DEL MAR, Calif. -- The major works for Flightline in preparation for the $1 million Pacific Classic on Sept. 3 were completed the two previous weeks, but Flightline still put on a show Saturday morning at Del Mar when he went through his final drill, in which he worked fast while not appearing to exert any effort whatsoever.
Flightline was one of six horses nominated to the Pacific Classic who worked Saturday morning before 8 a.m. Pacific. Nine are nominated to the race.
DEL MAR, Calif. -- Hall of Fame trainer Ron McAnally on Saturday will be presented with the Laffit Pincay Jr. Award, given at Del Mar to Southern California-based horsemen who have served the sport with integrity and distinction.
The presentation will take place in the winner's circle following race 4.
DEL MAR, Calif. -- As the purgatory in which jockey Tyler Baze finds himself this summer at Del Mar grinds on into a second week, his agent, Jack Carava, on Friday said they may opt to not be named on horses until Baze can clear a required drug test for a medication that has lingered and kept him off mounts.
On Friday, Baze for the sixth straight racing day could not pass a test for the medication, and was taken off his four mounts. He has shown up every day expecting to ride, but until the medication clears he cannot ride horses in the afternoon or even the morning.
DEL MAR, Calif. – Undefeated Grade 1 winner Flightline tops the list of nine nominated to the Grade 1, $1 million TVG Pacific Classic at Del Mar on Sept. 3. The race is the richest of the summer meet, on the meet’s biggest stakes program.
Five stakes are scheduled for Sept. 3. Nominations were released this week for the Pacific Classic and three Grade 2 turf races the same day – the Del Mar Handicap at a mile and three-eighths, Del Mar Mile and Del Mar Derby. The card also includes the $125,000 Shared Belief, a mile dirt race for 3-year-olds.
Is Kid Corleone in the right race at Del Mar on Saturday?
After an impressive 2022 debut in an allowance race at 6 1/2 furlongs on July 22, Kid Corleone will start as the morning-line favorite in a tough allowance race at six furlongs instead of the Grade 2 Pat O’Brien Stakes at seven furlongs on the same card.
There Goes Harvard, winner of the Grade 1 Hollywood Gold Cup at Santa Anita in May, is out of training because of illness and unlikely to race again this year.
Trainer Michael McCarthy said on Friday that There Goes Harvard has been sidelined since he finished last of nine in the Grade 2 San Diego Handicap on July 30.
“He got real sick,” McCarthy said. “He’s not doing anything right now. He’s getting better.”
Prior to Thursday, trainer Jonathan Wong had recorded seven three-win days this year – five times at Golden Gate and once at Santa Rosa and Turf Paradise.
On Thursday, Wong won three races with as many starters at Del Mar. Wong has won eight races at the summer meeting, leaving him tied for seventh in the standings, five behind leader Phil D’Amato.
“It’s an amazing feeling,” he said. “Unbelievable.”
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - Jockey John Velazquez has reached many milestones in his career, perhaps none as meaningful to the Hall of Fame rider as the one he achieved Thursday by guiding Precursory to victory in the eighth race for his 1,000th lifetime win at Saratoga.
“Of all the milestones, this is one of the best ones for me,” said Velazquez, who is 50. “I came here as an 18 year old with Angel Cordero [Jr.], who had been the leading rider at Saratoga for so many years, and he kept trying to put it in my head how special a place it was.”
Owner Susan Osborne, who won the 2016 Santa Anita Handicap with Melatonin and the 2008 Breeders’ Cup Turf Sprint with Desert Code, died earlier this month of age-related infirmities at her home in Glendale, Calif., trainer David Hofmans said earlier this week.
Osborne was 81.
Osborne, who raced under the stable name Tarabilla Farm, had a decades-long involvement in Southern California racing, first with trainer Riley Cofer and later with Hofmans.
Tizamagician was second in the Grade 1 Pacific Classic at Del Mar in 2021, but will miss that race on Sept. 3 in favor of a first start in a graded stakes on turf in the Grade 2 Del Mar Handicap the same day.
Tizamagician worked seven furlongs on turf in 1:29.40 at Del Mar on Thursday, an exercise that convinced trainer Richard Mandella to try the $300,000 Del Mar Handicap at 1 3/8 miles.
“He looked nice,” Mandella said. “He handled it. I’m thinking we’ll try the turf.”
