SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – With Mindframe and Antiquarian running in Sunday’s Jockey Club Gold Cup, and Fierceness starting in Saturday’s Grade 1 Pacific Classic at Del Mar, Pletcher has Locked aiming for the Grade 2, $300,000 Woodward Stakes at Aqueduct on Sept. 27.
Pletcher pointed out that last fall, when returning from a length layoff, Locked won an allowance race and the Grade 2 Cigar Mile over Aqueduct’s main track.
Cabo Spirit is not a one-dimensional turf miler.
Though dangerous when allowed to set the pace, Cabo Spirit finished a game third as a stalker in the Grade 1 Shoemaker Mile at Santa Anita on May 26. In his lone start this summer, Cabo Spirit set a slow pace in the Grade 2 Eddie Read Stakes at Del Mar on July 27 and nearly pulled off a minor upset at 6-1, finishing second by a length to Formidable Man.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – While most will focus on Mindframe in Sunday’s Grade 1, $1 million Jockey Club Gold Cup, trainer Todd Pletcher said it would be a mistake to overlook his other entrant in the race, Antiquarian.
Mindframe is 3 for 3 this year and coming off two Grade 1 victories. He will likely vie for favoritism in the Gold Cup with Sierra Leone, who finished second to Mindframe in the Grade 1 Stephen Foster on June 28 before winning the Grade 1 Whitney on Aug. 2.
Mister Omaha is scheduled to make his next start in the $250,000 Super Derby on Sept. 6 at Louisiana Downs, according to his trainer, Joe Offolter. Entries for the 1 1/8-mile race will be taken Saturday.
Mister Omaha is one of the top 3-year-olds based at Remington Park. He has been working over the Oklahoma City strip since finishing third to Magnitude in the Iowa Derby at Prairie Meadows.
“I thought he ran good last time,” Offolter said. “We just hooked a bear.”
The role of favorite for Saturday’s Grade 1 Pacific Classic at Del Mar may not be known until post time.
When post positions were drawn Tuesday for the $1 million race, Nysos was made the 8-5 favorite by track linemaker John Lies, with Journalism at 9-5 and Fierceness at 3-1.
After running at five different tracks since May, trainer Henry Walters will finally get a chance to bring Maryland-bred gelding Barbadian Runner home to Laurel Park and keep him there. After a short rest, Walters plans to enter the 3-year-old on Maryland Million Day in October.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y – Jockey John Velazquez begins closing week serving a three-day careless-riding suspension for his Aug. 17 ride in the sixth race, where he was disqualified from first aboard Scope and placed second.
Velazquez began serving the days on Sunday and will miss Wednesday and Thursday.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y – East Avenue, a Grade 1-winning 2-year-old in 2024 whose only win this year came in the Grade 3 Matt Winn in June, is sidelined for the remainder of the year with bone bruising, trainer Brendan Walsh said Monday.
East Avenue most recently finished fifth as the 4-5 favorite in the Grade 3 West Virginia Derby on Aug. 3, a race in which he veered in at the start and was unable to make the lead.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Trainer Saffie Joseph Jr. reported that Skippylongstocking seems none the worse for wear following his very disappointing performance last Friday when virtually eased to the wire nearly 40 lengths behind winner Banishing in the Grade 2 Charles Town Classic.
“He got pressured early and went quick on the lead for that track and came out of the race with a good case of the thumps, but neither should cause him to run a race like that,” Joseph said.
Three factors contributed to Coppola being supplemented to Saturday’s Grade 3 Green Flash Handicap at Del Mar, the veteran runner’s first appearance in California.
“It’s five-eighths, firm turf, and the Breeders’ Cup,” trainer Dale Romans said on Monday morning.
The $150,000 Green Flash at five furlongs is the leading turf sprint of the Del Mar summer meeting. The winner receives a fees-paid berth to the Breeders’ Cup Turf Sprint at five furlongs on Nov. 1.
