AUBURN, Wash. − The Awesome Gem barnstorming tour is coming to Emerald Downs. Southern California-based trainer Craig Dollase confirmed as much this week, committing his vagabond stable star to a start in the Grade 3, $200,000 Longacres Mile on Aug. 21.
This year’s edition of the Northwest’s only graded race already boasted considerable star power in Noosa Beach, the defending champion who has won seven consecutive stakes. But Awesome Gem pushes the Mile’s Q rating to another level.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Multiple Grade 1 winner Get Stormy gave all appearances Friday morning that he is over a minor physical issue that forced him to miss last month’s Fourstardave Handicap, and he now appears on course to return in the Grade 2, $200,000 Bernard Baruch Handicap here at Saratoga on Aug. 26.
Just when it appeared Hezamazing might be at his best sprinting, he went out and won the first two-turn race of his career in the Arapahoe Park Classic. Hezamazing romped by more than nine lengths and on Sunday will be back to defend his title in the 1 1/8-mile race, which again has a purse of $50,000.
A field of 11 3-year-olds and up will go in the Classic. Among the most prominent starters are E F Five, a two-time sprint winner at the current meet, and Happy Toes, a New Mexico invader who has won his last three starts in a streak that began in June.
ARLINGTON HEIGHTS, Ill. − Trainer Tom Proctor was to send out 3-year-old grass standout Banned on Saturday in the Secretariat Stakes, and Proctor might have a 3-year-old grass filly for a stakes race later this Arlington meet.
Marketing Mix, a thimble-sized Medaglia d’Oro filly, was a highly impressive winner of her turf debut July 31 restricted Wonder Where Stakes at Woodbine, and she has taken up residence with Proctor’s small Arlington string. Proctor said Marketing Mix could make her next start in the Pucker Up Stakes here Sept. 17.
DEL MAR, Calif. – The lure of a Grade 1 stakes on firm turf has led Summer Soiree from Maryland to California for the $250,000 Del Mar Oaks next Saturday.
The winner of the Grade 3 Boiling Springs Stakes at Monmouth Park by 8 1/2 lengths on June 25 in her turf debut, Summer Soiree will make her second start in a Grade 1 in the Del Mar Oaks, having finished 10th in the Kentucky Oaks in May.
AUBURN, Wash. – Zayda and Couldabenthewhisky, first and second in the recent Seattle Slew Handicap, will chase a bigger prize Sunday in the $65,000 Emerald Downs Derby, a race that has lost some of its purse – down from $75,000 last year and from $125,000 a decade ago – but very little of its prestige in Northwest racing circles. If you own a 3-year-old in Washington, this is the race you want to win.
DEL MAR, Calif. – Harmonious needed a break in February after she finished a well-beaten third in the Grade 2 La Canada Stakes at Santa Anita. Harmonious needs a win in Sunday’s $250,000 John Mabee Stakes at Del Mar to confirm her status among the nation’s leading turf females.
A 4-year-old owned by Marty Wygod and his family, Harmonious had nearly five months between the La Canada and a game second to Celtic Princess in the Grade 2 Royal Heroine Stakes over a mile on turf at Hollywood Park on July 13.
FORT ERIE, Ontario – He had 15 official fights as a young man, winning all of them, then put away his boxing gloves to work with horses.
Groom, hot walker, and general handyman, Joe Canzoneri, 55, has been fulfilling all three roles since his gloves came off many years ago and he continues to work where his heart is, on the backstretch of the racetrack.
Currently working for trainer Carla Cristoffersen, Canzoneri recently was reminiscing of days gone by with former jockey Tommy Grech.
MIAMI – A month ago, trainer Phil Gleaves was planning on giving his multiple graded stakes winner Mambo Meister a little break and bringing him back here at Calder on Labor Day in the Darn That Alarm Stakes. Mambo Meister is still scheduled to run on Labor Day but it will be at Saratoga in the Grade 1 Woodward.
