DEL MAR, Calif. – The impressive win by Creative Cause in Sunday’s Grade 2 Best Pal Stakes at Del Mar sets up an intriguing showdown between two undefeated colts in the $250,000 Del Mar Futurity on Sept. 7.
Creative Cause won his stakes debut in the Best Pal Stakes, stalking the pace and winning by 1 3/4 lengths over I’ll Have Another, another candidate for the Del Mar Futurity.
ARLINGTON HEIGHTS, Ill. – Martin Schwartz says he loves the Beverly D., and no wonder. He won the race in 2005 with Angara and in 2006 with Gorella, forever endearing Arlington Park to his stock-playing heart.
“Dick Duchossois really puts on a wonderful show there in Chicago,” said Schwartz, the New York tycoon who wheels and deals in high-dollar horseflesh, too.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Wicket Ewok takes a three-race win streak into his turf debut Thursday at Woodbine in a seven-furlong allowance for 3-year-olds that has no restrictions and is worth $89,400.
Wicket Ewok captured his second start off the sidelines in a first-level allowance May 15. Trainer Mike Pino spotted him realistically a month later in a $40,000 event, which Wicket Ewok won after coming from a stalking position. Trainer Sid Attard claimed him that day and ran him back against older opposition in a seven-furlong optional claimer July 29, which he won by a nose at 26-1.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – A short time after Uncle Mo’s work on Tuesday, trainer Todd Pletcher marched back to the Oklahoma training track to work 2-year-olds Overdriven and Stat for upcoming stakes, but only Stat worked, with Pletcher calling off the work for Overdriven, the Sanford Stakes winner, when dissatisfied with the way the colt warmed up.
DEL MAR, Calif. – It’s the future that most intrigues 77-year-old owner and breeder B. Wayne Hughes.
Last weekend, as Tizway was romping home in the Grade 1 Whitney Handicap at Saratoga, Hughes was one of the most delighted people in attendance. His Spendthrift Farm in Lexington, Ky., had recently acquired the breeding rights to Tizway, arguably the nation’s top older handicap horse.
“Tizway is just a monster,” Hughes said a few hours after the race. “We got lucky there, I think. We’re so anxious to get him in the stud barn.”
DEL MAR, Calif. –Linda Lou is a 6-year-old mare who has made just 12 starts in a career that began way back in March 2008. The interruptions have been frequent, and overshadow a somewhat promising race record. Linda Lou has won twice and finished second or third seven times, which is why she commands attention in an optional claimer over five furlongs on turf at Del Mar on Thursday.
The optional claimer, which carries a purse of $70,000, will be Linda Lou’s first start since a third-place finish in an optional claimer on the hillside turf course at Santa Anita in March.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario - Phil Jones, a former editor of Canadian Thoroughbred Magazine and owner of International Thoroughbred Digest, died last Saturday at age 79 following a lengthy battle with cancer.
Jones was a well-respected member of the local racing industry through his regular dealings with the Horsemen’s Benevolent and Protective Association, the Canadian Thoroughbred Horse Society, and the Jockeys’ Benefit Association of Canada.
He also authored a book, “The Horse People,” which focused on some of the colorful characters on the Woodbine backstretch.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Big Red Mike, winner of the Queen’s Plate and Canada’s champion 3-year-old male of 2010, is on the farm and will not see action again this season.
Owned and bred by Dom Romeo and trained by Nick Gonzalez, Big Red Mike was winless in his last six starts but finished an encouraging third when trying turf for the first time in the 1 3/8-mile allowance prep for the Singspiel Stakes in his last start on June 3.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario - Rahy’s Attorney, based here with trainer Ian Black, is scheduled to leave for Saratoga on Thursday afternoon for Saturday’s Sword Dancer Invitational. The Sword Dancer, a 1 1/2-mile turf race for 3-year-olds and upward, offers Grade 1 status and a purse of $500,000.
“The owners like having the chance to run him there,” said Black, who conditions the 7-year-old Rahy’s Attorney for his breeders, Joe and Ellen MacLellan, and partners.
