DEL MAR, Calif. – Del Mar's stewards on Wednesday made the unusual but not unprecedented decision to allow the transfer of Irish Art from trainer Carla Gaines to trainer Jerry Quinn, allowing Irish Art to run in Thursday's featured $85,000 seventh race.
The super pick five jackpot at Louisiana Downs has not been claimed since June 27, making for a $626,830 carryover heading into Thursday’s card. The bet runs on the last five races on the program, and the jackpot pays out only if there is one ticket with the winners of all of the races in the sequence. For the card Thursday, the super pick five will start with the fourth of eight races.
Lasting Bubbles is in the best form of her career, and as a result she could get a shot at graded company next week in the $100,000 Gardenia at Ellis Park.
Trainer Kevin Peek said Lasting Bubbles, based on a farm near Texarkana, Texas, is scheduled to work later this week at either Louisiana Downs or Lone Star Park. It would be her prep for a possible start in the Gardenia, a Grade 3, one-mile race for fillies and mares on Aug. 10.
ARLINGTON HEIGHTS, Ill. – Say this for the father-and-son team of Pete and Peter Reiman, the breeders and owners of Nates Mineshaft: They do not shy away from the big stage.
Nates Mineshaft, one of the surprise stories of the 2012 racing season, won his first start in more than a year when he captured a high-end allowance race Saturday at Arlington Park, and the victory – Nates Mineshaft’s first on turf – is likely to lead to a start in the Arlington Million on Aug. 17.
Departing was assigned post 5 and Overanalyze got the outside post as the top contenders in a field of nine 3-year-olds in the Grade 2, $750,000 West Virginia Derby, the annual showcase event at Mountaineer Racetrack.
The 1 1/8-mile West Virginia Derby, to be run Saturday, also got Say Ow (post 3), in off back-to-back wins at Betfair Hollywood Park, and an improving Steve Asmussen colt, Betweenhereandcool (post 4).
DEL MAR, Calif. – By the end of last year, Fury Kapcori had established himself as one of the circuit’s leading 2-year-olds, putting himself on the short list of potential Kentucky Derby prospects for 2013 with his second-place finish to Violence in the CashCall Futurity. But he suffered a knee injury this year that kept him out of the spring preps and knocked him off the Derby trail.
DEL MAR, Calif. – Jason Tackitt needed advice.
A few years ago, as he began investing in Thoroughbred racing, Tackitt contacted Kosta Hronis, a fellow resident of Bakersfield, Calif., and racehorse owner, seeking to learn what to expect in the game. Hronis started out with a few horses, and has grown his stable to be the leading owner in Southern California this year.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Trainer David Fawkes hitched up the horse trailer at his new summer headquarters on the backstretch at Gulfstream Park shortly before 9 a.m. on Tuesday and a few minutes later was on the road, his graded-stakes-winning sprinter Bahamian Squall in tow, with the next stop Saratoga Springs and a date Sunday in the Grade 1 Alfred G. Vanderbilt Handicap.
Trainer Randy Allen and owners Richard and Frances Hessee combined to sweep both divisions of the Strike Your Colors Stakes for 2-year-olds on Monday at Delaware Park.
Long On Value ($4.40), ridden for the first time by Daniel Centeno, remained unbeaten in three starts by cruising to a six-length victory in the $50,250 first division. He ran 5 ½ furlongs in 1:03.29.
Barracuda Wayne ($48.20) rallied from fifth under Jose Caraballo to take the $50,125 second division by 1 ½ lengths over No Fruit Degroote. The winning time was 1:04.40.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Thursday’s $100,000 A.P. Smithwick Memorial Steeplechase will have a familiar look as well as an international flavor when Jonathan Sheppard, the perennial king of the jump races at Saratoga, sends out three entrants, including the Irish-bred Hunt Ball in the Grade 1 fixture to be decided at 2 1/16 miles over hurdles.
