SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – For Mike Repole, it’s one goal down, one to go.
After going winless with 36 runners at Saratoga in 2009, it was Repole’s mission to be leading owner at this year’s meet. Entering the final three days of the season, Repole had the owners’ title wrapped up with 13 winners from 44 starters. The second-leading owner is Gary and Mary West with seven winners.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. _ Todd Pletcher already had the strongest crop of 2-year-olds of any trainer on the grounds. Then he got arguably the most impressive juvenile filly winner of the meet sent to him.
Valiant Passion, who overcame traffic trouble to win a 5 1/2-furlong maiden race by 9 1/4 lengths, will make her first start for Pletcher in Sunday’s Grade 1, $250,000 Spinaway Stakes at Saratoga. She is one of four horses Pletcher entered in the Spinaway, a seven-furlong race which drew a field of eight.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Ever since his dazzling 12-length maiden win at Belmont Park nine weeks ago, a lot of people have been waiting for Boys At Tosconova to run back.
The wait ends Monday, when Boys At Tosconova faces six rivals in the Grade 1, $250,000 Hopeful Stakes, the closing-day feature on an 11-race Saratoga card. The Hopeful, run at seven furlongs, tops a card that also includes the Grade 3, $100,000 Glens Falls Stakes for fillies and mares on the turf, featuring the champion Forever Together.
DEL MAR, Calif. – Wednesday’s closing day of the Del Mar meeting will be an awkward afternoon for Hall of Fame trainer Bob Baffert.
When the Grade 1 Del Mar Futurity is run, Baffert will be reduced to an expert spectator. Baffert has won the race a record nine times, from 1996 to 2002, and in the last two years. This year, he will not have a starter.
“I know. That’s wrong,” Baffert said Friday, reflecting on the situation.
DEL MAR, Calif. – The fall racing season is about to get a lot more interesting for undefeated Twirling Candy, the likely odds-on favorite Sunday in the Grade 2 Del Mar Derby.
Six entered the 1 1/8-mile grass race for 3-year-olds, in which lone front-runner Twirling Candy and improving stretch-runner Kid Edward figure one-two in the cinch exacta of summer.
OCEANPORT, N.J. – It defies logic, but Get Serious seems to be getting stronger in the eyes of trainer John Forbes.
A 6-year-old New York bred gelding, Get Serious has already had four demanding races at Monmouth Park this meet. He could easily rest on his laurels after three wins, including Grade 3 victories in the Monmouth Stakes and the Oceanport Stakes. The lone defeat was a game pacesetting bid in the Grade 1 United Nations.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y – When Fantastico Roberto turned in a clunker in the Jersey Derby on Aug. 1, trainer Todd Pletcher decided one important change would be made when the colt returned in the Grade 3, $100,000 Saranac on Sunday at Saratoga.
“Blinkers off,” Pletcher said. “He was too rank the last time.”
Fantastico Roberto drew post 2 in the field of six 3-year-olds going 1 3/16 miles on the turf. He is the highweight at 119 pounds, two pounds more than the others.
Jockey Robby Albarado said Friday that he is healing on schedule from injuries suffered in a spill at Saratoga and that he expects to be 100 percent when the Keeneland fall meet begins Oct. 8.
Albarado suffered a fractured right collarbone and a broken bone just above the knuckle of his right index finger when his mount fell when galloping out shortly after the first race Aug. 11.
Monday’s scheduled Rosie the Riveter Stakes at Golden Gate Fields was cancelled when only two runners entered the race.
The $50,000 race for 2-year-old fillies was slated to be contested at 1 1/16 miles.
Entered in the race were the Jerry Hollendorfer-trained Alec’s Moon, coming off a July 31 six-furlong maiden victory at Santa Rosa, and the Gary Sherlock-trained Table for One, who won a six-furlong $40,000 maiden claimer at Del Mar on Aug. 25.