DEL MAR, Calif. – The winning streak stands at six races, all graded stakes, dating back to May 2011.
Acclamation has been unbeatable in California for more than a year, the reason he won the Eclipse Award as the nation’s outstanding older male of 2011.
Now 6, Acclamation is expected to add to that list when he starts as a heavy favorite in Saturday’s $300,000 Eddie Read Stakes at Del Mar.
Bill Mott was not at all surprised when his Royal Delta was beaten by Awesome Maria in the Grade 3 Sabin Stakes at Gulfstream Park in February.
The Hall of Fame trainer has greater expectations Saturday when Royal Delta squares off against Awesome Maria and five others in the $750,000 Delaware Handicap at Delaware Park.
DEL MAR, Calif. – Hard to Resist ran so well on turf at Del Mar in 2011 that an attempt to repeat the performance has been a goal this summer.
Trainer Peter Eurton could have started Hard to Resist in the Royal Heroine Stakes at Hollywood Park earlier this month but has opted for Saturday’s $85,000 Osunitas Stakes for fillies and mares on turf at Del Mar.
“She seems to run well fresh and she seems to love Del Mar,” Eurton said.
Heavy showers and lightning forced Delaware Park to cancel its live card Thursday after just two races were run.
Live racing is scheduled to resume Saturday with a card highlighted by the Grade 2, $750,000 Delaware Handicap. First post time is 1:15 p.m. Eastern.
A filly who has been facing Grade 1 and Grade 2 females in her two most recent starts may be the most formidable threat to obvious favorite Willy Beamin in Saturday’s New York Derby at Finger Lakes.
Wildcat’s Smile, who proved she could compete with males when she won last fall’s $260,000 New York Breeders’ Futurity, looks like a viable alternative to Willy Beamin, who brings a four-race winning streak into the 1 1/16-mile derby. As a filly, Wildcat’s Smile will get in with 10 pounds fewer than Willy Beamin, the co-highweight at 124 pounds.
With Trinniberg and Fort Loudon off to Saratoga for the summer, the best 3-year-olds remaining on the grounds at Calder will square off in Saturday’s $75,000 El Kaiser Stakes.
The mile and 70-yard El Kaiser is one of three stakes on Saturday’s 12-race program that also includes the $75,000 Three Ring for 3-year-old fillies and the $55,000 Primal for older horses going 1 1/16 miles over the main track.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Trainer Bob Tiller, who has won the Passing Mood Stakes twice, entered Grace Phil, Princess Pick, and Nikkis Bold Gelato in Saturday’s edition of the seven-furlong sprint for Ontario-sired 3-year-old fillies at Woodbine.
Grace Phil, an elegant chestnut by Philanthropist, is trying the grass for the first time. She took the South Ocean Stakes at 2 and an Ontario-sired allowance in her season opener. She has been freshened since finishing a distant fourth as the favorite in the May 20 Lady Angela Stakes.
[bc_video_id:257593:]ARLINGTON HEIGHTS, Ill. – For a while, the $450,000 owner B. Wayne Hughes paid at auction for the filly Treasured Up looked like good money thrown to the wind.
When Treasured Up finally made her career debut, late in her 2-year-old season last December, she finished second in a maiden race at humble Turfway Park. But since Treasured Up began running two turns on turf and Polytrack, she has begun to close the gap on her heavy price tag, and the filly has a decent chance to win a graded stakes when she faces seven foes Saturday in the $150,000 Arlington Oaks.
The Kentucky Horse Racing Commission has filed a motion with the state’s highest court that intends to establish the legality of instant racing machines, gambling devices that use the results of previously run horse races to generate payouts.
One day before launching what is expected to be another outstanding Saratoga meeting, officials of the New York Racing Association announced that ontrack handle, total handle, and NYRA account wagering all continued upward trends during the recently concluded 55-day Belmont spring-summer meet.
According to NYRA, ontrack handle during the spring-summer meet totaled $88 million, up 13.4 percent from the corresponding period in 2011. All sources handle on NYRA races during the session was $563 million, an increase of 9.4 percent over the previous season.
