SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - As if winning Friday’s $75,000 Pleasant Colony at Saratoga by 11 3/4 lengths over Our Dark Knight while geared down at the end wasn’t impressive enough, trainer Rick Dutrow Jr. had this to say about Trickmeister, his undefeated 3-year-old prospect.
“He’s better than this!”
AUBURN, Wash. – Trainer Doris Harwood holds a strong hand Sunday at Emerald Downs – two aces in one stakes race, and the wild card in another.
Harwood, fresh from a victory with Noosa Beach in the Longacres Mile, will send out the top two contenders in the $50,000 Barbara Shinpoch Stakes for 2-year-old fillies. Carrabelle Harbor, already a double stakes winner, figures to be a short-priced favorite. Kids Kooler, an eye-catching maiden winner two weeks ago, is her most serious challenger over the Shinpoch’s eight furlongs.
SHAKOPEE, Minn. – Canterbury Park will conclude its live season Sunday with Minnesota Champions Day, eight stakes showcasing Minnesota-breds.
In the $35,000 Turf Championship at a mile, 9-year-old gelding Sir Tricky will be looking for his seventh stakes victory, and third Champions Day win. Sir Tricky won this race in 2006 and the Sprint in 2008. Trainer Mac Robertson likes his gelding’s chances.
“I think he’ll win,” he said. “He won his last two. He’s awfully sharp right now.”
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - Jim Dandy runner-up Miner’s Reserve will run in Saturday’s $1 million Travers Stakes, owner Robert LaPenta confirmed Friday afternoon.
LaPenta will also be represented in the Travers by Florida Derby winner Ice Box.
There had been some discussion between LaPenta and trainer Nick Zito about scratching Miner’s Reserve out of the Travers to await the $300,000 Smarty Jones at Philadelphia Park on Sept. 6. But in the end, LaPenta wanted to run in the Travers.
Atta Boy Roy swept into the Midsouth region last week, won the $200,000 Remington Park Sprint Cup, and is now back at his Churchill Downs base awaiting a rematch with Majesticperfection in the $2 million Breeders’ Cup Sprint.
The two last met in the $125,000 Iowa Sprint Handicap on June 25, a race in which Atta Boy Roy was the favorite off the strength of his win in the Grade 2 Churchill Downs. But he ended up finishing second in the Prairie Meadows race, beaten 4 3/4 lengths by Majesticperfection.
Delaware Park will begin offering a bonus of approximately 10 percent on exacta wagers placed at the track on its live races.
Starting Saturday, Sept. 4, the takeout on exactas for Delaware Park races will be reduced from 19 percent to 10 percent, but only on bets placed at the Wilmington, Del., track. The exacta pool bonus will remain in effect until the end of the meet on Nov. 6, Breeders’ Cup Classic Day.
As an example of how the bonus will work, a $2 exacta that returns $100 will be worth approximately $110 to ontrack bettors.
An appearance by Brass Hat will help put an exclamation mark on the Ellis Park meet when the $2 million earner runs in the $50,000 Cliff Guilliams Memorial, the closing-day feature on Labor Day at the Henderson, Ky., track.
“We’re all really looking forward to it,” trainer Buff Bradley said this week at his home base of Churchill Downs. “My dad is originally from that part of Kentucky, and he’s really excited about taking the horse down there for all the people who’ve never had a chance to see him.”
Oriana Rossi, the leading apprentice at the Ellis Park meet, has been sidelined for three to four weeks after suffering a broken collarbone in a spill Thursday evening in the first race at Hoosier Park in Anderson, Ind. Two other jockeys who fell in the spill, Victor Lebron and Leandro Goncalves, avoided serious injury.
OCEANPORT, N.J. – Malibu Prayer, in the best form of her career, tops a field of six Sunday in the Grade 2, $300,000 Molly Pitcher Stakes for fillies and mares at Monmouth Park.
A winner of four of her last five starts, Malibu Prayer has the rail for the 1 1/16-mile race with Garrett Gomez set to ride for trainer Todd Pletcher.
This will be the 4-year-old Malibu Prayer’s third start at Monmouth. She ran second to Just Jenda, one of her Molly Pitcher rivals, last year in the Grade 3 Monmouth Oaks.
FORT ERIE, Ontario – A growing number of trainers have their stock stabled at more than one track and must balance their time and schedules. Enter the assistant trainer, whose role is to manage the barn on-site while providing essential information back to the chief conditioner.
Assistant trainers are left on their own for days and often weeks, carrying the burden while leaving the laurels to others.
Maree Richards joined the assistant trainer ranks in 2009 and is now enjoying her second year in that role at the Fort.