DEL MAR – Acclamation has scared away just about all his rivals from the Grade 1, $300,000 Eddie Read Stakes on Saturday at Del Mar, but not Slim Shadey. Although Slim Shadey ran just two weeks ago in the United Nations at Monmouth, trainer Simon Callaghan on Tuesday said that the prospective small field for the Eddie Read, plus the condition of Slim Shadey coming out of the U.N., will compel him to enter Slim Shadey in the Eddie Read.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Coming off what he called “a slow” Belmont meet in which he won just 14 races, trainer Todd Pletcher hopes to get off to a fast start at Saratoga, where he has runners in seven of the 10 races on Friday’s opening-day card.
Among Pletcher’s runners are Caixa Eletronica in the Grade 3, $100,000 James Marvin Stakes for male sprinters, and Can’t Explain in the Grade 3, $150,000 Schuylerville Stakes for juvenile fillies.
DEL MAR, Calif. – There’s not much about Sean S that would tout her in the morning, according to her trainer, Joshua Litt, but when she gets on the track in the afternoon, it’s a different story. After wallowing in mid-level restricted claiming races for much of her career, Sean S has blossomed in recent months, concurrent with her moving to Litt’s barn and a switch to the turf.
She has won four straight races, three on turf, and goes for a high five Thursday in the featured seventh race at Del Mar.
Jockey Rafael Bejarano is bound for Del Mar this summer, secure in the role of the circuit’s leading rider. He will be in high demand throughout the season in all kinds of races.
Personally, he has other reasons to celebrate what should be a memorable season.
“My mom is here,” he said. “It will be more fun.”
Jake Mo, a stakes winner who has not raced since finishing 10th in the Arkansas Derby, makes his comeback Thursday in the fifth race at Louisiana Downs. The optional $17,500 claiming race carries second-level allowance conditions and will be run over six furlongs. The race will be the first since April 14 for Jake Mo, who earlier this year ran fourth in the $100,000 Smarty Jones, second in a division of the Grade 3, $250,000 Southwest, and fourth in the Grade 2, $500,000 Rebel, all at Oaklawn.
St. John’s River is one of three horses Louisiana Downs-based trainer Andrew Leggio Jr. will have stabled at Saratoga for the meet that opens Friday. She is being pointed to a conditioned allowance July 26 and from there could run in the Grade 1, $600,000 Personal Ensign on Aug. 26.
“If she does good in this allowance, that’s what we’re kind of shooting at,” said Leggio, who trains St John’s River for Dede McGehee.
DEL MAR, Calif. – Beginning Wednesday for all of California racing, threshold levels for clenbuterol have been eliminated, so trainers have been alerted, in publications like the Del Mar condition book, to be mindful of withdrawing horses from the medication at least 21 days from a race.
Clenbuterol, a bronchodilator, will now “be treated as other drugs not specifically authorized” by the California Horse Racing Board, according to a CHRB notice in the Del Mar condition book. Any detection of clenbuterol in a post-race sample “will be reported as a violation.”
DEL MAR – There are several things at Del Mar that happen every year. You won’t be able to move at the track on opening day, but few will mind. The fish tacos at the neighboring The Brigantine will be sublime. And trainer Bob Baffert will fire early and often with his 2-year-olds.
Of all of Baffert’s accomplishments during his Hall of Fame career, he has been most dominant with 2-year-olds at Del Mar, where he has won the Grade 1 Del Mar Futurity an amazing 10 times since 1996. That’s 10 times in 16 years, and, like the boys say in “Spinal Tap,” Baffert may go to 11 this year.
