Poseidon’s Warrior’s neck victory over Justin Phillip at odds of 36-1 in the Grade 1 Vanderbilt here at Saratoga earlier in the meet obviously came as a major surprise to a lot of people. So too did what happened at the end of Poseidon’s Warrior’s routine half-mile workout here on Friday.
DEL MAR, Calif. – Executiveprivilege, unbeaten in three starts, can solidify her role as the leading 2-year-old filly in California when she makes her Grade 1 debut in the $300,000 Del Mar Debutante on Sept. 1.
Friday, trainer Bob Baffert said that Executiveprivilege was fit and ready for the seven-furlong Debutante, the summertime championship for the division. Executiveprivilege has started once at this meeting, winning the Grade 3 Sorrento Stakes on Aug. 8.
“The Sorrento was a big race,” Baffert said. “She’s holding her form. She worked nicely the other day.”
A $100,000 win bet made and then canceled within seconds of the start of the sixth race at Emerald Downs on Thursday night created havoc in the race’s betting pools when other bettors placed tens of thousands of dollars in wagers against the horse but did not have time to cancel their own bets.
Gantry, the Louisiana-based runner being pointed for the Breeders’ Cup Sprint, has had a quiet month and a half since winning the Grade 2, $400,000 Smile Sprint Handicap at Calder Race Course. But he made some noise last weekend, when he worked a bullet five furlongs in his first drill since the Florida start. And this coming Saturday, Sept. 1, he is scheduled to work again while his connections debate his prep options for the BC Sprint, a Grade 1, $1.5 million race to be run at Santa Anita on Nov. 3.
OCEANPORT, N.J. – Dancing Solo bids for a third stakes win at the meet on Sunday in the $60,000 Twin Lights Stakes for 3-year-old turf fillies at Monmouth Park.
Breaking from the rail, Dancing Solo will look to build on a Monmouth season in which she has already captured the Grade 3 Boiling Springs and the Little Silver.
Following the Boiling Springs victory, trainer Todd Pletcher upped the ante for Dancing Solo in the Grade 2 Lake George at Saratoga. She finished seventh after encountering traffic trouble early and late.
LOS ALAMITOS, Calif. – When the gelding New Look finished second in a division of the Golden State Derby trials on Aug. 12, trainer Dan Francisco began focusing on Sunday’s $236,400 final at Los Alamitos.
“He ran a good race in the trials,” Francisco said. “He didn’t have the fastest time, but I don’t worry about that.”
New Look was beaten a head by Do You Do Corona in the 400-yard race. He was timed in 19.83 seconds, recording the third-fastest qualifying time for the Grade 1 race.
Francisco was enthused that big-race rider Rodrigo Aceves has kept the mount.
AUBURN, Wash. – A stakes race scheduled for Sunday – the $50,000 Barbara Shinpoch – fell by the wayside because of insufficient entries, Emerald Downs officials announced Thursday, leaving talented stablemates Goin to the Window, Blueberry Smoothie, and Stopshoppingdebbie on the sideline for what was supposed to be the meeting’s final non-restricted stakes race for 2-year-old fillies.
[bc_video_id:261074:]SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – They have combined to win 15 of 24 starts, 10 graded stakes, and accrued $3.7 million in purses. One is the champion 3-year-old filly of 2011; the other is undefeated in three starts this year.
DEL MAR, Calif. – It’s safe to say that Camp Victory is a barn favorite at trainer Mike Mitchell’s stable.
On June 30, a day after Mitchell underwent surgery to have a brain tumor removed, Camp Victory won the Grade 1 Triple Bend Handicap at Betfair Hollywood Park. Sunday, Mitchell, who is still undergoing treatments, will be at Del Mar to watch Camp Victory make his next start in the $250,000 Pat O’Brien Stakes.
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DEL MAR, Calif. – The rivalry between the barns of trainers Bob Baffert and Doug O’Neill has been the focal point in the days leading up to the Grade 1, $1 million Pacific Classic at Del Mar on Sunday, but the steel-cage match has been several months in the making.
