SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - Alpha and Golden Ticket, who dead-heated for win in last year's Travers Stakes, are still in training as 4-year-olds, with mixed results.
Alpha has lost all six of his starts since the Travers, most recently finishing sixth in the Grade 1 Whitney Invitational. Trainer Kiaran McLaughlin said he didn't think the Whitney was that bad a race for Alpha, who was compromised by a slower-than-expected pace.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - On Fire Baby, winner of the Grade 1 Apple Blossom in April, and Authenticity, winner of the Grade 3 Shuvee last out, head the list of competitors scheduled to face Royal Delta in Sunday's Grade 1, $600,000 Personal Ensign Invitational at 1 1/8 miles.
AUBURN, Wash. – Frank Lucarelli can further his bid for a third consecutive Emerald Downs training title when he sends out two starters, including recent acquisition Ms P K Blue, in Saturday’s feature race. Claimed out of her last start for $25,000, Ms P K Blue will challenge four rivals over 6 1/2 furlongs in a $25,000 claimer for older fillies and mares. First post time for the nine-race card is 2 p.m. Pacific.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - Win, lose, or draw in Saturday's $1 million Travers Stakes, trainer Eric Guillot is going to have a good time.
Spice Swirl can be expected to rule a heavy favorite to win her third straight Columbus Maturity/Matron Stakes when she heads a compact field of five older Nebraska-bred fillies and mares going six furlongs at Columbus on Saturday evening.
Trainer David Whited was in an induced coma at a Shreveport, La., hospital on Thursday, but prospects for his recovery from brain trauma suffered earlier in the week were good, a family member said.
The bleeding on Whited’s brain has almost stopped, said his brother, trainer Danny Whited, while the percentage of swelling in his brain is lower than what is typical of patients with similar injuries. He is hospitalized at LSU Medical Center in Shreveport.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – It almost doesn’t seem fair. Not only does trainer Todd Pletcher have the favorite for Saturday’s $500,000 King’s Bishop at Saratoga in the red-hot Forty Tales, he also has entered two other potential win candidates, Capo Bastone and Overanalyze, for the Grade 1 fixture to be decided at seven furlongs as a lead-in to the afternoon’s main event, the Travers.
Lloyd Lockhart just turned 88, and his family hopes that his homebred Southoftheborder will give him the perfect birthday gift when she carries his colors for the final time Saturday while defending consecutive titles in the $50,000 First Episode Stakes for Massachusetts-breds at Suffolk Downs.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - Vitoria Olimpica proved he was more than a one-dimensional turf horse when he outgamed the 4-5 favorite Easter Gift to register a three-quarter-length victory in Thursday’s $100,000 Alydar Stakes at Saratoga.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Excaper stamped himself as a bona-fide turf horse as a 2-year-old, finishing second in both the Grade 1 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf at Churchill Downs and the Grade 3 Summer Stakes at Woodbine. But while he has gone on to place in four more turf stakes, the 4-year-old Excaper is still looking for his first stakes win after 12 career starts.
On Sunday, Excaper could be poised to break through in the Play the King, a seven-furlong turf stakes that offers Grade 2 status and a purse of $200,000.
