ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Woodbine has released a list of 18 nominees for the 29th running of the Grade 1, $1 million Woodbine Mile, the headliner on Turf Champions Day on Sept. 13.
Trainer Mark Casse nominated the speedy sophomore Mi Bago, Canadian champion My Boy Prince, and last year’s winner, Win for the Money, who recently shipped back to Woodbine off a third-place finish in the Grade 1 Fourstardave at Saratoga. Woodbine’s perennial leading trainer has won the Woodbine Mile three times.
Jockey Armando Aguilar has been suspended for four racing days for causing interference in the fifth race at Del Mar on Aug. 17.
Aguilar’s suspension covers Sept. 5-7, the final three days of the current Del Mar meeting, and Sept. 12, the opening day of the Los Alamitos September meeting.
Aguilar was cited for his ride aboard Harcyn, who won a $25,000 claiming race at five furlongs on turf at 40-1. In early stretch, Harcyn altered course, moving to his outside, which impeded Zoffarelli, who finished eighth of 10, beaten three lengths.
Arrowthegreat, winner of the $125,000 Longacres Mile at Emerald Downs on Aug. 17, is likely to run in the $85,000 Tokyo City Cup at a mile at Santa Anita on Oct. 25 in his next start.
Trainer Dan Blacker said recently that the distance of the Tokyo City Cup is a deciding factor. Even slightly longer races are not ideal for Arrowthegreat, who has won 4 of 18 starts with all the wins at a mile in the last two years.
“We tried him farther, at a mile and a sixteenth, and he doesn’t fire,” Blacker said. “At a mile and an eighth, he’s not as good. He’s a miler.”
For much of the summer, Boss Sully was scheduled to be sent to Kentucky Downs for Saturday’s Grade 2 Turf Sprint and a chance to chase a $2 million prize.
As the race neared, however, trainer Brian Koriner reversed his decision. Boss Sully has remained in California for Saturday’s Grade 3 Green Flash Handicap at Del Mar, which is worth a mere $150,000.
Travel concerns and confusion regarding whether Boss Sully would gain a position in the field of 12 at Kentucky Downs factored into staying at Del Mar, Koriner said.
Beginning with Monday’s closing-day card at Saratoga, the New York Racing Association will implement penny breakage, a horseplayer-friendly measure that will result in all wagers placed on NYRA races being paid to the penny instead of the tiered breakage model that was previously in place.
The law permitting this was passed in the New York State budget signed by Gov. Kathy Hochul in May, with an effective date of Sept. 1.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Though Aye Eye is entered in Saturday’s $100,000 Sapling Stakes at Monmouth Park, he was cross-entered on Thursday for Monday’s Grade 1, $300,000 Hopeful Stakes at Saratoga and that is where he is expected to run, according to trainer Joe Orseno.
Why not?
Thoroughbred jockeys at Remington Park are refusing to be named on mounts at the track beginning with the overnight for the Sept. 4 card while negotiations continue on a new fee scale for losing mounts with the track’s horsemen’s group, according to officials.
DEL MAR, Calif. – Bob Baffert is not winning all the maiden races for 2-year-olds at Del Mar this summer.
Last Saturday, Intrepido, trained by Jeff Mullins, led throughout a maiden race for 2-year-olds at a mile to join the list of candidates for two-turn stakes this fall. Intrepido ($6.80) ran a mile in 1:35.71, earning a highly respectable Beyer Speed Figure of 84.
“We knew he was a two-turn horse all along,” Mullins said after the race.
Spirit of Makena, who pulled up with a suspensory injury in the Grade 2 Pat O’Brien Stakes at Del Mar last Saturday, underwent successful surgery earlier this week to stabilize the injured leg, trainer George Papaprodromou said.
Papaprodromou, however, warned that the next week is vital to Spirit of Makena’s recovery.
“Everything went well,” Papaprodromou said. “He’s here at the barn standing. It’s a matter of time. So far, so good.”
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Rated by Merit, who went 4 for 4 and swept the Florida Stallion Series as a 2-year-old when in the barn of Michael Yates, is now with trainer Chad Brown.
Rated by Merit’s four victories came at Gulfstream Park by a combined 25 3/4 lengths, including a 3 3/4-length win in the Affirmed that earned a 99 Beyer Speed Figure . He was sidelined in January due to mild bone bruising.
Since being transferred to Brown by owner Vinnie Viola, Rated by Merit has had four works – all in the month of August – and is being pointinged to a fall return.
