Celestic Night pulled an upset in Friday’s $100,000 El Cajon Stakes for 3-year-olds and gave trainer Mike Mitchell his 21st winner of the meeting.
Through Friday, Mitchell led the trainer standings by three races over John Sadler. Peter Miller was a distant third with 10 wins. If Mitchell holds on to the lead through Wednesday’s closing day, the training title will be his first at Del Mar since 1996, and first at any track since the 2008 Los Angles County fair meeting at Fairplex Park.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - Trainer Michael Matz will be watching Monday’s Grade 1 Hopeful with interest. As the trainer of Saratoga Special winner Union Rags, Matz will want to get a line on his potential competition for the Grade 1 Champagne at Belmont on Oct. 7, where Matz’s colt will make his next start.
“It’s a little long between races, but the timing will go well after that,” Matz said, referring to the four weeks to the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile at Churchill on Nov. 5.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - Ask the Moon validated her 18-1 upset in the Grade 1 Ruffian Invitational five weeks ago with another front-running victory in Saturday's Grade 1 Personal Ensign Invitational at Saratoga.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - Its Tricky, winner of the Acorn and Coaching Club American Oaks and runner-up in the Alabama, will make her next start in the $750,000 Cotillion Stakes at Parx on Oct. 1.
“It’s straight 3-year-olds, a mile and a sixteenth for $750,000,” her trainer, Kiaran McLaughlin. said. “It’s great timing.”
McLaughlin said Its Tricky would ship from Saratoga to Belmont on Wednesday and have two workouts at Belmont leading up to the Cotillion. McLaughlin said it has not yet been discussed whether Its Tricky would be pointed to the Breeders’ Cup Ladies' Classic.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - The royally-bred Deluxe came up a head short to Sugar Again in Saturday’s $78,500 Paris Opera Stakes at a mile.
Deluxe, a half-sister to five Grade 1 winners, was making her first start in more than 10 months and first in this country. She broke slowly, settled into seventh position, and made a nice run under Eddie Castro but could not catch the winner, whose rider, Rajiv Maragh, appeared to be keenly aware of Deluxe’s presence at all times.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Dynaslew figures to be a big price in Monday’s Grade 3, $100,000 Glens Falls Stakes at Saratoga, but if her morning trials are any indication she just may be worth a wager in the 1 3/8-mile race scheduled to be run on the inner turf course.
With the hopes of getting Dynaslew more forwardly placed than she has been in her previous races this year, trainer Seth Benzel has added blinkers to the 5-year-old mare’s equipment. Dynaslew has twice worked sharply with those blinkers on, including a 58.80-second five-furlong drill on Aug. 27.
MIAMI – Indiano may be the best kept secret in the 3-year-old sprint division in the country.
Indiano, a multiple graded stakes winner in Panama to begin his career, has started five times since joining trainer Marty Wolfson’s barn this winter at Calder, with all but one of those appearances coming in south Florida. He’s scheduled to make his sixth U.S. start on Monday in Calder’s $55,000 Eillo, a 6 1/2-furlong overnight stakes that highlights a 10-race Labor Day card.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Chad Brown will finish second to one – Todd Pletcher - in the Saratoga trainer standings, but this summer has been second to none for the 32-year-old fledgling trainer.
Through Friday, Brown had won 21 races from 69 starters at Saratoga, and his horses have earned more than $1.1 million in purse money. Brown has won four stakes, including the Grade 1 Diana with Zagora and Grade 2 National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame with Big Blue Kitten. Out of town, he won the Grade 1 Beverly D. at Arlington with Stacelita.
OCEANPORT, N.J. – The $100,000 Sorority for 2-year-old fillies and the rescheduled $75,000 Omnibus Stakes for filly and mare turf routers top the Labor Day program as the core summer meet at Monmouth Park comes to an end.
Monmouth shifts to a fall schedule next weekend, reducing live racing to only Saturday and Sunday afternoons.
The Sorority attracted a diverse and widely traveled field of six.
DEL MAR, Calif. – Andina won her first stakes in the restricted Osunitas Stakes over 1 1/16 miles on turf at Del Mar on July 23 and will attempt to win her first graded stakes in Monday’s $150,000 Palomar Handicap over the same course and distance.
“I think she’s been better going shorter,” trainer Ben Cecil said. “We tried her a couple of times going a mile and a quarter and she didn’t stay.”
