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.
The purpose of sending Apollitical Jess from California to New Mexico this summer was to win lucrative races such as the $1,548,076 All American Derby at Ruidoso Downs on Sunday.
He did that – emphatically – by setting the fastest qualifying time of 20.87 seconds in the Aug. 20 time trials. Now, Apollitical Jess has to do it again in Sunday’s final, the richest Quarter Horse derby in history, or the summer will be a disappointment for owner Rancho el Cabresto and trainer Juan Aleman.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Mother Russia, based at Saratoga with trainer Linda Rice, was entered here in both Saturday’s Grade 3, $150,000 Seaway over seven furlongs on Polytrack and in Sunday’s $100,000 Avowal over seven furlongs on turf.
Her choice will be critical, particularly to the complexion of the Avowal, where she would be a leading contender in the overnight stakes for fillies and mares.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Mobil Unit, who found his best form on the dirt in the Princes of Wales Stakes, will go back to the turf Sunday at Woodbine in the $125,000 Vice Regent Stakes, a one-mile route for Ontario-sired 3-year-olds.
Mobil Unit missed the board in each of his first two starts of the year, which included a dull display as the favorite in the Bold Ruckus Stakes on turf.
Mobil Unit was a prominent second at 13-1 in the 1 1/16-mile Prince of Wales, the second leg of the Canadian Triple Crown at Fort Erie on July 25.