 7 p.m. start time.
Nine 3-year-olds, headed by the stakes winner G. G. Ryder, were nominated for Saturday’s Roger Dupret Derby at Santa Rosa. Fourteen runners, headed by Pepper Crown, Summer Hit, and Hudson Landing – the top three finishers in the Grade 3 San Francisco Mile at Golden Gate Fields – were nominated to the Joseph T. Grace on Sunday.
Both $50,000-added stakes cover 1 1/16 miles on turf.
Sacramento business
Jockey Abel Cedillo found himself in the right place at the right time – at the wire aboard Amnesia in Saturday’s Wine Country Stakes at Santa Rosa and again on Sing and Tell in the Luther Burbank Handicap on Sunday.
But Cedillo and his mount weren’t where they expected to be early in the Wine Country, for 3-year-old fillies.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Trainer Todd Pletcher’s decision to move Palace Malice’s final Whitney workout from Sunday to Saturday proved prescient, as heavy rains left the track wet Sunday and Monday.
It rained so hard early Monday morning – turning the Oklahoma training track into a sloppy mess – that trainer D. Wayne Lukas postponed a scheduled Monday breeze for last year’s 3-year-old champion, Will Take Charge. Tom Albertrani, the trainer of beaten Suburban favorite Romansh, also scrapped a scheduled workout. Both are expected for the Whitney, to be run Saturday.
