The venerable gelding Awesome Gem, winner of the Grade 3 Longacres Mile at Emerald Downs in his most recent start Aug. 21, will soon be on the road again. Trainer Craig Dollase said he will point the 8-year-old to the Grade 2, $500,000 Hawthorne Gold Cup on Oct. 8.
Awesome Gem has won 9 races and more than $2.6 million from 46 starts on 17 different surfaces.
“If it’s wet and muddy, so much the better,” Dollase said.
The next start for top California sprinter Smiling Tiger will be the Breeders’ Cup Sprint, according to trainer Jeff Bonde.
“He won’t race again until the Breeders’ Cup; he’ll train up to the race on works,” the trainer said this week from Keeneland.
Caracortado, winner of the Grade 2 Del Mar Mile in his most recent start, will stay on his preferred surface and drop in class for his next start Oct. 29 in the $175,000 California Cup Classic at Santa Anita.
“He’s had a tough year, and I want to make it as easy as possible,” trainer and co-owner Mike Machowsky said. “The Classic is now on the turf, and when I saw they did that, it [made the decision easy].”
Rapid Redux continues his quest towards North American Thoroughbred racing’s all-time record for consecutive victories when he bids for his 17th straight in a $5,000 starter allowance on Friday night’s card at Charles Town.
He is part of a eight-horse field scheduled to go 1 1/16 miles in the eighth race, worth $20,000. Ten were entered, but Historically, Working Man Blues, and Derwins Prospector were scratched Friday morning. Smiling Jordan drew in off the also-eligible list.
POMONA, Calif. – Times are changing at Fairplex Park, and not just post time.
The first twilight card at the Los Angeles County Fair will be run Wednesday with a pick six carryover of $39,460 on a nine-race program that begins at 4 p.m. Pacific and will finish under the lights.
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ELMONT, N.Y. – The first full week of racing at the Belmont fall meet kicks off Wednesday with a pick-six carryover of $43,687 on a nine-race program highlighted by the $60,000 Jazzy Stakes for fillies and mares scheduled for six furlongs over the Widener Turf course.
ELMONT, N.Y. – Trainer Robert Barbara hopes to get his speedy 2-year-old colt J C’s Pride back to the track later this week after the colt hurt himself in the early stages of the Grade 1 Hopeful, prompting jockey Jose Lezcano to pull him up midway through the race.
ELMONT, N.Y. – Trainer Christophe Clement said Monday that Gio Ponti would pass on Sunday’s Woodbine Mile and stick to the original schedule of the Shadwell Turf Mile at Keeneland on Oct. 8 and the Breeders’ Cup Mile on Nov. 5.
Clement had said that he was thinking of squeezing the Woodbine Mile in for Gio Ponti, the three-time Eclipse Award winner, but ultimately he and owner Shane Ryan decided against it.
ELMONT, N.Y. – If Bruce Brown’s schedule holds, Compliance Officer will go from claimer to stakes winner back to claimer. Sort of.
Compliance Officer made it 4 for 4 off the claim for Brown and owner Thomas LaMarca on Sunday when he rolled to a 3 1/2-length victory in the $100,000 Ashley T. Cole Handicap. Claimed for $25,000 in May, Compliance Officer won two allowance races and the West Point at Saratoga prior to Sunday’s Cole victory.
