Tue, 08/02/2011 - 16:12

Delta Downs: Jean Lafitte returns as Jackpot prep

Delta Downs, which in April announced that the Grade 3, $1  million Delta Downs Jackpot would be run on a special afternoon program Nov. 19, recently released its entire 30-race, $4 million stakes schedule. The most notable change is that the $200,000 Jean Lafitte for 2-year-olds at a mile will be returning to a fall date to serve as a prep for the Jackpot.

Tue, 08/02/2011 - 15:59

Louisiana Downs: A more relaxed Trubs may improve in Prelude

Trubs has reason to take a significant step forward on Saturday when he makes his first start as a gelding in the $100,000 Prelude at Louisiana Downs. The mile and a sixteenth race is a prep for the Super Derby and it will anchor a program of four stakes worth $250,000.

Trubs, who won the $58,000 Black Gold earlier this year at Fair Grounds, will be making his first start since April 6 in the Prelude. He last ran at Evangeline Downs, finishing third in the $50,000 Inaugural.

Tue, 08/02/2011 - 15:35

Mountaineer: Dreamy Kid top player in West Virginia Derby field of 10

Shigeki Kikkawa
Dreamy Kid, foreground, gets up to defeat Coil by a head in the Swaps Stakes.

Connecting the dots seems easy enough. Dreamy Kid defeated Coil in the Swaps Stakes, and after Coil came back to win the Haskell Invitational in such impressive fashion last weekend at Monmouth Park, it’s only logical that Dreamy Kid should be among the horses to beat Saturday in the 42nd running of the Grade  2, $750,000 West Virginia Derby at the Mountaineer Racetrack and Casino.

WEST VIRGINIA DERBY DAY: Video Analysis, news, PPs and LIVE streaming video of the entire card.

Tue, 08/02/2011 - 15:31

Saratoga: Rule has the speed to control

Barbara D. Livingston
Rule has not won since capturing the Grade 3 Sam Davis at Tampa Bay Downs nearly 18 months ago.

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Rule, who has run in eight straight graded stakes, including two Grade 1 races dating back to the end of his 2-year-old season, will seemingly be getting a little class relief when trainer Todd Pletcher drops him into Thursday’s $75,000 Birdstone at Saratoga. But the 1 1/8-mile overnight stakes has not come up an easy spot, in part because of its positioning on the calendar, which makes the race a potential stepping-stone to the Grade 1 Woodward on Sept. 3.

Tue, 08/02/2011 - 15:01

Saratoga: Sheppard and Voss have lock on Smithwick Steeplechase

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Trainers Jonathan Sheppard and Tom Voss have combined to win six of the 14 runnings of the A.P. Smithwick Memorial Steeplechase, and they have four of the six runners entered in Thursday’s renewal of the Grade 2, $75,000 event, to be run at 2 1/16 miles over nine National fences at Saratoga.

Tue, 08/02/2011 - 14:58

Arlington Park: Hansen making the most with small band of runners

Percentage-wise, it would be tough to top what Andy Hansen has been getting done with his depleted stable at Arlington Park, but that doesn’t necessarily sit well with the 48-year-old trainer.

“I’m down to just a handful of horses,” said Hansen. “For whatever reasons, I’ve lost a lot of horses to injury and attrition.”

Tue, 08/02/2011 - 14:41

Del Mar: Clement Hirsch a crucial test for Ultra Blend

Benoit Photo
Ultra Blend gives jockey Joel Rosario his 12th stakes win of the Santa Anita meet.

DEL MAR, Calif. - For most of her career, Ultra Blend has raced against California-breds, and done quite well. But her trainer, Art Sherman, has recently warmed to the idea of trying her against the best company out there, and Ultra Blend has continued to excel.In her last two starts, both Grade 2 races at Hollywood Park, Ultra Blend won the Milady Handicap via disqualification, and then lost by a whisker in the A Gleam Handicap.

Tue, 08/02/2011 - 14:33

Hambletonian: Miller brothers have favorite in Manofmanymissions

The Hambletonian Society
By winning his elimination race, the connections for Manofmanymissions had their first pick of post position.

Harness racing’s biggest day of the year will take place Saturday at the Meadowlands when the 86th edition of the $1.5 million Hambletonian for 3-year-old trotters headlines a stakes-filled card.

Tue, 08/02/2011 - 13:23

Del Mar training milestone within reach for Mitchell

Shigeki Kikkawa
Mike Mitchell will saddle St Trinians in the Clement Hirsch on Saturday.

DEL MAR, Calif. – Mike Mitchell’s first winner at Del Mar, appropriately enough, was with a claimer.

Macadamian won a $12,500 claimer over six furlongs by 2 1/4 lengths on July 26, 1975, paid $3.20, and earned a purse of $3,575.

Mitchell was 27, and had three stalls, loaned by trainer Willard Proctor. At the time, Farrell Jones, for whom Mitchell once worked, was established as the track’s all-time winningest trainer.

Tue, 08/02/2011 - 13:18

Del Mar: Baffert pair may dominate feature

DEL MAR, Calif. – In between major stakes races on the East Coast on consecutive weekends, trainer Bob Baffert has returned to Del Mar, where on Thursday he will try to put a hammerlock on the day’s featured seventh race, sending out both Awesomemundo and Toro Bonito in a second-level allowance for fillies and mares.