SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – The New York Racing Association has switched horses midstream in deciding to drop a policy in which the association released cumulative handle and attendance figures at the close of racing on Mondays during the seven-week meet.
Trainer Reade Baker confirmed Bear’s Taurus and Speyside for the Grade 3, $200,000 Canadian Derby at Northlands Park this Saturday.
Bear’s Taurus is coming off a fifth-place finish in a one-mile first-level allowance race on the grass at Woodbine on Aug. 1. Speyside finished second in a first-level race for Ontario-breds going 1 1/4 miles on the turf July 7.
Fernando Perez, second in the jockey standings at Hastings, has secured the mount on Speyside. Quincy Welch, one of the top jockeys in Alberta before he moved to Woodbine last year, is reportedly riding Bear’s Taurus.
Grade 1 winners Emma’s Encore and My Miss Aurelia will not run in Saturday’s Grade 1 Test Stakes.
Trainer Allen Jerkens said Monday that the Test is too close back for Emma’s Encore, who is coming off a nose victory in the Grade 1 Prioress on Aug. 4.
“She had a harder race than you think last time. He had to ask her pretty hard to get up,” Jerkens said. “We hope she’ll be around for a while, and we think this is the best way of enhancing her being around for a while.”
SARATOGA SPRIONGS, N.Y. - The confidence trainer Juan Coronel and the betting public expressed in Risky Rachel was justified and rewarded Monday as the 5-year-old mare cruised to a 3 1/2-length victory as the 3-5 favorite in the $100,000 Union Avenue Stakes at Saratoga.
Willet, making her first start since last December, rallied for second, 3 1/4 lengths ahead of Paper Plane. Final Mesa, Lady Vi, and Superior Sarah completed the order of finish. Funky Munky Mama was scratched.
Trainer Nick Zito said Jackson Bend was back under tack Monday morning, just 48 hours after being involved in a frightening training accident that had him down on the track for nearly 10 minutes Saturday.
“He walked out back on the training track at Oklahoma,” Zito said. “There’s a chance he could go back to the track to train on Wednesday if things continue to go well. After that, we’ll just see what happens.”
Wise Dan, the dominant winner of the Grade 2 Fourstardave Handicap here Aug. 11, will make his next start in the $1 million Woodbine Mile at Woodbine on Sept. 16, trainer Charles Lopresti said Monday.
Lopresti had given some thought to transferring Wise Dan to the dirt for the Grade 1 Woodward on Sept. 1, but said the race was “too quick back.”
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – In 2009, trainer Ian Wilkes and owner Steven Miles came to the Travers with a 3-year-old who did not run in the Triple Crown, finished second in the Jim Dandy, and was a son of a Travers winner.
Confident the horse could get 1 1/4 miles, Wilkes and Miles were disappointed when Warrior’s Reward, a son of 2002 Travers winner Medaglia d’Oro, finished fifth behind Summer Bird.
“He couldn’t get the mile and a quarter,” said Wilkes, whose horse would win the Grade 1 Carter at seven furlongs one year later. “No excuses.”
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – The post position draw for Friday’s $500,000 Ballerina became a little more interesting than expected Monday when It’s Tricky’s name came out of the entry box for the Grade 1 fixture.
It’s Tricky is a three-time Grade 1 winner at distances ranging from a mile to 1 1/8 miles. She also won the Grade 2 Distaff Handicap this spring over the same seven-furlong distance as the Ballerina.
DEL MAR, Calif. – Bob Baffert must feel like the whole world is ganging up on him these days.
First, he had Richard’s Kid sold out from under him over the weekend, and then on Monday morning at Del Mar, while his top Pacific Classic contender Game On Dude was in the midst of his final work, another Pacific Classic contender, the Florida invader Where’s Sterling, jumped in and tried to go with Game On Dude.
DEL MAR, Calif. – Considering that Maker Or Breaker is a half-sister to two-time champion Indian Blessing and is by Empire Maker, quite a bit was expected from her when she made her debut at Del Mar earlier this meet on July 26, and she did not disappoint, though she made her win tougher than need be, what with breaking poorly and then having to swoop the field going six furlongs.
