SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. − Trainer Bob Baffert brought in four more horses earlier this week from his Southern California base, including Mythical Power, who is being pointed to the Grade 1 Woodward here Sept. 4.
Mythical Power, a son of Congaree, won the Texas Mile in April and last year took the Lone Star Derby. Both races were over dirt at Lone Star Park. Most recently, he finished fifth in the San Diego, run over Del Mar’s synthetic surface.
River Downs in Cincinnati, Ohio, has applied for 26 fewer race dates in 2011 than the track is scheduled to race in 2010, setting up a conflict with horsemen who are reluctant to accept any further reductions to the state’s racing calendar.
River applied for 78 dates for 2011, down from 104 this year, a schedule that “would basically cut us to a four-day race week,” said Jack Hanessian, the track’s general manager. Under Ohio statute, River is required to run 119 live race dates each year, unless horsemen agree to a reduced schedule.
ARLINGTON HEIGHTS, Ill. – Thirty-three seconds.
That is about how long it took Gio Ponti to complete the final three furlongs of the Man o’ War Stakes on July 10, and that is about as fast as the species equus ferus caballus can run.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Jacally and Dancing Raven will both compete around two turns for the first time Saturday at Woodbine in the $125,000 Eternal Search Stakes, a 1 1/16-mile race that drew six other Ontario-sired 3-year-old fillies.
Jacally graduated first-time out in a slow clocking May 7. She then leaped right into Ontario-sired stakes company May 24, finishing fifth in the seven-furlong Lady Angela.
ARLINGTON HEIGHTS, Ill. – Free Fighter has been zigging when horseplayers are zagging. The Team Block colorbearer won the Grade 3 Stars and Stripes at Arlington Park last September at nearly 11-1 and the Grade 3 Louisville Handicap at Churchill Downs this spring at 12-1. Meanwhile, he has been the beaten favorite four times in his last 11 starts.
Gio Ponti is the morning-line favorites for the Arlington Million at Arlington Park on Saturday, but it would be unwise to trust him with too much of your money.
America’s best turf horse, Gio Ponti, has lost five of his last six starts. What he beat in Belmont’s Man o’ War Stakes last time in snapping his five-race losing streak is hardly worth mentioning, especially as the painfully slow pace turned the race into a sprint. The question hanging over this year’s Million is: Is there anything in the race good enough to beat Gio Ponti?
The $200,000 Remington Park Sprint Cup on Saturday night could be Atta Boy Roy’s final prep for the $2 million Breeders’ Cup Sprint. He has established himself as an elite member of the division over the last several months, with a sparkling win in the Grade 2 Churchill Downs on the Kentucky Derby undercard in May and a runner-up finish to future Grade 1 winner Majesticperfection in the $125,000 Iowa Sprint Handicap in June.
EDMONTON, Alberta – With the likely favorites possessing plenty of speed in the Grade 3, $300,000 Canadian Derby at Northlands Park on Saturday, the race is crying for a horse to come from off the pace to spring an upset.
DEL MAR, Calif. – Evening Jewel was a restless filly at trainer Jim Cassidy’s stable earlier this week, just days before Saturday’s $300,000 Del Mar Oaks.
Whatever Cassidy and his staff tried, Evening Jewel would not settle.
“She’s tearing the barn down,” Cassidy said. “I put her in a pen to see if that would help. She’s bucking and squealing.”