Thursday’s second race was supposed to be a confidence booster for the graded stakes winner St. John’s River on her way to a Grade 1 appearance later in the meet.
Instead, it turned out to be an Alabama prep for the 3-year-old Sea Island, who won the $90,000 second-level allowance race by 3 1/2 lengths over St. John’s River, who got second by a nose over Acting Happy.
After the race, trainer Shug McGaughey said he would likely point Sea Island to the Grade 1 Alabama here Aug. 18.
Centre Court, who overcame some bumping and a bit of traffic to win Wednesday’s Grade 2 Lake George Stakes by a neck, could return in the Grade 2, $200,000 Lake Placid Stakes here Aug. 19, trainer Rusty Arnold said.
Arnold’s major goal with Centre Court is the Grade 1 Queen Elizabeth at Keeneland in early October.
“She’ll have one more race between now and then,” said Arnold, who trains Centre Court for owner/breeder G. Watts Humphrey. “It’ll either be the Lake Placid or something else. If she’s good, it’ll be here. That’ll give me six weeks to the Queen Elizabeth.”
Fifteen horses have been nominated to the $500,000 Breeders’ Stakes, the final leg of the Triple Crown for Canadian-bred 3-year-olds. The race will be run here Aug. 5.
Strait of Dover, winner of the 1 1/4-mile Queen’s Plate here June 24, passed on the second leg of the Triple Crown, the July 15 Prince of Wales on Fort Erie’s dirt surface, to point for the Breeders’.
Dixie Strike, the filly who won the Prince of Wales, is nominated to the Breeders’ but is heading for Saratoga’s Alabama.
DEL MAR, Calif. – Trainer Peter Miller had the Grade 1 winner Comma to the Top entered in an optional claimer on Thursday, but scratched him in favor of a start in Sunday’s $300,000 Bing Crosby Stakes over six furlongs.
The Grade 1 Bing Crosby drew five, led by Amazombie, the champion sprinter of 2011, and The Factor, a five-time stakes winner. Comma to the Top is co-owned by Gary Barber, who also has a partnership share in Don Tito, another Bing Crosby entrant. Capital Account was also entered.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario − Coming off a 5 1/2-length win in the Clarendon on June 30, Uncaptured looms as the one to beat in Saturday’s $150,000 Vandal Stakes at Woodbine.
A six-furlong race for Ontario-foaled 2-year-olds, the Vandal attracted a field of six, and Uncaptured is one of three from the barn of trainer Mark Casse, along with Calgary Cat and Dynamic Strike.
Uncaptured and Calgary Cat are owned by John Oxley. Casse said only one would start and that Calgary Cat is in more as a backup.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – A year ago, owner-breeder Fred Brei sent his homebred Jackson Bend from Calder to trainer Nick Zito at Saratoga to win a pair of sprint stakes, including the Grade 1 Forego. On Sunday, Brei and Zito will attempt to use a similar modus operandi with Fort Loudon to win the Grade 2 Amsterdam, an important stepping-stone to the Grade 1 King’s Bishop at the end of the meet.
AUBURN, Wash. – Preparations for the Longacres Mile will heat up Saturday at Emerald Downs when four horses with designs on the Northwest’s signature race meet in a $21,000 allowance sprint at 6 1/2 furlongs. Assessment, hero of the 2009 Longacres Mile, headlines a field that also includes stakes winners Jebrica, Saratoga Boot, Posse Power, and Goggles McCoy.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Tapitsfly found herself loose on the lead over a speed-favoring course at Belmont Park on June 9 and took advantage of that scenario to register her first Grade 1 victory with a wire-to-wire win over Winter Memories and Hungry Island in the Just a Game. The question is, will a similar scenario develop when the same trio, along with defending champion Zagora and a pair of intriguing European invaders, assemble Saturday at Saratoga for the Grade 1 Diana.
The rapidly improving Jetblack Gold Moment will be chasing her third straight win Saturday, when she starts as the fastest-qualifier in the $400,000 Texas Quarter Horse Association Sales Futurity at Retama Park near San Antonio. She is one of four capable fillies in the futurity, a restricted Grade 2 race that drew a field of 10.
DEL MAR, Calif. – Suggestive Boy could run in the $1 million Pacific Classic on Aug. 26 after his victory in Wednesday’s Wickerr Stakes on turf at Del Mar, trainer Ron McAnally hinted on Thursday.
McAnally, who won the 2003 Pacific Classic with Candy Ride, said he would like to work Suggestive Boy and Interaction, the runner-up in the Grade 1 Eddie Read Stakes on turf here July 21, on the Polytrack synthetic surface here to see how they perform. The Pacific Classic is run over 1 1/4 miles on the synthetic track.
