LOUISVILLE, Ky. – The end of the first half of the racing season typically comes with the Belmont Stakes, a race that proved conclusively last Saturday that the North American 3-year-old division of 2011 is a jumble.
The second half begins Saturday at Churchill Downs with the Grade 1 Stephen Foster Handicap, a race that will endeavor to unscramble the 2011 handicap division, which also has lacked clear-cut leadership.
Good luck with that.
J P’s Gusto has yet to show he can run as well on dirt as he did on synthetic surfaces in California last year, when he won three graded stakes, including the Grade 1 Del Mar Futurity and finished second in two other Grade 1 races.
Now with his second trainer since Gem Inc. owner John Waken transferred him from David Hofmans’s barn in California, J P’s Gusto will try to regain his best form when he switches to a more favorable distance for Saturday night’s $400,000 Red Legend Stakes at Charles Town.
MIAMI – Trainer Dave Braddy admits he was probably as surprised as anybody when his multiple stakes-winning mare Sweet Repent ran down the odds-on, pacesetting Amazing to win an allowance race at Calder on May 13. After all, the outing was the first for Sweet Repent in nearly 10 months while Amazing had been running right along since the summer of 2010.
Racing in the May 6 Kentucky Oaks, Kathmanblu couldn’t keep pace with the cream of the 3-year-old filly division, finishing sixth, 10 lengths behind victorious Plum Pretty.
There were no excuses. Nor should there be Saturday in the Grade 3, $125,000 Regret Stakes at Churchill Downs – except the outcome should be more favorable.
Dropped in class and returned to turf, a surface over which three of her five victories have come, she appears poised for one of her better efforts.
ELMONT, N.Y. – Unrivaled Belle was denied her second straight victory in the La Troienne Stakes at Churchill Downs when she was outfinished by the champion Blind Luck. Unrivaled Belle’s connections hope to be denied a second straight runner-up finish in the $250,000 Ogden Phipps Handicap when she looks to one-better her position from this race last year against five quality opponents in the Grade 1 race at Belmont Park on Saturday.
OCEANPORT, N.J. – Funny how the pecking order in a barn can change in a hurry.
Prior to last weekend, Louisiana Derby winner Pants On Fire was a leading 3-year-old for Kelly Breen, the private trainer for George and Lori Hall.
Then Ruler On Ice upset the Belmont Stakes applecart at 24-1.
Suddenly, the barn had a new hero.
“It’s all about winning,” Breen said.
And Pants On Fire now has some catching up to do, starting Saturday in the Grade 3, $200,000 Pegasus Stakes at Monmouth Park.
At first glance, it might appear that trainer Mike Matz is holding a couple of aces for Saturday’s $75,000 John Rooney Memorial Stakes at Delaware Park with a South American import who finished one length shy of winning a Group 1 race last summer and a horse-for-the-course who has registered 4 wins and a close second in 5 starts over the local turf course.
Chamberlain Bridge, who has yet to display the same form in three starts this season that carried him to victory in the Breeders’ Cup Turf Sprint last fall, looks to regroup over a turf course where he is unbeaten in two starts when he returns to suburban Philadelphia for Saturday’s inaugural running of the $200,000 Parx Dash Handicap at Parx Racing.
Penn National Racecourse in Grantville, Penn., will drop its Monday and Tuesday night programs and switch to a Wednesday-through-Saturday schedule beginning in September, the track announced.
Penn added the Monday and Tuesday night programs at the start of this year in the hope of boosting its presence in the national full-card simulcast market. In a statement, the track’s vice president of racing, Mark Loewe, said that “the move didn’t generate the interest we had hoped for.”
VANCOUVER, British Columbia – Majesticality will appreciate the move to a middle distance when he makes his second start of the year in a first-level optional $50,000 claiming race for 3-year-olds and up at Hastings on Saturday. The 1 1/16-mile feature drew seven horses and goes as race 7 on the eight-race card that begins at 3:20 p.m. Pacific. The change from the usual 1:20 post time is to attract fans that will be going to the Vancouver Whitecaps soccer game that begins at Empire Fields at 7 p.m.
