ELMONT, N.Y. – After spending the better part of the last seven weeks celebrating 150 years of Saratoga history, the New York Racing Association enters a new era on several fronts when Belmont Park opens its 37-day fall meet Saturday.
Zia Park in Hobbs, N.M., has created a $300,000 race for 3-year-old fillies, updated its wagering format, renovated its racing surface, and added two cards to its schedule in key changes made for the 56-date meet that opens on Saturday. The season will run through Dec. 3.
The American Graded Stakes Committee has decided that Monday’s Glens Falls Stakes at Saratoga will remain ungraded, the committee said Thursday.
Originally a Grade 3 scheduled for 1 3/8 miles on Saratoga’s inner turf, the Glens Falls was one of six turf races moved to the main track on Saratoga’s closing day. Six of the original eight entrants in the Glens Falls were scratched, with five horses drawing in off the main-track-only list, including the favorite and winner, Lady Cohiba. It was run at 1 1/8 miles on a muddy track.
Jessethemarine, the second longest shot on the board at 17-1, came up short by a head following a stretch-long duel but walked away a winner, thanks to the disqualification of Interchange in Thursday’s $50,250 Whirling Ash Stakes for 2-year-olds at Delaware Park.
Jessethemarine, with Jose Caraballo aboard, briefly took a narrow lead over pacesetter Interchange in deep stretch of the one-mile dirt race only to see Interchange, under Victor Carrasco, fight back to narrowly reach the wire first in 1:38.70.
ARLINGTON HEIGHTS, Ill. – While Hall of Fame jockey Mike Smith is in town to ride in the Arlington-Washington Lassie and the Arlington-Washington Futurity, little-known trainer Anne Smith might have the horse for the Grade 3, $150,000 Futurity on Saturday at Arlington.
DEL MAR, Calif. - Gypsy Robin, who won the California Equine Retirement Foundation Stakes for female sprinters Wednesday, will remain on Polytrack by running in the Grade 2, $200,000 Thoroughbred Club of America Stakes at Keeneland on Oct. 5, according to trainer Mike Puype.
Gypsy Robin rebounded from a fourth-place finish in a classified allowance race July 18.
AUBURN, Wash. – After an even 100 starts, Sun City still has something to offer. The 9-year-old mare, who is likely to be one of the favorites in Saturday’s seventh race at Emerald Downs, has won her past two starts, giving her 21 victories. She’ll shoot for No. 22 in a $2,500 claimer at six furlongs.
First post for the nine-race card is 2 p.m. Pacific.
DEL MAR, Calif. – Diamond Bachelor made an eye-catching presence when he arrived in the Del Mar paddock for the Oak Tree Juvenile Turf on Wednesday, and minutes later he looked just as good winning the race so easily that he rocketed to the top of the charts of contenders for the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – In the spring of 2011, a race pitting Pants On Fire and Taptowne would have resulted in a blowout victory for Pants On Fire.
Pants On Fire was the Louisiana Derby winner that spring, and finished ninth behind winner Animal Kingdom in the Kentucky Derby. Taptowne, meanwhile, was still eligible for a first-level allowance race on Derby Day of that year, and had been whipped early in the Spiral and Lexington stakes.
