ELMONT, N.Y. – Discreet Force got the better of Make the Moment after a spirited stretch battle in a first-level allowance race for New York-breds at Belmont Park on June 23.
Sunday, the two 3-year-old fillies will hook up again in the day’s featured race, a $77,000 second-level allowance for New York-bred fillies and mares, 3 years old and up, going six furlongs at Belmont.
VANCOUVER, British Columbia – The 2013 Hastings meet is coming to a close in just over three weeks and the closing-day card on Canadian Thanksgiving, Oct. 14, should be a good one with four stakes races on the menu. The main course will be the Grade 3, $100,000 Premiers for 3-year-olds and up going 1 3/8 miles, and Title Contender is expected to take on a strong field of older horses. Title Contender won the Grade 3 Ohio Derby and is coming off a convincing win in the Grade 3 British Columbia Derby. Complementing the Premiers is the Grade 3 Ballerina for fillies and mares.
Departing is scheduled to work Sunday at Louisiana Downs in what will be his final prep for the Grade 3, $400,000 Oklahoma Derby, trainer Al Stall Jr., said Friday. The 1 1/8-mile race at Remington Park is to be run next Sunday, Sept. 29.
Departing has remained at Louisiana Downs, where Stall has a division, since his win in the track’s Grade 2, $500,000 Super Derby on Sept. 7. The meet closes Sunday. Stall said Departing would have a “very easy half-mile” breeze, then ship to Oklahoma City later Saturday, Sept. 28.
Harry F. Thompson Jr., a trainer who won 2,671 races and took the Penn National trainer’s title seven times in a nine-year period, died on Tuesday in a Hershey, Penn., hospital, according to Penn National. Thompson Jr. was 75, the track said.
About 80 percent of Thompson’s career wins came at Penn National, the track said. A Virginia native, Thompson moved his stable to Penn National in 1989, and he took the trainer’s title at the year-round track from 1995-97, from 1999-2000, and from 2002-03, according to the track.
Jockey C.J. McMahon has been suspended until at least next week by the Indiana Downs stewards.
McMahon had a confrontation with the Indiana Downs starter Johnnie Jamison and an assistant starter Tuesday before the first race. McMahon made threatening remarks to both individuals while his mount, Dr.Kimble, was loading.
Security was called and McMahon was taken off his remaining mounts Tuesday and asked to leave the grounds.
Caviar N Champagne will try to make it four in a row against statebred company at Thistledown on Sunday in the $50,000 Scarlet and Gray.
A 4-year-old filly, Caviar N Champagne won the Mike Mackey Memorial on June 8 going six furlongs. In her next out June 30, she won the J.W. Petro Memorial going 1 1/16 miles. In her most recent outing Sept. 1, Caviar N Champagne won the DeBartolo Memorial, also going 1 1/16 miles.
ELMONT, N.Y. – Shanghai Bobby, last year’s 2-year-old champion male, put himself in the picture for a return to the Breeders’ Cup with a neck victory in Friday’s $100,000 Aljamin Stakes at Belmont Park.
POMONA, Calif. – Have saddle, will travel.
One problem: Jockey Aaron Gryder did not have a saddle. He also did not have riding pants.
Gryder, currently third-leading rider at Hastings Park and among the most well-liked jockeys locally, was home visiting in Southern California last week when he was offered the chance to ride a weekend card in the Virgin Islands.
That would be a challenge without tack. Gryder turned to a friend, jockey Mike Smith, and told him his riding equipment was up at Hastings. Smith asked what Gryder needed.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Owner-trainer Alec Fehr was a winner in the courtroom Thursday, when the Ontario Racing Commission allowed his appeal of a stewards’ decision that declared Ultimate Destiny a non-starter following his second-place finish in the Seagram Cup after the horse’s gate opened prematurely.
On Sunday, Fehr will be looking to become a winner on the racetrack when Ultimate Destiny faces seven rivals in the seven-furlong, $125,000 Overskate Stakes for Ontario-sired 3-year-olds and up.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – His fans and critics had asked for class relief for Golden Soul, and that’s what they got this week when the 2013 Kentucky Derby runner-up dropped into first-level allowance company at Kentucky Downs.
Alas, that was no help either, although the undulating turf might have had something to do with another disappointing performance from the colt. With regular rider Robby Albarado aboard, Golden Soul was never a factor when finishing ninth, beaten seven lengths, in an $87,696 allowance race at 1 1/2 miles Wednesday at the south-central Kentucky track.
