DEL MAR, Calif. – The pipeline of top South American horses heading to the West Coast of the United States seemed to dry out for about a decade, but it has been resurrected mightily the past couple of years, with top-class horses going to Richard Mandella, Ron McAnally, and Neil Drysdale, all Hall of Famers, all of whom have had great success with said horses during their careers.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – When a key workout leading up to the Whitney Handicap didn’t go as planned for Fort Larned, trainer Ian Wilkes made an adjustment and breezed the horse back three days later.
Tuesday, in what was to be Fort Larned’s key workout leading up to the Grade 1 Woodward Stakes on Aug. 31 at Saratoga, Wilkes scripted the move to make sure it went exactly as planned.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Trainer Jack Fisher will try to put an exclamation point on what has been a fabulous 2013 Saratoga meet when he sends out a trio of horses led by Mr. Hot Stuff in Thursday’s Grade 1, $150,000 New York Turf Writers Cup Steeplechase.
DEL MAR, Calif. – Dullahan left Dubai in the spring after two poor performances with a crummy souvenir from his international journey: He emerged from an 11th-place finish in the $10 million Dubai World Cup with an illness.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – After facing several of the leading members of the handicap division earlier this month in the Grade 1 Whitney, Csaba will get some welcome class relief Thursday at Saratoga when he meets four more suitable rivals in the $100,000 Alydar Stakes.
Highlighted by five Grade 1 races on Sept. 28 that serve as preps to the Breeders’ Cup five weeks later, Santa Anita on Tuesday announced its stakes schedule for its fall meeting, which opens on Sept. 27 and features the 30th running of the Breeders’ Cup on Nov. 1-2.
Santa Anita will have 27 graded stakes during the 24-day season which runs through Nov. 3, including the 14 that make up the two-day Breeders’ Cup. This will be the second of three consecutive years that Santa Anita will play host to the Breeders’ Cup.
Brujo de Olleros, a Group 1 winner in Uruguay in January 2012, earned his first victory in the United States when he scored a convincing win in Monday’s $51,225 Carl Hanford Memorial Stakes at Delaware Park.
Matt Garcia will not need immediate surgery but remains hospitalized after suffering multiple fractures from a sixth-race spill at the Humboldt County Fair in Ferndale, Calif., on Sunday, according to track publicity director Ellis Davis. Garcia fractured two vertebrae in his neck, the C5 and C6, and two lumbar vertebrae, the L7 and L8, and also broke a rib.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Trainer Todd Pletcher wanted to try Winning Cause on grass again this summer and was rewarded for that decision with a victory in the one-mile Sir Cat Stakes here four weeks ago. On Wednesday, Pletcher will give Winning Cause a second opportunity to pick up black type on turf when he goes postward as the favorite in the $100,000 Dance of Life Stakes.
