First Dude, Game On Dude, and Twirling Candy were the first three across the line in the Hollywood Gold Cup on July 9, and they looked like the ones to beat in the Grade 1, $1 million Pacific Classic here Aug. 28, but there’s now room for opportunistic older horses, what with the retirement of First Dude on Monday and the possibility that Twirling Candy could go in a different race.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – It took a track-record performance to hand Higher Court his first career defeat last month at Belmont Park. It might take another to beat the speedy 3-year-old again Thursday at Saratoga in the $75,000 Quick Call Stakes carded at 5 1/2 furlongs on the turf.
DEL MAR, Calif. – It’ll happen long after high noon, but there’s going to be an old-fashioned Western shootout Sunday at Del Mar.
Euroears and Smiling Tiger, two of the fastest guns in the West, are set for a compelling sprint showdown in the Grade 1, $250,000 Bing Crosby Stakes, a six-furlong race that also is expected to draw the accomplished stakes winner Amazombie.
DEL MAR, Calif. – Trainer Richard Mandella is hoping to have them surrounded in the featured seventh race on Thursday at Del Mar, both in terms of post positions and styles of running.
He’s already halfway there. Chalula One, the late runner of his pair, drew the rail in the one-mile turf race for second-level allowance females. And Mandella is hopeful that the speedy Linda Lou, the first horse on the also-eligible list, will draw into the $70,000 race.
Members of the Saratoga riding colony will take on a group of horsemen in a charity basketball game Wednesday at the Saratoga Recreation Center, with proceeds going to benefit the New York Racetrack Chaplaincy.
Tipoff is 7 p.m. and tickets cost $15. The recreation center is located at 15 Vanderbilt Ave.
On Sunday, trainer Scooter Dickey confirmed that Flat Out, runaway winner of the Grade 2 Suburban Handicap earlier this month, would return in the Grade 1 Whitney. On Monday, Dickey felt even better about that decision after Flat Out worked five furlongs in 59 seconds and galloped out six furlongs in 1:11 under exercise rider Rafael Holgein at Monmouth Park.
Trainer Todd Pletcher doesn’t usually like to run his horses back in three weeks – especially when raising them in class – but he got away with it with both Georgie’s Angel and Overdriven, who took the opening weekend graded stakes for 2-year-olds.
Anybody hoping to watch Gio Ponti work here Monday for his upcoming engagement in the Arlington Million probably missed the opportunity after trainer Christophe Clement was able to get his multiple Eclipse Award winner out over the turf at the Oklahoma training center about 30 minutes prior to the course’s regularly scheduled opening at 10:15 a.m.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Pending a change of heart by his connections after reviewing weight assignments, Sidney’s Candy will make his next start in Sunday’s Grade 2, $150,000 Fourstardave Handicap at 1 1/16 miles over Saratoga’s inner turf course.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y.- Icabad Crane rallied from last to wear down pacesetting Stormy’s Majesty in the final stride and register a game nose decision in Monday’s $75,000 Evan Shipman Stakes at Saratoga.
The 1 1/8-mile Evan Shipman, which is restricted to New York- breds, lost much of its luster when the odds-on morning-line favorite Friend or Foe was scratched after the racetrack was downgraded from fast to sloppy early in the day.
