When handicapping the quintet of $50,000 turf stakes races at Colonial Downs on Friday, remember this connection: owner Larry Johnson and trainer Michael Trombetta.
The pair won two of the five races in last year’s inaugural $250,000 Commonwealth Turf Fest and will have the potential to surpass that this year with four entrants in three races.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - Though he would have been the favorite in Saturday’s Grade 2, $600,000 Jim Dandy at Saratoga, Gemologist will return to the races in Sunday’s Grade 1, $1 million Haskell Invitational at Monmouth Park, his connections said Wednesday.
Elliott Walden, president of WinStar Farm, which owns Gemologist, said the Grade 1 status of the Haskell was a factor in choosing that race over the Jim Dandy.
Jockey Martin Bourdieu picked up the 1,000th Thoroughbred win of his career Monday at Ruidoso Downs, when he won the seventh race with Golden County ($4.80). Bourdieu, who is a career winner of 1,491 races counting victories aboard Quarter Horses, began riding in 1999.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - With heavy rain Monday night making for wet track surfaces, Tuesday morning was light for workers at Saratoga.
One of the more notable breezers was Macho Macho, the runner-up in the Long Branch Stakes, who went five furlongs in 1:00.99 over the main track in preparation for a start in the $750,000 West Virginia Derby at Mountaineer on Aug. 4.
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SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - Hungry Island pulled off a significant upset here last summer when she knocked off Winter Memories at 9-1 in the Grade 2 Lake Placid.
Hungry Island will try to do it again when she meets Winter Memories, Tapitsfly, Zagora, and others in Saturday’s Grade 1, $600,000 Diana at 1 1/8 miles.
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AUBURN, Wash. – Ten-year-old Wasserman, one of the most popular horses in Emerald Downs history but now nearing the end of his celebrated career, will try to get back on the winning side Thursday in a $15,000 claimer at one mile. His longtime partner, jockey Jennifer Whitaker, will be along for the ride, and Wasserman could start as the favorite in a five-horse field.
Like mother, like daughter. That’s what the connections of Midge Four are hoping for with the 3-year-old filly, whose start in Thursday’s fifth race at Louisiana Downs could serve as her springboard to the Aug. 18 Louisiana Breeders’ Oaks, a race Midge Four’s dam, Midge Too, won back in 1999.
DEL MAR, Calif. - Jaycito, who has promised far more than he has delivered since Baffert took over as his trainer 1 1/2 years ago, ended a five-race losing streak and scored only his second victory in an allowance race on Sunday under Joe Talamo.
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Trainer Bob Baffert said he could add Jaycito to his lengthy list of candidates for the Grade 1, $1 million Pacific Classic on Aug. 26, including Coil, Game On Dude, Prayer for Relief, Richard’s Kid, and Take Control.
DEL MAR, Claif. - Half-sisters to both Coil and Indian Blessing are among the 3-year-old fillies making their debuts in Thursday’s fifth race at six furlongs.
Level Headed, a daughter of Eddington, is out of the Theatrical mare Eversmile, who produced Coil, the Haskell winner who returns an hour later in the featured seventh race. Like Coil, Level Headed was bred by Glen Hill Farm, which sold Coil privately following his career debut. Tom Proctor, Coil’s original trainer, trains Level Headed.
ARLINGTON HEIGHTS, Ill. – Options remain open for the second start of Willcox Inn’s 2012 campaign, trainer Mike Stidham said Tuesday, but what’s certain is that Willcox Inn will step back into graded turf stakes competition in his next run. And from the appearance of his comeback race this past Sunday at Arlington, his progress should be worth following.
