Yankee Injunuity, who at one point last year was a candidate for the Breeders’ Cup Turf Sprint, makes his first start since February in the featured sixth race on Friday at Arlington Park.
Yankee Injunuity was one of seven horses entered in a 5 1/2-furlong turf race open to third-level allowance horses, horses without two wins in 2010, and $62,500 claimers. Grass-debuting Mam Bird, a three-time winner at the meet, figures to provide Yankee Injunuity’s chief opposition.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Trainer Angel Penna has a simple explanation for why Baletti ran so poorly in the Grade 3 Monmouth Stakes two months ago.
“He was out of his mind,” Penna said.
Dehydrated by the heat and having shipped in on top of the race, Baletti finished a well-beaten sixth to Get Serious in the Monmouth. With ample time to recover and having been stabled here for a month, Penna hopes Baletti can rebound in Friday’s Grade 2, $200,000 Bernard Baruch Handicap at Saratoga.
OCEANPORT, N.J. – Purses will be higher than initially expected for the post Labor Day portion of the Monmouth Park meet. The 22 days from Sept. 11 to Nov. 21 will average $375,000 a day, well above the projected $275,000.
The windfall is the product of two factors: higher than anticipated business during the summer and an underpayment to the purse account.
The 50-day Elite Meet, May 22 to Sept. 6, which was scheduled to offer $50 million in purses, has surpassed projections in every major statistical category.
BOSSIER CITY, La. – Saturday’s Prelude Day is not quite the premier program of the Louisiana Downs season, but it promises to be an awfully good dress rehearsal.
In addition to producing at least one Super Derby starter – the $100,000 Prelude winner receives an all-fees berth in the big dance next month – Saturday’s five supporting stakes, all on the grass, all at one mile in distance, and each worth $50,000, promise to provide plenty of additional participants for the stakes-rich Super Derby undercard on Sept. 25.
A day after Delta Downs announced the purse for the Grade 3 Delta Jackpot for 2-year-olds would be raised back up to $1 million and held two weeks earlier on Nov. 20, the track released its full stakes schedule with the former prep for the Jackpot, the Jean Lafitte, now being run on Jan. 14.
OCEANPORT, N.J. – Soda Pop Kid settled in nicely at Monmouth Park this summer.
A 5-year-old gelding trained by Bruce Levine, Soda Pop Kid tries to extend his unbeaten streak at the meet to three on Friday in the featured 10th race, a third-level optional $62,500 claimer at six furlongs.
With the early scratch of Golden Spikes, Soda Pop Kid gets the rail against seven rivals. He also has a stablemate, Independence War, running as an uncoupled betting interest.
If jockey Tony Maragh made the right choice, Pros Or Joes has a good chance of winning Friday’s feature at Northlands Park. The 6 1/2-furlong dash for 3-year-olds drew eight horses running for a $12,500 claiming price.
Maragh had another option in Easy Whiskey, who is coming off of a win in a $15,000 claiming race for nonwinners of two Aug. 8.
Pros Or Joes, trained by Rod Cone, should appreciate the move back to a sprint and the easier company after setting the pace before fading to fourth in a one-mile race for $20,000 claimers Aug. 15.
One of the last remnants of a fading American tradition will be on display for the next two weekends when live racing returns to Timonium Race Track at the Maryland State Fair. Racing will be held Friday through Sunday, then again from Sept. 3 through Labor Day.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Trainer Danny Vella plans to be represented in both turf stakes here this weekend, with Lucy Ring entered in Saturday’s one-mile Ontario Colleen for 3-year-old fillies and Field Commissioner slated for Sunday’s seven-furlong Play the King for 3-year-olds and upward.
The two come into their respective events with vastly different credentials, however, as Lucy Ring will be trying a new distance and surface in just her third start, while the veteran Field Commission will be returning to his preferred milieu in the Play the King.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario– Gypsy Ring drops into a first-level allowance on Friday at Woodbine, and should be a formidable opponent in the seven-furlong sprint for 3-year-olds and up.
Gypsy Ring, a 4-year-old owned and trained by Paul Buttigieg, has had a fruitful meet. He captured back-to-back allowances restricted to Ontario-breds in May, earning an 86 Beyer Speed Figure on each occasion.