ELMONT, N.Y. - Clearly Now, who set a track record for seven furlongs of 1:19.96 winning Saturday’s Grade 3, $400,000 Belmont Sprint Championship by 6 1/4 lengths, will be pointed to the Grade 1 Forego at Saratoga on Aug. 30, trainer Brian Lynch said Sunday. The Forego, like the Belmont Sprint, is run at seven furlongs.
“Certainly the Forego is the next spot for him,” Lynch said by phone from Canada. “That’ll probably be spot on for him. Then we’ll take it from there.”
ELMONT, N.Y. - The Grade 1 Belmont Oaks Invitational was formerly known as the Garden City, so when Minorette won it on Saturday it essentially gave trainer Chad Brown his third consecutive victory in this race. Alterite, who won the Garden City last year, is getting closer to her 4-year-old debut.
On Monday, Alterite worked five furlongs in 1:00.95 over the Oklahoma turf course at Saratoga and could be ready to run in the Grade 1 Diana on July 19, Brown said.
ELMONT, N.Y. - Usually, when a first-time starter wins a stakes race by 14 1/2 lengths, it’s something to crow about. But trainer Leah Gyarmati said she is not going to get too excited after Wonder Gal won Sunday’s $125,000 Lynbrook Stakes for New York-bred juvenile fillies by that margin.
Four of the six horses in the Lynbrook were maidens, one of whom scratched at the gate. Still, Wonder Gal made an eye-catching move around the far turn and galloped home under a hand ride from jockey Taylor Rice.
ELMONT, N.Y. - Cross Traffic has had a setback in his attempt to return to the races.
Trainer Todd Pletcher said that Cross Traffic injured a splint bone in a foreleg, and that has kept him off the work tab since early June. The injury forced Cross Traffic to miss a planned late June comeback on his way to the Grade 1 Whitney, a race that he won last year.
“He popped a splint,” Pletcher said. “Hopefully, he’ll be back on the work tab this weekend.”
As for future plans, Pletcher said, “We’re taking it as it comes.”
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – There is little doubt the Saratoga racing season is just around the corner after watching wave after wave of horses trained by Todd Pletcher and Chad Brown turn in works here Monday morning. With the meet opening a week from Friday, clockers on the main track, training track, and turf course timed over 200 workouts here Monday.
Between them, Pletcher and Brown worked 60 horses over the main track and turf course on Monday, including the Pletcher-trained Palace Malice, who breezed an easy half-mile for the Grade 1 Whitney Handicap on Aug. 2.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Trainer Mark Casse won his first Queen’s Plate when Lexie Lou became the sixth filly to record the Woodbine Oaks-Queen’s Plate double at Woodbine on Sunday.
Emotions overwhelmed Casse, a six-time Sovereign Award winner, and his family following the race.
“It’ll probably sink in a little more later on,” he said. “It was very emotional. My son Colby just started crying afterwards, and to see it mean that much to him, it got me crying.”
Princess of Sylmar has been assigned 123 pounds for Saturday’s Grade 1, $750,000 Delaware Handicap.
Princess of Sylmar, one of the leading fillies and mares in training, is expected to face a short cast in the 1 1/4-mile Del Cap. As of Monday, her rivals were expected to include Molly Morgan, 119; Flashy American, 118; Gamay Noir, 116; and Zucchini Flower, 112.
Molly Morgan is coming off a four-length win in the Grade 2 Fleur de Lis at Churchill Down for trainer Dale Romans. Flashy American, trained by Ken McPeek, finished second in that race.
ELMONT, N.Y. - Though Saturday’s inaugural “Stars and Stripes Racing Festival” at Belmont Park was a success, New York Racing Association officials were not pounding their chests Sunday morning.
“Yesterday was a good starting point,” said Martin Panza, NYRA’s senior vice-president of racing operations. "We can grow that day."
ELMONT, N.Y. – Princess of Sylmar completed preparations for her start in next Saturday’s Grade 1, $750,000 Delaware Handicap by working four furlongs in 48.85 seconds Sunday morning over Belmont Park’s training track.
ELMONT, N.Y. - The Breeders’ Cup is the major objective for the winners of Saturday’s two seven-figure Grade 1 turf races for 3-year-olds at Belmont Park, but how each horse gets there remained an unanswered question on Sunday morning.
