Dropping back to last usually spells trouble at a speed-favoring track like Delaware Park. So when deep closer St. John’s River lagged in seventh after the first six furlongs of Saturday’s 1 1/16-mile Delaware Oaks, her chances didn’t look good.
Nor did the picture appear much brighter when St. John’s River was fourth, 4 1/2 lengths behind pacesetter Strike the Moon, with a furlong remaining.
The British import Cheetah didn’t do much running in the first mile of Saturday’s Robert Dick Memorial Stakes at Delaware Park. But she sure finished fast.
Ahead of just one horse in the field of 12 fillies and mares and 9 1/2 lengths behind the leader with three furlongs remaining, Cheetah finished full of run to draw clear to a 3 3/4-length victory in the Grade 3, $202,400 Dick.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario – The Mark Casse-trained Roxy Gap was heavily favored in Saturday’s $150,000 Ontario Damsel Stakes at Woodbine, but it was one of Casse’s two supplements to the race, Bingo, who stole the show in the one-mile turf event.
SHAKOPEE, Minn. – Canterbury Park was forced to cancel another race card on Sunday because of the ongoing state budget impasse. No decision was made by Judge Kathleen Gearin on the racetrack’s petition to reconsider her earlier ruling against keeping the Minnesota Racing Commission open during the state shutdown. Without the commission, the track cannot operate.
Eskimo's Best will attempt to win her second consecutive $84,000 Florence Henderson at Indiana Downs on Tuesday evening for trainer Richard Kohnhorst. In 2010, Kohnhorst sent Eskimo's Best out at 11-1 to win the 1 1/16-mile turf event by a long neck.
Previously, the now 5-year-old mare had finished fourth in the allowance prep. This season, Eskimo's Best won the allowance prep by a nose on June 28, going a flat mile over the Indiana Downs turf course.
The added distance definitely will be a plus, according to Kohnhorst.
ELMONT, N.Y. – The New York Racing Association will conduct an internal investigation to find out where a communication breakdown occurred that resulted in the mishandling of Friday’s pick six at Belmont Park and led to an erroneous pick-six carryover into Saturday’s card.
INGLEWOOD, Calif. - Jockey Patrick Valenzuela took off his mounts on Saturday after being unseated and kicked by his mount at the start of Friday’s fourth race.
Valenzuela was unseated from 2-1 favorite Sunburn a few strides after the start when Sunburn stumbled. The filly then kicked Valenzuela, according to the jockey’s agent, Tom Knust.
Valenzuela was hospitalized late Friday, and precautionary X-rays on his arm, shoulder and leg were negative. He was released around midnight. Saturday morning, Valenzuela was complaining of body soreness, Knust said.
ELMONT, N.Y. - Despite the fact the Belmont Park turf courses are not firm, Gio Ponti will run in Saturday’s Grade 1, $600,000 Man o’ War Stakes, trainer Christophe Clement confirmed at 1:30 p.m. Saturday.
"Running," Clement wrote in a text after he met with owner Shane Ryan.
INGLEWOOD, Calif. – The 3-year-old graded stakes winner Premier Pegasus and the graded-stakes-placed Riveting Reason are being prepared for comebacks later this year, according to Maria Ayala, the assistant to owner-trainer Myung Kwon Cho.
Premier Pegasus, scratched from the Santa Anita Derby the day before the race with a hairline fracture of the cannon bone of his left foreleg, is within three weeks of returning to racetrack training and is at a local farm.
“He’s almost ready to come back,” Ayala said.
MIAMI - Trainer David Fawkes was forced to scratch Apriority from Saturday’s $350,000 Smile Sprint Handicap due to a foot abscess.
Fawkes said the abscess flared up after Apriority turned in his final prep for the Smile, a bullet three furlongs in 35, on Tuesday.
