AUBURN, Wash. – There will be no cheering Sunday at Emerald Downs when Portland Meadows launches its new summer meeting 150 miles to the south.
After coexisting peacefully for the past 17 years in an informal Northwest racing circuit – Portland in the winter, Seattle in the summer – the tracks are now competing for the wagering dollar, for jockeys and trainers, and most important, for a diminishing supply of horses.
With Saratoga beginning next Friday, many Kentucky horsemen planning to run horses there have already shipped their runners northward or are soon planning to do so. But one filly who won’t be making the trip to Saratoga is Groupie Doll, who had originally been targeted for the Ballerina Stakes after scoring back-to-back Grade 1 victories in the Vinery Madison and Humana Distaff this spring in Kentucky.
Amazombie, the champion sprinter of 2011, worked six furlongs in 1:13.40 at Hollywood Park on Friday under jockey Mike Smith, the fastest of nine recorded works at the distance.
Amazombie worked alone, trainer Bill Spawr said. The 6-year-old Amazombie has not started since finishing a game second to Shackleford in the Grade 2 Churchill Downs Stakes on May 5 and is bound for the Bing Crosby Stakes.
“Mike hadn’t been on him for a long time and said he’s thicker now,” Spawr said. “He’s more muscular.”
ELMONT, N.Y. – It’s Tricky, the multiple Grade 1-winning 4-year-old filly, most likely will not run in next Saturday’s $750,000 Delaware Handicap and instead will point to a Grade 1 stakes toward the end of the Saratoga meeting, trainer Kiaran McLaughlin said Friday.
It’s Tricky is 3 for 3 this year, including a win in the Grade 1 Ogden Phipps at Belmont on May 28. McLaughlin was seriously considering running her in the Delaware Handicap at 1 1/4 miles, but has since reconsidered.
OCEANPORT, N.J. - Angel Serpa, fifth in the Monmouth Park jockey standings, was taken to Jersey Shore Medical Center following a fifth race spill on Friday afternoon. Serpa was found to have a concussion and was to be held overnight at the hospital.
“There’s no intracranial bleed,” said Dr. Angelo Chinnici, Monmouth Park's medical director, after conferring with doctors at Jersey Shore. “He does have a severe concussion, so they’ll likely keep him there for another 24 hours just for observation.”
INGLEWOOD, Calif. – After two months apart because of a dispute, jockey Martin Garcia has resumed working horses for Hall of Fame trainer Bob Baffert, and is likely to have mounts for the leading stable in the near future.
In May, Baffert said he would no longer employ Garcia because the rider did not appear for morning workouts and stated a desire to ride for other stables. Thursday, Garcia worked the multiple stakes winner The Factor for Baffert at Betfair Hollywood Park.
OCEANPORT, N.J. – A rejuvenated Get Serious is on target for the Grade 3 Oceanport Stakes on the Haskell Day undercard at Monmouth Park.
An 8-year-old gelding trained by the team of John Forbes and Pat McBurney, Get Serious turned back the clock on July 4 to capture the Grade 3 Red Bank.
Showing the old fight and resolve that made him one of the track’s most popular turf runners, Get Serious scored his first win since the 2010 Red Bank.
INGLEWOOD, Calif. – Dhaamer and Juniper Pass meet for the first time Sunday in the Grade 3 Sunset Handicap, a 1 1/2-mile turf race on closing day of the spring meet at Betfair Hollywood Park.
The race is the first for Dhaamer since he won a minor stakes two months ago over the same course and distance. In the interim, things have changed for trainer Mike Mitchell, who underwent surgery June 29 to remove a brain tumor. During recovery, he has hardly disappeared.
MIAMI – Only nine 3-year-olds were nominated to next Saturday’s $75,000 El Kaiser Stakes at Calder. But they represent the cream of the local division and if the majority of them show, it promises to be one whale of a race.
Topping the nomination list are two sons of Kitten’s Joy, Empire Builder and Csaba. The El Kaiser would be the rubber match between the pair. Csaba prevailed under allowance conditions on May 12, then Empire Builder scored a narrow victory two weeks later in the Mambo Meister Stakes.
INGLEWOOD, Calif. – The spring-summer meeting at Betfair Hollywood Park will end on Sunday with a decline in daily average all-sources handle of approximately 3 percent from last year’s meet, track president Jack Liebau said on Thursday.
Liebau said that handle from account wagering sources has been strong this meet, particularly in Southern California, but that there have been small declines in ontrack handle and from simulcasting locations in California and nationwide.
