SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Friend or Foe was scratched out of the $75,000 Evan Shipman Stakes here Monday by trainer John Kimmel and will now be pointed for the Grade 1 Whitney Handicap on Aug. 6.
Kimmel made the decision to scratch Friend or Foe, who would have been a prohibitive favorite in the race restricted to New York breds, after heavy showers turned the main track from fast to sloppy following the running of Monday’s first race.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Trainer Jimmy Toner made no excuses after More Than Real handed Winter Memories her only defeat in the 2011 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf. Toner is hoping he won’t need any after the pair meet for the first time as 3-year-olds Wednesday at Saratoga in the $150,000 Lake George Stakes.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Biofuel, Canada’s Horse of the Year and champion 3-year-old filly last season, was retired on Monday.
“She chipped her sesamoid, during the race yesterday,” said trainer Reade Baker, who had sent out Biofuel to finish third in Sunday’s Ontario Matron and was present when the injury was discovered late Monday morning.
“She’ll stay at Woodbine, for another week, and then head down to Airdrie Stud. She’ll be bred to Majesticperfection.”
Biofuel was bred in Kentucky by her owner, Brereton C. Jones, owner of the Lexington-area Airdrie Stud.
Wednesday’s opening of the Sonoma County Fair at Santa Rosa will offer three weeks of the “good old days” for racing fans in Northern California.
Santa Rosa is the only Northern California meet racing five-day weeks, and it will offer seven stakes during its 15-day run.
“We think it’s important to run the same schedule as Del Mar,” director of racing Richard Lewis said.
DEL MAR, Calif. - X-rays of jockey Victor Espinoza’s right ankle were negative, and he is expected to ride on Wednesday despite taking a tumble in a three-horse spill in the final race at Del Mar on Sunday, his agent, Brad Pegram, said Monday morning.
“He’s got a little bit of swelling, but the X-rays of the ankle were clean,” Pegram said. “I do think he’ll ride on Wednesday, but I’ll know more [Tuesday].”
ETOBICOKE, Ontario —The speedy Altius and the closer Citius should complement each other perfectly on Wednesday night at Woodbine in the $125,000 Deputy Minister Stakes. They are both trained by Ralph Biamonte, but are not coupled in the seven-furlong sprint for Ontario-sired 3-year-olds.
Altius performed well in each of his four outings at the meet. Two starts ago when fourth in the Bold Ruckus Stakes, he set a fast pace to the benefit of Citius, who came from fourth to win the six-furlong turf sprint.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Trainer Mark Frostad had been keeping a relatively low profile at the current Woodbine meeting, with 6 winners from his first 52 starters heading into the latter stages of last Sunday’s program.
But, that situation changed within the span of slightly more than a half-hour as Frostad sent out Windward Islands to capture the Grade 2, $312,600 Nijinsky Stakes and Magic Broomstick to romp in a $77,386 open allowance race.
DEL MAR, Calif. – Coil, who finished second as the heavy favorite in the Swaps Stakes at Hollywood Park on July 9, is headed to the Grade 1, $1 million Haskell Invitational on Sunday at Monmouth Park following a drill at Del Mar on Monday that trainer Bob Baffert called “his best work ever.”
DEL MAR, Calif. – First Dude, who won the Hollywood Gold Cup on July 9, came out of the race with a tendon injury to a front leg and has been retired, trainer Bob Baffert said Monday morning at Del Mar.
“It showed up about a week after the race,” Baffert said. “We walked, jogged, and galloped him, and then it came up. It’s pretty small, but there’s no such thing as a small tendon.”
First Dude remains at Hollywood Park. He did not travel with Baffert’s contingent that is now stabled at Del Mar.
