SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - Trainer Jonathan Sheppard said he was looking for the proverbial maintenance work from Ever So Lucky on Tuesday morning at Saratoga. He got a bit more than that.
Ever So Lucky, who started about seven lengths behind a pair of 2-year-olds – one trained by Sheppard, the other by Tom Voss – caught up to them by the wire in a half-mile workout that was timed in 46.77 seconds, the fastest of 51 works at the distance over the main track.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - While trainer Ian Wilkes hasn’t ruled out running Whitney winner Fort Larned in the Woodward here on Sept. 1, he said Tuesday that he is leaning toward waiting for the $1 million Jockey Club Gold Cup at Belmont on Sept. 29.
“I ran him three times in [seven] weeks,” Wilkes said. “It was hot the other day, it was hot in Iowa and just the timing of it. As the old saying goes, If you go to the well too much it dries up.”
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - Jim Dandy runner-up Neck ’n Neck went five furlongs in 1:00.29 Tuesday morning at Saratoga under exercise rider Tracey Wilkes, wife of trainer Ian Wilkes.
Working by himself, Neck ’n Neck went in fractions of 13.09 seconds, 24.87, 36.25, and came home in 24.04. He galloped out six furlongs in 1:13.55 and seven furlongs in 1:28.47.
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ARLINGTON HEIGHTS, Ill. – Arlington rolls out the red carpet for overseas connections that travel for Million Day, tirelessly trumpeting the event’s “international” character. But on a quiet Tuesday morning here, not much in the way of pomp adorned a couple local operations that will be in action in Saturday’s big races.
Trainer Charlie Livesay was helping fix screens in his barn office while watching over his 4-year-old granddaughter. And trainer Danny Miller, morning training complete, had dozed off sitting in the sunshine at a table outside his shed row in Barn 7C.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Trainer Chad Brown needed to get a strong work into his Travers candidate Street Life and didn’t want to do it over a wet racetrack.
With a forecast that called for rain Tuesday night into Wednesday, Brown called an audible and sent Street Life out for a five-furlong move Tuesday morning that was timed in 1:01.01 over the main track. The work, originally scheduled for Wednesday, came just five days after Street Life went a slow half-mile in 50.04 seconds last Thursday.
DEL MAR, Calif. - There’s still plenty of spring in the step of Porfido, the oldest racehorse on the grounds, who rallied to win a $32,000 claiming race on the turf on Saturday at the ripe age of 10.
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SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – For the second time this year, New York-bred champions Compliance Officer and Street Game meet when they head an eight-horse field set to run in Thursday’s $100,000 West Point Stakes at Saratoga.
Compliance Officer was the New York-bred champion male turf horse of 2011 by virtue of his winning 6 of 8 starts, including three stakes restricted to statebreds. Street Game was the New York-bred 3-year-old champion male in 2011 based on 3 wins from 7 starts, including a victory in the Grade 3 Hill Prince at Belmont.
Ruidoso Downs will begin Thursday’s special card of 26 trials for the Grade 1, $2.4 million All American Futurity for Quarter Horses at 9:30 a.m. Mountain, but some of the most accomplished runners on the program won’t be out until late. Real late.
One Dashing Eagle, the nation’s top ranked 2-year-old in the American Quarter Horse Association poll, will run in the final trial at 7:05 p.m. Pj Chick in Black, ranked third among all 2-year-olds, goes in race 24, and BP Cartels Alibi, fourth in the national poll, starts in race 25.
AUBURN, Wash. – The biggest week on Emerald Downs’s calendar is set to begin on a quiet note both Thursday and Friday, with compact fields – an average of 5.9 horses per race – lined up for seven-race cards each night. The momentum will build dramatically Saturday with the running of the WTBOA Lads Stakes for 2-year-olds, before hitting the meeting’s high notes Sunday, when the $65,000 Emerald Distaff serves as a warmup act for the Grade 3, $200,000 Longacres Mile.
DEL MAR, Calif. – Eden’s Moon, winner of the San Clemente Handicap here earlier in the meet, and Lady of Shamrock, who captured the American Oaks at Betfair Hollywood Park in her last start, are set for a showdown on Saturday in the Grade 1, $300,000 Del Mar Oaks, the championship race of the meet for 3-year-old fillies and the highlight of the weekend’s stakes action at Del Mar.
