DEL MAR, Calif. – Just when it looked like this year’s crop of 3-year-olds was going to slink quietly into the background, Dullahan struck a blow for the division on Sunday by defeating a top group of older horses in the Grade 1, $1 million Pacific Classic before a crowd of 34,482 at Del Mar.
DEL MAR, Calif.- A simple career change this summer turned Obviously from a struggling turf sprinter into a record-setting graded stakes winner.
“All we did is route him,” trainer Mike Mitchell said.
Sunday at Del Mar, Obviously, a 4-year-old gelding, won his second consecutive race over a mile on turf in the $200,000 Del Mar Mile. He led throughout and set a course record of 1:32.10, edging the previous mark of 1:32.21 set by Three Valleys in 2005.
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Casino Host earned a fees-paid berth to the Breeders’ Cup Turf over 1 1/2 miles at Santa Anita on Nov. 3 with his victory in the Grade 2 Del Mar Handicap on Saturday.
The BC Turf will be the first time that the 4-year-old Casino Host has started over 1 1/2 miles. In the $200,000 Del Mar Handicap over 1 3/8 miles on turf, Casino Host ($9.60) won by a neck over Dhaamer, the 6-5 favorite.
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SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y.- It’s rarely called a surprise when a Todd Pletcher trained horse wins any stakes, let alone an important race like the $600,000 Personal Ensign. But that was the case Sunday at Saratoga after Love and Pride outlasted the 2011 champion 3-year-old filly Royal Delta and unlucky It’s Tricky to upset the Personal Ensign for her first Grade 1 win.
DEL MAR, Calif. - A slow early pace gave Capital Account an advantage when he reached the stretch in Sunday’s $250,000 Pat O’Brien Stakes at Del Mar.
Trailing by two lengths after a half-mile of the seven-furlong race, Capital Account was close enough to pounce on the front-runners. When the race became a sprint to the finish, Capital Account became a stakes winner for the first time.
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DEL MAR, Calif. – Howe Great, the three-time stakes winner on turf, has had a summer campaign geared toward a Labor Day weekend appearance in California.
He will arrive on the West Coast this week with an excellent chance to win Sunday’s $300,000 Del Mar Derby, a Grade 2 race over 1 1/8 miles on turf. He is the lone shipper from another circuit, but could pose the greatest danger for the locals.
The winner of the Jersey Derby at Monmouth Park on July 21, Howe Great will be shipped from trainer Graham Motion’s base in Maryland on Wednesday.
OCEANPORT, N.J. - Closing Range battled back to edge Zucchini Flower by a nose on Sunday in the $60,800 Twin Lights Stakes for 3-year-old fillies on the turf.
Dancing Solo, the 1-2 favorite, was third.
The victory was a happy Monmouth Park homecoming for trainer Phil Oliver, a longtime fixture on this circuit. Now based at Keeneland, Oliver opted to give Closing Range her first stakes experience after the daughter of After Market won two of three starts in the Midwest.
Closing Range made the long journey worthwhile with a game effort.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario — Big Band Sound kicked in strongly in the stretch from a stalking position under Tyler Pizarro to romp in Sunday’s Grade 2 Play the King Stakes, which is a prep for the $1 million Woodbine Mile.
Big Band Sound ($7.80) prevailed by 2 1/2 lengths over a wide-closing Riding the River. Delegation was another half-length back in third, and Artic Fern wound up fourth after dueling with Stormy Rush through slow fractions. After tracking the leaders, favored Smokey Fire faded to finish a distant trailer.
In the wake of Tropical Storm Isaac, Fair Grounds in New Orleans has canceled Quarter Horse racing this coming Wednesday through Saturday and called for a mandatory evacuation of its backstretch. Forecasters expect the storm, which could develop into a hurricane, to roll into New Orleans on Tuesday night or Wednesday morning. The track expects to make up the lost four days of racing next week, with the races that have been set to be redrawn. Fair Grounds had about 700 horses on its backstretch when it announced the mandatory evacuation on Sunday.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - Three of the five confirmed starters for this Saturday’s Grade 1 Woodward at Saratoga worked within minutes of one another shortly after sunrise on Sunday morning with their works a sharp study in contrast.
