SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - About 90 minutes before his winning ride in the first race aboard Havana on Friday, John Velazquez was part of a ceremony held by the New York Racing Association to honor the three winningest riders at Saratoga.
NYRA unveiled a bronze plaque with the likenesses of Velazquez, Jerry Bailey, and Angel Cordero and their accomplishments at Saratoga. The three riders were also given red blazers.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - Trainer Todd Pletcher unleashed another good-looking 2-year-old Friday when Havana won a 5 1/2-furlong maiden race by 2 3/4 lengths. His final time of 1:02.64 was just .13 of a second off the track record set by Factus Cactus in 2010.
"It didn't surprise us that he broke alertly and showed speed, and I was happy to see him put in the performance that he did," said Pletcher, who trains Havana for Michael Tabor, John Magnier, and Derrick Smith.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - It appeared as though Jackson Bend's career was over when he left Saratoga following a last-place finish in the Grade 1 Forego last September.
Though he escaped a frightening training accident a few weeks before the Forego relatively unscathed physically, his performance in the race seemed to signal that mentally he had enough.
DEL MAR, Calif. - Bardstown, a ridgling by Stormy Atlantic who had two quick workouts in early August, makes his career debut in what could be a productive maiden special weight for 2-year-olds in Sunday’s sixth race.
Trained by Bob Hess Jr., Bardstown may go favored. He was purchased for $400,000 at the Keeneland April sale of 2-year-olds in training.
“He’s a good horse,” Hess said on Friday. “He likes this surface.
AUBURN, Wash. – The handicap division at Emerald Downs spent much of the past week licking its wounds after a Canadian shipper dominated the Grade 3, $200,000 Longacres Mile last Sunday.
Herbie D, based at Hastings in Vancouver, British Columbia, essentially toyed with the field in the Northwest’s signature race, setting a fast pace to repel his would-be pace adversaries and then easily holding off a wall of closers through the final furlong. Herbie D earned a Beyer Speed Figure of 100, the first triple-digit speed figure in the Longacres Mile since 2006.
DEL MAR, Calif. – Winning Prize, a three-time Group 1 winner in Argentina in 2012, won his American debut so convincingly at Del Mar on Thursday that trainer Neil Drysdale hopes to send the colt to Keeneland for the $750,000 Shadwell Mile on Oct. 5.
The Shadwell Mile is expected to include Wise Dan, the reigning Horse of the Year.
AUBURN, Wash. – Chu and You, who has yet to be headed in two starts, looms the horse to beat Sunday in the $50,000 Barbara Shinpoch Stakes at Emerald Downs. The meeting’s second stakes race for 2-year-old fillies attracted a field of seven, with Chu and You likely to start as a narrow favorite over recent maiden winner Charismata. First post for the 10-race card is 2 p.m. Pacific.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Royal Delta regained her spot on the throne of the older filly and mare division with a dominant victory in last month’s Grade 1 Delaware Handicap.
Sunday, she will try to keep her position against two would-be queens – Authenticity and On Fire Baby – in the Grade 1, $600,000 Personal Ensign Handicap at Saratoga.
DEL MAR, Calif. – The reinvention of Goldencents as a sprinter can continue in Sunday’s $250,000 Pat O’Brien Stakes at Del Mar.
Already this year, Goldencents has won the Grade 3 Sham Stakes at a mile, the Grade 1 Santa Anita Derby at 1 1/8 miles, and finished a game second in the Grade 1 Bing Crosby Stakes at six furlongs here on July 28.
DEL MAR, Calif. – Obviously is such a standout in Sunday’s $200,000 Del Mar Mile that the three rival trainers with runners in the five-horse field are approaching the race with trepidation.
Obviously may be impossible to beat from the front in the Grade 2 turf race.
“If Obviously runs his ‘A’ race, it’s his,” said trainer John Sadler, who is running He Be Fire N Ice and Tigah.
