SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - Due largely to more races and a summer of spectacular weather, the 2012 Saratoga meet posted significant increases in overall handle while showing modest gains in ontrack business.
Total average daily handle for the 40-day meet was $14,708,799, up 9 percent from the 2011 daily average of $13,493,636. Last year, Saratoga conducted only 39 cards, canceling the Aug. 28 card - the day after the Travers - due to Tropical Storm Irene.
OCEANPORT, N.J. - Another weekend at Monmouth Park, another stakes win for jockey Chris DeCarlo.
Finishing up the core portion of the meet with a flourish, DeCarlo guided Afleeting Lady to a 4 1/2-length win over Daddy's Honor on Monday in the $75,750 Lady's Secret for fillies and mares.
Ben’s Cat got up in the final strides in a three-way photo on Monday to capture the Grade 3, $350,000 Turf Monster Handicap at Parx Racing.
The victory by the 6-year-old gelding was significant on so many levels.
It was the second straight Turf Monster win for Ben’s Cat, a prize pupil for Maryland training legend King Leatherbury. Ben’s Cat improved to 17 for 26 in his career, with a sparkling 10-for-15 mark on the turf.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - It was worth the wait.
After having to scratch from the Saratoga Special on Aug. 12 due to a temperature, Shanghai Bobby showed that he might be one of the hottest 2-year-olds on the East Coast by rolling to a 3 3/4-length victory in Monday’s Grade 2, $300,000 Hopeful Stakes on closing day at Saratoga.
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Trainer Todd Pletcher worked his top two juvenile filly prospects, Dreaming of Julia and Kauai Katie, here Monday prior to shipping back to Belmont Park later this week.
Dreaming of Julia was the first of the pair to go, breezing an easy five furlongs in 1:02.41 and galloping out six furlongs in 1:15.76 immediately after the renovation break. Dreaming of Julia was scratched from Sunday’s Grade 1 Spinaway, part of the Stonestreet entry that also included the Steve Asmussen-trained Teen Pauline, who finished third as the odds-on favorite.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - At the September 2011 Keeneland yearling auction, trainer James Bond and his longtime client William Clifton were the underbidders for a daughter of Malibu Moon out of the dam Red Hot Bertie. They stopped at $300,000, and the filly was purchased for $310,000 by B. Wayne Hughes of Spendthrift Farm.
A few months later, Bond was a guest of Hughes at a cocktail party that, in part, was to show off Spendthrift’s new stallions, which included the Bond-trained Tizway, winner of last year’s Metropolitan and Whitney handicaps.
Hall o Fame trainer Nick Zito wasn’t quite able to pull off a surprise in last month’s Travers when his 3-year-old Fast Falcon was a rapidly closing third to dead-heat co-winners Alpha and Golden Ticket. Zito also finished a close second with Fort Loudon in the King's Bishop for 3-year-old sprinters.
But Zito did manage to knock off the two favorites in another graded stakes for 3-year-olds on Labor Day.
DEL MAR, Calif. – Apprentice jockey Eswan Flores has been prohibited from riding since Aug. 25 by the California Horse Racing Board because the initial sample from a random drug test came back positive for cocaine, multiple sources close to the situation have confirmed. The status of the split sample from the test, which was administered at the track Aug. 23, was not clear as of Monday.
A pair of lightly regarded maidens, one who had shown little in two previous starts and the other a first-time starter, swept the six-figure stakes for New York-bred 2-year-olds Monday at Finger Lakes.
Tequila Hero ($50) rallied from fifth in the stretch to take the $126,825 Aspirant for colts and geldings. Matchmadein heaven ($36.80) survived an inquiry for a bumping incident in midstretch to upset the $124,888 Lady Finger for fillies.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - Trainer Shug McGaughey didn’t necessarily expect or even want Hit It Rich on the lead in Monday’s $150,000 Glens Falls. But in the end, the strategy paid off as Hit It Rich led every step of the way to post a comfortable 1 1/2-length victory over Bizzy Caroline in the co-feature on closing day of the 2012 Saratoga racing season.
