Rodman, runner up to Tizway in the Metropolitan Handicap, heads the six-horse field in the Grade 2, $300,000 Suburban Handicap on Saturday at Belmont Park.
The top event of the holiday weekend at Belmont Park came up light in numbers and quality.
This is an excellent chance for Rodman to shine in his fourth start since missing the entire 2010 season with a foot injury and a bout of colic.
INGLEWOOD, Calif. – Week after week through June, Smiling Tiger recorded blisteringly quick workouts at Hollywood Park, leading toward Saturday’s $250,000 Triple Bend Handicap over seven furlongs.
A five-furlong workout in 58.60 seconds on June 9 was followed a week later by another work in 58.80, and, finally, a six-furlong workout in 1:11.40 on June 23. Always a fast worker, Smiling Tiger seems even quicker this summer.
“He’s had time between races, and that’s when he blasts off,” trainer Jeff Bonde said. “He’s doing really good right now. We think he’s at his apex.”
AUBURN, Wash. – Tony Schiro is alive. That was the good news this week in the wake of a scary incident Saturday afternoon at Emerald Downs in which two horses heading from the paddock to the racetrack threw their jockeys, veered onto a horse path and broke into a full-speed sprint toward the barn area.
After running about 200 yards, one horse struck a tree, resulting in fatal injuries. The other trampled Schiro, 70, a longtime horseman and a popular figure on the Emerald Downs backside.
VANCOUVER, British Columbia – Local 3-year-olds will take their first step towards the Grade 3, $200,000 British Columbia Derby on Sept. 11 in the $50,000 Chris Loseth at Hastings on Friday. The 1 1/16-mile feature named after the all-time leading jockey at Hastings is the first middle-distance stakes for 3-year-olds at the meet. Half of the 10 horses entered – including the probable favorite, Inhisglory – will be going around three turns for the first time.
Turf Paradise will open its stable area Friday, Aug. 5, a month earlier than usual, the track’s general manager, Vince Francia, said Wednesday.
“We’re opening the stable area early to help horsemen still feeling the effects of Yavapai Downs canceling its summer meet,” said Francia. He said the local horsemen’s association and the track will share in the expenses.
INGLEWOOD, Calif. – Ellafitz and Artuya give trainer Bob Baffert two formidable starters in allowance races at Hollywood Park on Friday evening, a chance for the Hall of Famer to further pad his lead at the top of the trainer standings of the spring-summer meeting.
Through Sunday, Baffert had a three-race lead on trainer Mike Mitchell, with 27 wins at the meeting.
ELMONT, N.Y. – Happy Week and R Betty Graybull, who finished third and fifth in the Grade 2 Shuvee Handicap last time out, head a field of six older fillies and mares in Friday’s $60,000 Sky Beauty overnight stakes.
The Todd Pletcher-trained Happy Week was disqualified from third and placed fourth in the Shuvee after coming out in the stretch under left-handed pressure. She gets a switch back to John Velazquez, who rode the 4-year-old filly to back-to-back allowance victories at Saratoga and Keeneland last year.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Biofuel, Canada’s Horse of the Year and champion 3-year-old filly of 2010, is scheduled to get her new campaign under way here in Friday’s seven-furlong Sweet Briar Too.
The $100,000 Sweet Briar Too, an overnight stakes for fillies and mares, attracted a field of seven that also includes Indian Apple Is, the Sovereign Award winner in last year’s female sprinter category.
“She’s ready to go,” said Reade Baker, who trains Biofuel for owner/breeder Brereton C. Jones.
“She had a little problem, but it disappeared. She’s in great shape.”
LOS ALAMITOS, Calif. – Separate Fire’s win in the $1,126,000 Ed Burke Million Futurity at Los Alamitos last Sunday has left owner Jose Trevino and trainer Paul Jones with difficult campaign decisions in coming weeks.
Separate Fire is the undisputed leader of the 2-year-old division at Los Alamitos, having won the Kindergarten Futurity in May. To keep that distinction over the next six months, while trying to earn a championship, Trevino and Jones must balance their desire to race in major futurities but not over-race the filly.
The well-traveled Road Ready is hoping for a happy homecoming Friday when he meets seven rivals in the $50,000 Livermore Valley Wines, a new six-furlong stakes race for 3-year-olds at the Alameda County Fair in Pleasanton, Calif.
A $300,000 Barretts 2-year-old purchase in March 2010, Road Ready did his initial training here before winning the Lost in the Fog at Golden Gate Fields in his debut last year. The More Than Ready colt has been on the road ever since.
