DEL MAR, California – The stakes program for Del Mar 3-year-olds is all about turf, the preferred surface for both favorites Wednesday in split divisions of the Oceanside Stakes on opening day of the summer meet.
Undrafted is 2 for 2 on turf and the horse to beat in race 6. Den’s Legacy returns to turf for the first time since winning a Grade 3 last fall. He is favored in race 9.
DEL MAR, Calif. - All Squared Away, who would have been one of the leading contenders in the Grade 1, $300,000 Eddie Read Stakes for older turf horses on Saturday at Del Mar, suffered a condylar fracture to his right front ankle on Sunday morning during a workout at Betfair Hollywood Park and was to undergo surgery Monday afternoon, trainer Peter Miller said Monday morning.
“The good news is that it’s non-displaced, but it’s really disappointing, because I think he was the horse to beat in the Eddie Read,” Miller said.
DEL MAR, Calif. – Trainer Jim Cassidy wasn’t at Ocala in March when a Malibu Moon colt now named J Serino was purchased for his client, Deron Pearson, for $485,000, but he likes what he’s seen so far. J Serino had impressed noted clocker Gary Young with his breeze at Ocala, and Cassidy was able to go right on with him over the past few months, a period of time in which a son of Malibu Moon won the Kentucky Derby. For those based in California, dreams for the 2014 Derby begin at Del Mar, and of the 2-year-old males expected to debut this summer, J Serino is among the notables to follow.
DEL MAR, Calif. – Led by Midnight Lucky and Paynter, trainer Bob Baffert worked a number of his stable stars at Del Mar on Monday morning for potential starts both here and on the East Coast.
Midnight Lucky, winner of the Acorn Stakes at Belmont on May 27, went five furlongs on Polytrack in 59.40 seconds in preparation for the Grade 1, $300,000 Prioress Stakes at Saratoga on July 27.
“She went nice,” Baffert said of Midnight Lucky, who is by Midnight Lute. “She likes anything, like her sire.”
When you put up $470,000 in purse money for four Indiana-bred stakes races, they will come. Statebreds take center stage at Indiana Downs on Wednesday evening, and each of the four restricted stakes drew 12 horses along with several also-eligibles.
Harbor Cat will try to remain perfect this year in her third start of the season in the $150,000 Indiana First Lady for 3-year-old fillies.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – D. Wayne Lukas has been training for 57 years, and in all that time, the Hall of Fame horseman said he’s never owned a stopwatch or timed one of his horses’ workouts. So, it mattered little to him that there was no official clocking available for Oxbow’s half-mile work, which took place over the fog-shrouded Oklahoma training track shortly after 5:30 a.m. Monday.
DEL MAR, Calif. – It has been 45 weeks since Peter Miller captured the first training title of his life, here last summer at Del Mar, a moment he savored then, and one that has kept on giving. Miller has since established himself as a permanent fixture in the top 5 of the trainer’s standings at subsequent meets in Southern California, and heads into this year’s Del Mar season with some 70 horses in his care, a significant increase from a year ago.
DEL MAR, Calif. – The first race of the Del Mar season is like none other. The massive crowd cheers heartily from start to finish when the gate opens at the start of the year’s most anticipated race meeting, the din building to a crescendo when the runners reach the stretch.
Trainer Jeff Bonde lost millionaire sprinter Smiling Tiger to retirement last week but, to paraphrase an old Esso advertising campaign, he still has a tiger in the tank.
She’s a Tiger, a three-quarter sister to Smiling Tiger, was an impressive debut winner at Pleasanton and made it 2 for 2 Saturday with a wire-to-wire victory under Frank Alvarado in the $150,000 Landaluce for 2-year-old fillies at Betfair Hollywood Park.
EAST BOSTON, Mass. – Andria Terrill remained in Massachusetts Hospital on Monday afternoon, waiting for a consultation with her medical team after they reviewed the results from a new MRI administered Sunday night. Terrill was admitted to the hospital on July 8 after suffering three fractures at the base of her skull in a spill at Suffolk Downs and has undergone several CT scans, MRIs, and other diagnostic tests. It had been incorrrectly reported that she had been released on Saturday.
