Sunday’s Grade 2, $200,000 Nijinsky Stakes, a 1 1/8-mile turf race for 3-year-olds and up, attracted a competitive field of 10, including many established stakes performers. But trainer Brian Lynch will be looking to shake things up with Grand Arch and Hampstead Heath, who enter the Nijinsky off sharp turf scores under allowance terms.
Grand Arch, a Kentucky-bred 4-year-old gelding owned by Jim and Susan Hill, will be making his stakes debut in the Nijinsky.
VANCOUVER, British Columbia – Goldfire appears to be sitting on a big race and there should be plenty of speed to set up his good late move when he runs in a $7,500 claiming race at Hastings on Sunday. The 1 1/16-mile race for 3-year-olds and up drew six horses and goes as the eighth race.
Departing has trained forwardly since his sixth-place finish in the Preakness and is “trending upward” toward his next start as the probable favorite in the Aug. 3 West Virginia Derby at Mountaineer Park, trainer Al Stall Jr. said this week from Saratoga.
The winner of the Illinois Derby, Departing had four workouts at Churchill Downs before leaving for Saratoga, where he will breeze for the second time Monday, Stall said. He then will breeze once more before leaving for the Grade 2, $750,000 West Virginia Derby.
DEL MAR, Calif. – If you have a 3-year-old at Del Mar and want to run long in a stakes race, the early-season options are limited. Unless you’re willing to wait for something age-appropriate on the main track later in the meet, you can run against elders, or try the turf.
Expectations were high for Holy Candy when he came into last year’s meet at Del Mar, but he never even finished his first race on opening day. Holy Candy, the even-money favorite in a division of the Oceanside Stakes, was pulled up, and was found to have a chip in his right front ankle. It required surgery, and sent him to the sidelines.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Sky Treasure, an up-and-comer trained by Mark Casse, will be making her stakes debut but looms as the horse to beat here in Sunday’s $125,000 Duchess.
A field of six 3-year-old fillies was entered for the Duchess, a seven-furlong stakes that serves as the supporting feature with the Grade 2, $200,000 Nijinsky.
OCEANPORT, N.J. – Trainer Garry Simms has a long-term plan for Blueeyesintherein in which he see her competing in the Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Sprint this fall at Santa Anita. And he wants to get his talented 3-year-old there fresh and ready for the challenge.
That strategy explains why she is taking the long journey from Kentucky to Monmouth Park for the $60,000 Just Smashing Stakes on Sunday.
The six-furlong race drew a field of seven, with Blueeyesintherein, likely the odds-on favorite, drawing the rail.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Riding the River aims to defend his title in the Grade 2, $200,000 Nijinsky Stakes on Sunday at Woodbine in a rematch with Valentino Beauty, who appears to be his main threat in the nine-furlong turf event.
Riding the River, Canada’s champion male grass horse in 2012, is in the midst of another productive campaign for hot trainer Dave Cotey. He rallied for second in his season opener, the Grade 2 Connaught Cup Stakes, and then won when stretching out to a mile after being more forwardly placed than usual in the Grade 2 King Edward Stakes.
FORT ERIE, Ontario – Apprentice jockey Mallory Strandberg began her riding career only a few months ago, following a two-year training stint at the North American Riding Academy in Lexington, Ky., under the stewardship of Hall of Fame rider Chris McCarron.
The 23-year-old Strandberg has been very busy since her graduation, competing at nine different racetracks in the span of five months, credits McCarron for her enthusiasm.
Former jockey Raul Cespedes died of cancer Monday at his home in Fontana, Calif. He was 67.
A native of Santiago, Chile, Cespedes rode in his homeland as well as Panama and Mexico before coming to California in 1967, riding there until his retirement in 1982.
Cespedes won the 1969 San Francisco Mile with Wingover, the 1975 Albany Handicap with Pelegrin Sands and 1979 California Oaks with Whydidju, all at Golden Gate Fields.
Following his riding career, Cespedes served as a jockey agent.
