Trainer Robertino Diodoro was pleased with the way Broadway Empire and Smart Promotion handled their final preps for the Grade 3, $200,000 Canadian Derby at Northlands Park. Both horses worked five furlongs Friday morning while preparing for the 1 3/8-mile Derby, which will be run Saturday.
A full field of 12 is expected to enter the derby Wednesday morning, with Broadway Empire the likely favorite.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Trainer Ron Moquett did a little tinkering with Right to Vote after the multiple graded stakes-placed gelding was purchased privately and transferred to his barn earlier this year. Those changes have Right to Vote running well enough of late to prevail in a well-matched field of seven older speedsters who have not won a graded stakes this year in Monday’s $100,000 Kid Russell Stakes at Saratoga.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – While horsemen in Saratoga adjusted their training schedules Saturday morning over a wet main track or a drying-out training track, trainer Shug McGaughey had no such concerns while in Fair Hill, Md., to oversee Kentucky Derby winner Orb’s last major workout before the $1 million Travers Stakes on Aug. 24.
“It’s beautiful here,” McGaughey said by phone.
| Consensus Totals Based on 5 points for First (7 for Best Bet), 2 for 2nd,1 for 3rd. |
Jockey Fernando Perez will be out for at least two weeks due to injures he suffered when J J’s Wander, a horse he was riding in the third race at Northlands Park on Friday night, broke down going into the first turn.
Perez hit the ground hard when he came off J J’s Wander, and according to his agent, Bob Fowlis, he “cracked a couple of ribs.” The injury will cost Perez the mount on Smart Promotion, who is undefeated in three starts, in the Grade 3, $200,000 Canadian Derby at Northlands on Saturday, Aug. 17.
DEL MAR, Calif. – Rafael Bejarano was on time with Tasty Treat in Friday’s $111,050 Daisycutter Handicap at Del Mar.
The top rider at the current Del Mar meeting, Bejarano did not start the twilight program that way, missing his mount in the first race on Exotic Slew.
“I was stuck in traffic,” he said.
Bejarano was on hand by the second race and had no problems aboard Tasty Treat later in the evening.
The super pick five jackpot at Louisiana Downs was hit on Friday, paying $889,726. The jackpot only pays out if there is a single ticket with five winners.
The wager, which runs on the final five races on the program, had last been solved on June 27.
There was an $810,339 carryover into the card, and another $105,848 was bet into the pool Friday, said Trent McIntosh, director of racing operations for Louisiana Downs.
“It was great to have a pool that size for the time that it lasted, and some lucky guy just made a life-changing bet,” said McIntosh.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - Though Notacatbutallama was turning into a very professional turf horse, trainer Todd Pletcher felt the New York-bred 3-year-old was doing too well not to run him even when Friday's $200,000 National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame Stakes was rained off to the dirt.
Ohio-bred horses will take center stage at the River Downs at Beulah Park meet with a pair of $50,000 stakes Sunday. Both the fifth race, the Horizon Stakes for 3-year-olds, and the seventh race, the Vivacious Handicap for older fillies and mares, are restricted to statebreds.
Uptown Gal comes into the Vivacious off a 5 1/4-length win in the $75,000 Queen City Oaks on July 28 at Beulah Park. Trained by Jim Rankin, Uptown Gal will be turning back in distance − the Oaks covered 1 1/8 miles, and the Vivacious covers 1 1/16 miles.
Cat’s Holiday will face statebred company for only the second time in her short career when heading a field of six 3-year-old Pennsylvania-bred fillies in the $75,000 Malvern Rose Stakes at Presque Isle Downs on Sunday.
Unraced at 2, Cat’s Holiday won at first asking for trainer Graham Motion on Jan. 12 at Tampa Bay Downs. Her second win came locally against statebred company May 20 in an allowance race going a mile.
