DEL MAR, Calif. – After a suspension of grass racing for the past week, Del Mar is scheduled to conduct racing on the turf this weekend when a pair of grass stakes are slated, and trainer Tom Proctor is eager to run in both.
Proctor has three-time stakes winner Enterprising set to go in the Grade 3, $150,000 La Jolla Handicap for 3-year-olds on Saturday, and the filly Wishing Gate in the Grade 2, $250,000 John C. Mabee Stakes for older females on Sunday.
If you hadn’t heard of Antioco Murgia, the Italian jockey who won the fifth race Saturday aboard Kutuzov for trainer Gennadi Dorochenko, well, you might hear more of him in the future.
“He is very honest, hard-working, and tries hard,” said Dorochenko, who has more than 75 horses in training and has been known to give mounts to a wide variety of lesser-known jockeys. “If he keeps winning for me, sure, he will ride more.”
Murgia’s record this year is 12 for 129, with a positive ROI of $2.03.
Michael Ritvo has been around racing his entire life, and he always marveled at the top jockeys, who would win three or four races a day with regularity.
So when the 20-year-old apprentice rider rode four winners Saturday at Gulfstream Park in South Florida, he was thrilled to know the feeling himself.
“It was something. It really was,” said Ritvo, whose first career mount was March 19. “I’d seen those guys do it and could only imagine it myself. It was almost like a dream.”
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – All-sources handle bounced back from last week but still remains down, while ontrack handle remains flat through the first 16 days, or 40 percent, of the Saratoga meet when compared to last year.
After 16 days, all-sources handle is $218,599,782, down 6.5 percent compared to $233,837,982 through the same period last year. After the first 10 days of the meet, all-sources handle had been down 9.5 percent.
Keeneland Race Course in Lexington, Ky., has hired Javier Barajas to be in charge of the maintenance of its three racing surfaces. Barajas is the former track superintendent at the Dubai Racing Club and at Arlington Park in Illinois.
The 2-year-old Hashtag Bourbon came into Saturday’s $100,000 Mountaineer Juvenile a maiden and left town a stakes winner.
In one of the better performances of West Virginia Derby Day, Hashtag Bourbon stormed from off the pace to win the six-furlong Juvenile by an expanding 4 1/2 lengths. He was timed in 1:11.45 (the fillies division went in 1:11.79) and received a Beyer Speed Figure of 78.
The Juvenile was Hashtag Bourbon’s second start. In his debut at Churchill Downs on June 28, he broke slowly, dropped far back, and then closed well to finish third.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Filimbi, who defeated the Grade 1-winning New York-bred Dayatthespa in Saturday’s De La Rose Stakes at Saratoga, likely will move up into graded company for her next start. One possibility is the Grade 3, $200,000 Noble Damsel Stakes on Sept. 13 at Belmont Park.
Filimbi, a product of Grade 1 winners Mizzen Mast and Flute, earned a 100 Beyer Speed Figure in the De La Rose, her second win from three starts in the United States.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – I Spent It, a sharp debut winner at Belmont on July 2, worked a strong five furlongs in 1:00.10 over Saratoga’s main track Monday in preparation for Sunday’s Grade 2, $200,000 Saratoga Special at 6 1/2 furlongs.
With jockey Javier Castellano in the irons, I Spent It broke off at the half-mile pole and went a bit quickly early but still came home in 24.07 seconds and then galloped out six furlongs in 1:12.90.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Champion mares Rachel Alexandra and Zenyatta never faced each other on the racetrack. Perhaps someday their first foals will.
Jess’s Dream, the first foal out of 2009 Horse of the Year Rachel Alexandra, arrived at Saratoga on Sunday, joining Cozmic One, the first foal out of 2010 Horse of the Year Zenyatta, who has been here since the meet began. Neither colt will race at this meet, but it is hoped that both will debut this fall.
It would be hard to get off to a better start than trainer Joshua Stein.
The 26-year-old nephew of Roger Stein took over his uncle’s stable after saddling Cleverly Beverly for a maiden win at Pleasanton on July 6 as the last horse to run officially in his uncle’s name.
Cleverly Beverly made her first start for Joshua Stein last Thursday and brought him his first victory as a trainer, defeating Star Mist, who had beaten her June 15. Also in the field was Giant Journey, who had defeated Cleverly Beverly in a May 23 sprint.
