SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - There will be a pick six carryover of $64,406 heading into Saturday's Woodward Day card at Saratoga after the wager went unhit on Friday.
After Zalmara ($35.20) won the ninth race, it left only two horses - Red Leader and Midnite Silver -covered in the pick six. The race was won by Short Shrift, who ended up the slight 7-2 favorite over Midnite Silver, who finished third. Red Leader finished second.
DEL MAR, Calif. - Jockey Tyler Baze admitted to Del Mar's stewards on Friday that his absence on Thursday was an attempt to avoid taking a Breathalyzer test that day, and the troubled jockey's indefinite suspension, announced Thursday afternoon by the stewards, will remain in effect, thus removing Baze from his mounts for at least the remainder of the meeting, which closes Wednesday.
Baze met with the stewards for 20 minutes Friday afternoon, during which time he admitted that the car accident he cited as a reason for his absence did not occur.
When Zow ($4.10) scored a three-quarter-length, front-running victory in Friday’s Gold and Roses Stakes for New York-bred 2-year-olds, it gave trainer Todd Pletcher his 37th victory of the Saratoga meet. That broke his record of 36 set in 2010.
“It feels great, we had a sensational meet,’’ Pletcher said. “Things are clicking on all cylinders. We emphasize this meet and if our 2-year-olds run well we have a chance to have a big meet.’’
Of Pletcher’s 36 wins, 15 have come with his 2-year-olds.
Trainer Christophe Clement has yet to figure out what’s next for his pair of multiple Grade 1-winning turf horses, Gio Ponti and Winchester. But after watching them breeze in company Friday morning over the Oklahoma turf course he knows they’re ready for whatever he throws their way.
Gio Ponti, runner-up in the Arlington Million on Aug. 13, began the breeze about 1 1/2 lengths behind Winchester, closed to be on even terms with his stablemate at the wire and was timed for five furlongs in 1:00.15. Gio Ponti got his last three furlongs in 34.56 seconds.
AUBURN, Wash. – The Washington breeding industry will showcase its best efforts Tuesday during the annual Washington Thoroughbred Breeders and Owners Association yearling and mixed sale at Emerald Downs. The sale that produced millionaire sprinter Smiling Tiger in 2008 again is stocked with potential bargains, according to WTBOA president Dana Halvorson, and the mood is one of cautious optimism.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Trainer Robert Barbara expects J C’s Pride to regress a little bit from his track record-setting performance five weeks ago. He just hopes the horse is still good enough to win Monday’s Grade 1 Hopeful Stakes.
J C’s Pride, who set a track record for 5 1/2 furlongs when he ran the distance here in 56.54 seconds here on July 27, heads a field of 10 juveniles entered for the $250,000 Hopeful, the featured event on Monday’s 11-race closing- day card at Saratoga.
AUBURN, Wash. − Quarter Horses, a sideshow through the first five months of the meeting, will be the marquee attraction Sunday at Emerald Downs. Ten fast actors, led by Los Alamitos invader Simons Wonder Choice, are set to compete in the $60,000 Bank of America Emerald Championship Challenge over 440 yards. The race is sponsored by the American Quarter Horse Association, and the winner gets an automatic berth in the $350,000 Championship Final at Los Alamitos on Oct. 29.
Chamberlain Bridge and Central City, the one-two finishers in last fall’s Breeders’ Cup Turf Sprint, will renew their rivalry Monday at Parx Racing.
The 7-year-old Chamberlain Bridge, winless in his last three starts and idle since mid-June, and the 5-year-old Central City, making his first start of the year, head a field of 12 older turf sprinters in the Turf Monster Handicap, one of three stakes worth a collective $850,000 on the holiday program.
The 64-year-old Sleepy Gilbreath could be sitting on the biggest training double of his training career this weekend at Ruidoso Downs in New Mexico. He will send out the fastest qualifiers for two of the richest Quarter Horse races of the year, with Cold Cash 123 set to run Sunday in the Grade 1, $1,316,760 All American Derby, and Ochoa on deck for the Grade 1, $2.4 million All American Futurity on Monday.
Gilbreath is only the third trainer in history to have the fastest qualifier for both races in the same year, behind Johnie Goodman in 1981 and Jack Brooks in 1983.
