Over the last five years, Brad Cox has trained 97 3-year-old turf winners and 445 3-year-old dirt winners. He’s won 111 sophomore dirt stakes during that span, 21 such turf stakes. But this summer, Cox packs a potent one-two punch with 3-year-old grass fillies. About a month after Fionn captured the Grade 1 Belmont Oaks Invitational, chasing down divisional leader Nitrogen, Destino D’Oro turned in an excellent performance winning the Pucker Up by almost four lengths on Aug. 3 at Ellis Park.
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DRF Past Performances
By Anna Jeffs
ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Still an apprentice, Pietro Moran is not letting success go to his head.
“I still look at everything the same way, trying to grow and win every race and do the best you can with every horse,” Moran said.
Woodbine’s leading jockey with 61 wins through Thursday, Pietro Moran is preparing for his second attempt at the $1 million King’s Plate, Canada’s premier race on Aug. 16.
Kevin Attard, one of Woodbine’s top trainers, has provided the 20-year-old Moran with plenty of opportunities to showcase his skills.
Churchill Downs has scheduled 27 stakes for its September and fall meets this year, with total purses of $8.575 million, according to a schedule released by the track on Thursday.
The 14-date September meet, running from Sept. 11 to Sept. 28, will feature the first Kentucky Derby and Kentucky Oaks points series races, the $300,000, Grade 3 Iroquois and the $300,000, Grade 3 Pocahontas, both on Sept. 13. Three other stakes are on the Sept. 13 card, including the $400,000, Grade 2 Locust Grove.
Five maiden race winners at four venues in the last 60 days comprise the projected field for Sunday’s Grade 3 Sorrento Stakes for 2-year-old fillies at six furlongs at Del Mar.
The lineup for the $150,000 race is led by Himika, a six-length winner of a maiden race at Santa Anita in June for trainer Bob Baffert.
Dreaming of Alys, a winner at Laurel on June 13, and Mo ‘em Down, a winner at Churchill Downs on June 21, are two other prominent runners.
Dreaming of Alys has been acquired privately since her win and is now trained by Phil D’Amato.
Citizen Bull, the champion 2-year-old male of 2024, may run in the $125,000 Shared Belief Stakes for 3-year-olds at Del Mar on Aug. 31, trainer Bob Baffert said on Thursday.
Citizen Bull is winless in his last three starts, the most recent of which was a fourth-place finish in the Grade 1 Woody Stephens Stakes for 3-year-old at seven furlongs at Saratoga on June 7. Citizen Bull won the Grade 3 Robert Lewis Stakes at a mile at Santa Anita in February and was later 15th of 19 in the Kentucky Derby on May 3.
A first appearance against older horses in the Grade 1 Pacific Classic at Del Mar on Aug. 30 or a trip to the Grade 1 Pennsylvania Derby at Parx Racing on Sept. 20 are two leading options for Baeza, who has been second or third in four leading races for 3-year-olds since early April.
Trainer John Shirreffs said on Thursday that a decision on Baeza’s next start is not imminent. He said the Grade 1 Travers Stakes at Saratoga on Aug. 23 is a possibility, but rated that famous race for 3-year-olds as third on the list of choices.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Owner-breeder Ivan Dalos, Eclipse champion Ghostzapper, and trainer Mike Doyle were among the 2025 inductees into the Canadian Horse Racing Hall of Fame during a ceremony at the Mississauga Convention Center in suburban Toronto on Wednesday night.
With stakes runners at Colonial Downs in Virginia, Del Mar in Southern California, and Saratoga in upstate New York, trainer Graham Motion will have an active day on Saturday.
“It’s a good problem to have,” he said on Wednesday afternoon. “You don’t want to sit at home on Saturday.”
Motion, based in Maryland, will be in attendance at Colonial Downs where he has five runners, including two starters in Grade 2 stakes worth $500,000 – End of Romance in the Secretariat Stakes for 3-year-olds, and Beach Bomb in the Beverly D. Stakes for fillies and mares.
Political Twist will be favored in the $3 million All American Futurity at the Downs at Albuquerque on Sept. 1, Quarter Horse racing’s richest race, after winning the first time trial on Monday.
Political Twist, trained by Xavier Rodriguez, ran 440 yards in 21.05 seconds, the second-fastest time from 16 trials that day. King of the Tide, second in the $346,008 Mountain Top Futurity for New Mexico-breds at Ruidoso Downs on June 15, holds the overall fastest qualifying time of 21.001 seconds set with a win in Monday’s seventh race.
A sleepy Friday card at Ellis Park? Not quite.
Friday’s 10-race program (first post 11:50 a.m. Central) offers purses, including Kentucky-bred supplements, worth about $769,000. The card includes three $100,000 maiden special weights, a first-level dirt -sprint allowance, a second-level turf-route allowance, and a basic third-level turf-sprint allowance.