Steal Sunshine is scheduled to work over the weekend at Gulfstream Park for an intended start in the Grade 3, $250,000 Philip H. Iselin at Monmouth Park, trainer Bobby Dibona said Wednesday.
The Iselin is a 1 1/16-mile race on Aug. 19.
Steal Sunshine has won stakes races at distances of seven furlongs to a mile. He is coming off a runner-up finish in the $60,000 Bill Kaplan Memorial, a 1 1/16-mile overnight handicap July 2 at his base of Gulfstream Park.
One Timer posted the highest turf-sprint Beyer Speed Figure so far this year, 104, winning the Kentucky Downs Turf Sprint Preview Sstakes on Sunday at Ellis Park. But as fast as One Timer ran, it’s not even certain he’s the top one-turn turf horse in trainer Larry Rivelli’s stable. Nobals certainly has accomplished more this year, winning the Grade 2 Turf Sprint at Churchill in May with a 102 Beyer, and he was a good second Saturday at Saratoga finishing second in the Troy Stakes.
“I had to split them up and I feel like I chose the right races,” Rivelli said.
Bus Buzz’s days of racing exclusively in main track sprints for statebreds ended, at least temporarily, with his emphatic win in the Real Good Deal Stakes for 3-year-olds at seven furlongs on dirt at Del Mar last Friday.
For his final start of the Del Mar summer meeting, Bus Buzz is scheduled to run in the Grade 3 Green Flash Handicap at five furlongs on turf Sept. 2. The $150,000 Green Flash Handicap will be Bus Buzz’s stakes debut against older horses.
The winner receives a fees-paid berth to the Breeders’ Cup Turf Sprint at Santa Anita on Nov. 4.
It took a few days last week for Northern California-based trainer O.J. Jauregui to find a rider for Dreamfyre in Saturday’s Grade 3 Sorrento Stakes for 2-year-old fillies at Del Mar.
A few phone calls and text messages to agents went unanswered, Jauregui said, before Hector Berrios was confirmed to ride Dreamfyre in the $200,000 race at six furlongs.
On Monday at Del Mar, Berrios was aboard Dreamfyre for the first time in a three-furlong workout in a rapid 35 seconds. The time was a bit quicker than Jauregui expected.
All-sources handle through the first four weeks (19 cards) of the Saratoga meet is $380,474,631, down 8.8 percent from the $416,970,416 handled through the first 19 days of the 2022 meet, according to figures provided by the New York Racing Association.
Ontrack handle is $65,703,793, down 6.5 percent from the 2022 figure of $70,264,281 handled last year to this point.
Paid admissions are 509,741, up 4.8 percent from the 486,408 figure of 2022. Paid admissions include season passes sold.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Trainer Saffie Joseph Jr., who developed White Abarrio into a Grade 1 winner before the horse was transferred to trainer Rick Dutrow due to sanctions placed upon Joseph by Churchill Downs and NYRA, said he was very proud of his former pupil after watching him dominate the Grade 1 Whitney on Saturday.
The sanctions against Joseph, which came following the sudden deaths of two of his horses in a 72-hour period at Churchill this spring, were ultimately dropped several weeks ago.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. — Kentucky Derby winner Mage put in his first workout over Saratoga’s main track Saturday, breezing five furlongs in 1:01.08 as he continues preparation for the Grade 1, $1.25 million Travers Stakes here on Aug. 26.
Due to wet track conditions on Friday, trainer Gustavo Delgado pushed this workout back by a day. The main track was harrowed and probably good for training following the mid-morning renovation break.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - The final four races of Friday’s card at Saratoga were canceled due to weather conditions that included rain, thunder, and lightning.
The announcement of the cancellation came when horses were in the paddock for the Grade 2, $500,000 National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame Stakes. That race, for 3-year-olds on turf, will be rescheduled for Aug. 11.
