OCEANPORT, N.J. The unbeaten Vengeful Wildcat is on target for the Grade 3, $150,000 Sapling Stakes, one of the final graded events of Monmouth Park’s 2010 meet.
The summer meet ends Labor Day with a flurry of stakes on the final weekend.
The Sapling, the track’s top event for 2-year-olds, and the $100,000 Twin Lights Stakes top the card on Saturday, Sept. 4.
The Grade 3, $200,000 Red Bank at one mile on the turf and the $100,000 Icecapade for sprinters headline the Sunday card.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Fatal Bullet has had trouble mounting a consistent campaign this season.
On Sunday, Fatal Bullet will try his hand on the turf when he starts on that surface for the second time in his career in the Grade 2, $200,000 Play the King Stakes at seven furlongs.
“We would have liked to run him on the Polytrack, but there were no races anywhere for him,” said Reade Baker, who trains Fatal Bullet for the Bear Stable of Danny Dion.
“The program here is so pro-turf that we found it necessary to give him one more chance on the surface.”
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. − Blame wrapped up his noteworthy summer at Saratoga by breezing an easy four furlongs in 50.80 seconds under assistant trainer Randi Melton at the Oklahoma training center Friday.
Blame put his mark on the 2010 Saratoga meeting when he rallied through the final furlong under jockey Garrett Gomez to upset odds-on favorite Quality Road in the Grade 1 Whitney. The victory was the fifth in a row and seventh in the last eight starts for Blame, a 4-year-old son of Arch. Blame is trained by Al Stall Jr. and owned by Adele Dilschneider and Claiborne Farm.
Three-year-old Nebraska-breds take center stage at the Columbus Races with two divisions of the $15,000 Columbus Breeders’ Special. Both races will be contested at 6 1/2 furlongs and drew compact fields.
Bach’s Homebrew, seeking his fifth straight victory, should rule the prohibitive favorite in the colts and geldings division of the Breeders’ Special. Only six were nominated for the race, including his stablemate, Bingosablumin, who was second in the Van Berg Derby here last weekend.
DEL MAR, Calif. – Champ Pegasus has been the surprising colt in trainer Richard Mandella’s barn this year.
After a maiden win in April, and a second in the Grade 3 Sunset Handicap at Hollywood Park in July, Champ Pegasus will start in Sunday’s $200,000 Del Mar Handicap with a realistic chance of winning his first stakes.
“He’s really come along,” Mandella said. “I didn’t expect that much out of him.”
DEL MAR, Calif. – Blind Luck’s two trips across the United States this year have resulted in the two biggest wins of her career, and pushed her to the fore of the 3-year-old filly division.
Following her most recent win in the $500,000 Alabama Stakes at Saratoga on Aug. 21, Blind Luck’s travels will continue in coming months.
Trainer Jerry Hollendorfer has two road trips planed for Blind Luck – a journey to Philadelphia Park for the $750,000 Fitz Dixon Cotillion Stakes for 3-year-old fillies on Oct. 2 and the Breeders’ Cup Ladies’ Classic at Churchill Downs on Nov. 5.
SUNLAND, N.M. – The Sunland Park Derby hit a home run two years ago when it produced Kentucky Derby winner Mine That Bird. The race will again be one of the nation’s richest 3-year-old stakes when the Grade 3, $800,000 race is renewed March 27. The 1 1/8-mile derby is the centerpiece of a 77-date mixed meet that runs from Dec. 10 to April 19, 2011.