SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Shackleford has run 16 times at seven different distances, but has never run at six furlongs.
That will change Sunday, when the dual Grade 1-winning Shackleford will run in the Grade 1, $400,000 Alfred G. Vanderbilt Handicap at Saratoga at six furlongs.
Shackleford, not an original nominee to the Vanderbilt, had to be supplemented to the race by Monday for $8,000. Weights for the race were scheduled to be released later Monday afternoon.
DEL MAR, Calif. - You might not be able to wipe the smile off trainer Ron Ellis’s face for quite awhile, such was the emotionally uplifting and satisfying victory by Rail Trip on Saturday in the San Diego Handicap.
“He looked great,” on Sunday morning, Ellis said.
Ellis said Rail Trip “really needed to win, he needed to have that swagger.”
“It’s going to be interesting to see how he acts coming out of this,” Ellis said.
DEL MAR, Calif. – The plan that Bill Spawr mapped out with Amazombie late last year resulted in a Breeders’ Cup Sprint win and a subsequent Eclipse Award, so there’s absolutely no reason for Spawr to do anything differently this year. As in 2011, Amazombie, who won the Grade 1 Bing Crosby Stakes here at Del Mar on Sunday, will not race again until Santa Anita’s fall meet, and have just one prep for the BC Sprint.
Complete coverage of racing at Del Mar: News, PPs, and video
ETOBICOKE, Ontario – The news that Queen’s Plate winner Strait of Dover is out for the year with a suspensory injury and will miss Sunday’s $500,000 Breeders’ Stakes was still making the rounds here Monday morning. It also had reached Saratoga, where trainer Mark Casse was looking in on his outfit and was preparing to ship Prince of Wales Stakes winner Dixie Strike back to Woodbine for the Breeders’.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario – While studying the field for last Sunday’s Wonder Where Stakes, trainer Nick Gonzalez noted that his entrant, Awesome Fire, was the only member of the field of nine who had not raced on turf.
But Awesome Fire apparently was unaware of the possible repercussions as she closed from last place to score by a half-length under rider Chantal Sutherland in the 1 1/4-mile Wonder Where for Canadian-bred 3-year-old fillies.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Quit Worrying has been getting closer to notching her second victory. She might be ready to break through in the lone turf race Wednesday night at Woodbine, a six-furlong sprint for $40,000 conditioned claimers.
Quit Worrying showed promise last year at 2. She was nailed on the wire by a stablemate, future stakes winner Rose and Shine, when second in her $40,000 debut. Two weeks later on June 11 she graduated in maiden special company, but then went to the sidelines until a drab allowance outing in November.
Hurry up, calendar. Where are you early autumn?
An intended race in two months was firmly on trainer Cody’s Joiner’s mind as he watched Terrific Synergy walk out of the winner’s circle following the $217,500 Governor’s Cup Derby at Los Alamitos on Saturday.
Along with owners, the longtime racing partners Billy Smith and Pat Guthrie, Joiner watched in delight as Terrific Synergy ran arguably the best race of his career to win his first stakes in the Governor’s Cup Derby, his second start of 2012.
DEL MAR, Calif. – Last year, Amazombie came into the Grade 1 Bing Crosby just 29 days after a race at Hollywood Park. Given nearly three months between races for this year’s Crosby on Sunday at Del Mar, Amazombie improved upon his third-place finish of a year ago while outfinishing the speedy The Factor to win the $300,000 sprint race named for one of this track’s founders.
Calle Vista made a strong run through the stretch to claim her first stakes victory in the $55,900 Luther Burbank Handicap at the Sonoma County Fair in Santa Rosa on Sunday.
Jockey Kerwin John settled Calle Vista ($10.60) into a comfortable stride in the middle of the pack of seven fillies and mares going 1 1/16 miles on the turf. He moved four wide in the clear on the second turn, and Calle Vista rallied determinedly to pass her rivals.
