Trinniberg, one of the top-rated 3-year-old sprinters in the country, tuned up for his role as the potential favorite in the Grade 1 King’s Bishop here later this month with an easy half-mile breeze in 49.49 seconds over the Oklahoma training track Friday.
Trinniberg had regular rider Willie Martinez aboard for the work. Martinez was in town Friday to ride It’s Me Mom in the Grade 2 Honorable Miss later that afternoon.
AUBURN, Wash. – Thanks to his skills as a trainer, and in no small part to his affiliation with the region’s most prominent breeder, Tom Wenzel appears to hold a winning hand Sunday in the $50,000 Angie C Stakes at Emerald Downs. Wenzel will send out both Blueberry Smoothie and Goin to the Window, a pair of blue bloods with vast potential, in the meeting’s first serious test for 2-year-old fillies.
DEL MAR, Calif. – For a $24,000 investment last fall, trainer Steve Knapp bought a stakes winner.
Knapp was at the Barretts October yearling sale when he spotted a full brother to Tribal Face, an ornery colt who was stakes placed for Knapp at Del Mar in 2009. The yearling colt seemed worth a gamble, Knapp thought at the time.
“I had his brother,” Knapp said. “That’s why I bought him.”
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – The connections of Successful Dan will attempt to bring the multiple graded stakes winner back from a third significant injury after the 6-year-old gelding was found with a strained distal sesamoidean ligament in his left foreleg.
Successful Dan will undergo stem-cell therapy in a couple of weeks and then be turned out for at least two months before undergoing three to four months of active rehabilitation, according to Dr. Larry Bramlage of the Rood and Riddle Equine Hospital in Lexington, Ky.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario – The brilliant fillies Dixie Strike and Irish Mission will renew their rivalry Sunday in the 121st running of the $500,000 Breeders’ Stakes, the final leg of the Canadian Triple Crown. The 12-furlong event, which drew 14 Canadian-bred 3-year-olds, encompasses exactly one lap around the sprawling Woodbine turf course.
Moonlight Cloud and Restiadargent, the two fillies edged by Black Caviar last month in the Diamond Jubilee Stakes at Royal Ascot, meet again Sunday at Deauville in the Group 1 Prix Maurice de Gheest, a sprint race over about 6 1/2 furlongs.
AUBURN, Wash. – Valid Vixen Queen won a stakes race in her last start but figures to be a longshot Sunday in the $50,000 Angie C Stakes at Emerald Downs. The meeting’s first unrestricted stakes for 2-year-old fillies is the eighth race on a nine-race card that begins at 2 p.m. Pacific.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Shackleford’s presence in Sunday’s $400,000 Alfred G. Vanderbilt Handicap at Saratoga certainly adds some spice to an already intriguing Grade 1 sprint race. It should also add some value to horses lining up against the multiple Grade 1 winner.
DEL MAR, Calif. – The celebration of Joe Talamo’s five-win day at Del Mar on Thursday lasted less than 12 hours, and that included a night’s sleep.
Talamo won his fifth race of the day in Thursday’s eighth race at 5:42 p.m., went home for dinner with his girlfriend, Elizabeth Ellis, and was back at the track by 5:30 a.m. to ride the first of five workers through the morning.
“An easy morning,” he said.
[Complete coverage of racing at Del Mar: News, PPs, and video]
Alternation has been working strongly at Remington Park since arriving in Oklahoma City last month, with his final drill for the track’s $200,000 Governor’s Cup likely to come early next week, trainer Donnie Von Hemel said on Friday. The Governor’s Cup will be run Aug. 11 as part of opening weekend at Remington.
