The Mellon Turf course at Saratoga is in the process of being widened, which should enable additional horses to run at certain distances, New York Racing Association officials said Thursday.
Widening the course will make an extra lane and probably increase field size by one or two starters, depending on rail placement, Glen Kozak, NYRA’s director of racing surfaces said. Currently, the number of starters is limited to 10 when the rail is out 18 feet, Kozak said.
ELMONT, N.Y. − Had he been nominated to the Breeders’ Cup, Caixa Eletronica might be in Kentucky right now preparing for the $1 million Dirt Mile on Nov. 5.
But long ago owner Mike Repole and trainer Todd Pletcher resisted any temptation to pay a $100,000 supplemental fee to make Caixa Eletronica eligible for the series. Instead, they are pointing him to next month’s Grade 1 Cigar Mile at Aqueduct.
LEXINGTON, Ky. – The curtain comes down on the Keeneland fall meet Saturday, but not without one final reminder of how good the stakes action was throughout the 17-day stand. An exceptionally deep renewal of the Grade 2 Fayette Stakes anchors a 10-race closing-day program, a fitting way to end three weeks of what makes a horseplayer scurry down to the corner store to get a Daily Racing Form.
ARCADIA, Calif. – Ruler of Dubai would be a short-priced favorite, if he was starting in Saturday’s $100,000 California Cup Juvenile at Santa Anita.
Instead, owner Harout Keshishian and trainer George Papaprodromou have held Ruler of Dubai out of the Cal Cup and are debating what races to target in coming months with the two-time stakes winner.
ARCADIA, Calif. – It took five tries, but Willa B Awesome finally won a stakes in the Barretts Debutante at Fairplex Park on Sept. 17.
The drought included a third in the Cinderella Stakes at Hollywood Park in June and three losses at Del Mar during the summer. Getting back to a dirt track at Fairplex Park last month was the key, trainer Walther Solis said.
“I don’t think she handled the track at Del Mar,” Solis said. “Everybody who rode her at Del Mar said she was not getting a hold of the track. In Pomona, she ran her race.”
Ten Massachusetts-bred 2-year-olds are slated to jump-start their careers with a little stakes money Saturday in the $50,000 Norman Hall Stakes at Suffolk Downs.
Half the runners are making their racing debuts while two more might as well be after showing little in their first races in open maiden contests.
ARCADIA, Calif. – The last several months have geared toward a start in Saturday’s $100,000 California Cup Juvenile at Santa Anita for Champions Gate.
Owned by breeder Don Dizney, Champions Gate was a sharp winner of his debut at Del Mar in August and second after a poor start in the I’m Smokin Stakes for statebreds there Sept. 5.
The unknown is how he will fare in a route in the Cal Cup Juvenile, run over 1 1/16 miles.
“If he handles two turns, he should be tough,” trainer Mike Machowsky said.
ARCADIA, Calif. – The autumn California Cup program has a new look for 2011, and so does the gelding Norvsky. One got smaller, the other got bigger.
The California Cup returns Saturday to Santa Anita with a modified series reduced from eight stakes to five. The Matron and Distance Handicap are gone; the Classic and Mile were combined – the $175,000 California Cup Classic at 1 1/8 miles on turf.
“I like it on grass, and not just because I have a horse that runs on grass,” trainer Don Warren said. “I would run Norvsky on dirt, too. It just seems like a good race on turf.”
