Trainer Todd Pletcher’s prowess with 2-year-olds stretching out following a maiden win continued Wednesday when favored Danalake cruised to a 1 3/4-length victory in the $51,500 Our Mims Stakes for 2-year-old fillies at Delaware Park.
Over the past five years, Pletcher is now 8 for 12 (67 percent) with juveniles making their first start in a route following a maiden victory, including 5 for 9 in stakes.
Danalake ($4.40), ridden by Jose Caraballo, ran the mile on a fast track in 1:39.04
Summer Soiree, a Grade 1-winning 3-year-old filly of 2011, makes her 4-year-old debut in Saturday’s Grade 2, $250,000 Ballston Stakes at 1 1/16 miles on the turf.
In her first start since last November’s Matriarch, in which she was beaten one-half length, Summer Soiree will square off against Grade 1 winners Tapitsfly and Zagora, as well as Hungry Island and Ruthenia.
Winding Way, who scored a breathtaking victory Sunday by overcoming a poor star to capture the Rancho Bernardo Handicap, came out of the race in good condition and now will be pointed to the Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Sprint on Nov. 2 at Santa Anita, trainer Carla Gaines said.
Joan Scott has had bigger triumphs, having won the Grade 1 Madison Stakes at Keeneland in 2010 with a filly named Dr. Zic. But even without her being on the grounds, her Saturday afternoon at Arlington would have to rank among the best ever in her 10-year training career.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Trainer Bob Baffert will not only have one of the major players, Liaison, in the Travers, he also figures to have a large say in the two Grade 1 races that precede the main event on Saturday’s 13-race card.
Baffert will send out Contested as the odds-on favorite in the $500,000 Test Stakes. He could also have one of the sleepers in the $500,000 King’s Bishop in Gun Boat, whose local debut in the Grade 2 Amsterdam virtually ended as soon as it began after he stumbled badly and went to his nose after the break.
AUBURN, Wash. – After his seventh-place finish Sunday in the Grade 3 Longacres Mile, when he failed to sustain a bold five-wide run on the turn, Gallant Son will transition to what trainer Frank Lucarelli hopes is a more suitable role as a turf sprint specialist when he makes his next start, likely at Santa Anita, this winter.
Marketing Mix, beaten just a head in the Beverly D. on Saturday at Arlington Park, came out of the race in terrific shape and could run next in the Grade 2 Canadian at Woodbine on Sept. 16 or the newly named Grade 1 Rodeo Drive (formerly the Yellow Ribbon) on Sept. 29 at Santa Anita, said trainer Tom Proctor.
"Then there's the turf race in the Breeders' Cup, but that's the last thing I'm going to worry about right now," he said.
DEL MAR, Calif. – Candy Ride had two starts in the summer of 2003 before he won the Grade 1 Pacific Classic. The 2003 running remains the only time that Hall of Fame trainer Ron McAnally has won Del Mar’s most lucrative race.
Candy Ride won two Group 1 races in Argentina before joining McAnally’s stable. He arrived in California with a reputation that he could be an important horse in the handicap division.
Nearly a decade later, a remarkably similar scenario is developing.
DEL MAR, Calif. – The 4-year-old colts Mr. Commons and Tale of a Champion meet for the first time in Sunday’s $200,000 Del Mar Mile on turf, a race that may determine how aggressively they will be campaigned this fall.
The colts will arrive at the start of the Grade 2 Del Mar Mile on different career paths.
Mr. Commons has a dented reputation – a multiple stakes winner who has lost his last three starts. Tale of a Champion makes his graded stakes debut, and first start in California, after winning four of his first five starts at Calder.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – On paper, Friday’s Grade 1, $500,000 Ballerina Stakes looks like an intriguing matchup between Grade 1 winners Turbulent Descent and It’s Tricky.
On the track, it will look completely different.
