VANCOUVER, British Columbia – It looks like there will be a full field of 12 horses for the Grade 3, $200,000 British Columbia Derby on Sept. 11. The derby headlines what will be the strongest card of the year at Hastings. Supporting the derby will be five stakes races, including the $100,000 British Columbia Oaks. The total value of the six races is $500,000, which eclipses the $350,000 for the seven stakes races on B.C. Cup Day.
DEL MAR, Calif. – Wild Rose was 10-1 in a six-horse field when she made her first start in this country in June at Hollywood Park. That’s far from the obvious when it comes to a horse worth claiming, but Jack Carava, who trains privately for La Canada Stables, thought she had some merit and took a chance on the British filly, dropping in a claim slip. So, too, did someone else.
Retama Park near San Antonio opens a 21-night Thoroughbred meet on Thursday with the potential for a purse increase and new investors before the close of the season Oct. 15.
The track, which is racing one additional day a week this meet, has also incorporated a new fan-education program, is offering free admission every Saturday night, and will maintain its reduced, 12-percent takeout on pick threes.
The meet is the third leg of a three-tiered racing season that began with a Quarter Horse season in July and included a mixed meet that ended last Saturday.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Maidens have won four of the first six runnings of the With Anticipation Stakes for juvenile colts and geldings. Of the three maidens entered in Thursday’s seventh renewal of the turf race at Saratoga, Two Months Rent may be best suited to continue that trend.
DEL MAR, Calif. – There was too much commotion on the July 20 opening day at Del Mar meeting to fully appreciate the maiden win by the 2-year-old first-time starter Weemissfrankie.
Lost amidst the record crowd of 46,588, more heavily involved in hat wearing, people watching, and drinking, was the start of a filly’s career that could take trainer Peter Eurton and a group of longtime partners to a level of racing they have yet to achieve.
Willie Martinez, who was injured in a spill just past the finish line in Friday’s third race at Presque Isle Downs, had to have minor surgery Sunday to have a tube inserted when a CT scan revealed damage to one of his lungs was worse than originally thought.
“It was a fairly simple procedure, I guess,” said Martinez’s agent Doug Davis. “They put in the tube on Sunday to try to keep the fluid off his lung, but it will probably come out Tuesday and hopefully he’ll go home Wednesday. He’s ready to get out of here.”
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Trainer Todd Pletcher will not only send out the likely favorite and horse to beat, Captain Webb, in Thursday’s main event at Saratoga, the With Anticipation Stakes, he also figures to have the public choice in the the $75,000 Anne M. Clare.
Pletcher will send out the Mike Repole-owned Victory Island against just five other New York-bred juvenile fillies in the six-furlong Ann Clare. Victory Island, a daughter of Friendly Island, rallied smartly from off the pace to a four-length victory when debuting over a muddy track here on Aug. 7.
VANCOUVER, British Columbia – Late Affair will try to make it five wins in a row when she runs in a first-level allowance race with a $35,000 claiming option at Hastings on Thursday. The 6 1/2-furlong sprint for fillies and mares drew seven horses and will go as race 6 on the seven-race card that begins at 3:20 p.m. Pacific.
LOS ALAMITOS, Calif. - Docs Apollo won the first stakes of his career in Sunday's $238,250 Golden State Derby for Quarter Horses at Los Alamitos.
Ridden by Alejandro Luna, Docs Apollo ($10.60) broke from the outside in a field of eight, led throughout and won by three-quarters of a length over 6-1 Pushing Dazies. Significant Cartel finished third, a head in front of 9-10 favorite Filthy Fast.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - Mineralogist hadn't won a race in nearly two years, and it appeared that streak would continue when the hole she was going for on the rail closed up nearing midstretch of Monday's $75,000 Saratoga Dew Stakes at Saratoga. But the injury-prone New York-bred filly and jockey David Cohen persevered despite the traffic issues, recovering bravely to outfinish three others to post a well-deserved head decision over the tepid favorite, Banker's Buy, in the statebred stakes for fillies and mares.
