ARLINGTON HEIGHTS, Ill. – The Arlington Million has Gio Ponti. The Secretariat has Paddy O’Prado. And the Beverly D. has . . . um . . .
Your call. Definitely your call. For as orderly as favoritism appears for the Million and Secretariat, chaos reigns for horseplayers attempting to get a handle on the third Grade 1 event Saturday at Arlington Park, the 21st running of the $750,000 Beverly D.
OCEANPORT, N.J. – I Want Revenge passed the first barrier in July, returning from a 15-month layoff to run third in the Suburban Handicap at Belmont Park.
On Saturday, I Want Revenge tries to prove he still has the winning edge in the Grade 3, $300,000 Philip H. Iselin Stakes at Monmouth Park.
I Want Revenge tops a field of six in the 1 1/8-mile race with Joe Bravo aboard the 4-year-old, replacing Joe Talamo, who is sidelined with a fractured wrist sustained in a spill at Del Mar.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario – After winning her first two starts of the season, Miss Reginella was supposed to see her first stakes action here at Woodbine this spring in the Lady Angela. But that plan failed to come to fruition after Miss Reginella, who is owned by Frank Romano and trained by Mike DePaulo, missed training time with a virus and had to pass up the seven-furlong Lady Angela on May 24.
On Saturday, Miss Reginella will be looking to register an upset in the $125,000 Eternal Search, a 1 1/16-mile race for Ontario-sired 3-year-old fillies.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. − Trainer Albert Stall was planning to return Whitney Handicap winner Blame to the worktab Saturday. Blame had other ideas.
Believing Blame was a bit too full of himself, Stall called an audible and worked Blame an easy half-mile in 50.50 seconds Thursday morning over the Oklahoma training track. Under exercise rider Randi Melton, Blame went his first quarter in 25.51 seconds and his second quarter in 24.99. He galloped out five furlongs in 1:04.57.
DEL MAR, Calif. – The synthetic-track era at Santa Anita will end this fall.
Frank Stronach, chairman of Santa Anita’s parent company MI Developments, told a group of approximately 250 horsemen on Wednesday evening that Santa Anita will replace its existing Pro-Ride synthetic surface with a conventional dirt track after the conclusion of the Oak Tree at Santa Anita meeting on Oct. 31.
Stronach said the new dirt track would be in place “by the first week of December,” well in advance of the opening of the winter-spring meeting at Santa Anita on Dec. 26.
DEL MAR, Calif. - California Flag won for the first time since the 2009 Breeders’ Cup Turf Sprint in Wednesday’s $102,175 Green Flash Handicap at Del Mar, a performance that trainer Brian Koriner hopes will put the 6-year-old gelding on course for the 2010 BC Turf Sprint at Churchill Downs in November.
California Flag ($4.20) won the five-furlong turf sprint by a nose over Quick Enough and My Summer Slew, who finished in a dead heat for second. Cost of Freedom, the Grade 1 winner making his turf debut, finished fourth, beaten a half-length.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - Receiving a heady ride from Alan Garcia, Awakino Cat made it back-to-back victories in Saratoga’s $70,000 Troy Stakes, outfinishing a stubborn Ravalo to win the turf sprint stakes by a neck.
Ravalo, making his turf debut after running his first 36 starts on dirt and who was part of a three-ply speed duel, held second by three-quarters of a length over the late-running and wide Yield Bogey.
In a teleconference conducted Monday morning by the Nebraska State Racing Commission, Horsemen’s Atokad Downs in South Sioux City, Neb., was allowed to waive several of the commission’s rules to conduct a scaled down one-race meet next Tuesday afternoon.
Star Guitar, the Louisiana-bred horse of the year who successfully defended his title against open company in last Saturday’s $100,000 Evangeline Mile, came out of the race in good order and is ready to resume his quest to become one of racing newest millionaires, according to trainer Al Stall Jr.
“He had to work a little bit,” said Stall in reference to Star Guitar’s spirited stretch battle with 2008 Mile winner Ide Like a Double and pace contributor Chief Jay.
Jockey Scott Stevens is recovering from injuries he sustained in a fall at Canterbury Park on July 2. Stevens was one of four jocks involved in the spill and suffered multiple injuries, including punctured lungs, multiple rib and spinal fractures, and two broken collarbones. Stevens spent two days in intensive care, and nine total days in the hospital.
“I am doing all right,” Stevens said. “I still have some numbness in my fingers. I am able to walk and keep myself busy that way. All my limbs and everything are fine. In about two months, I should be able to get back on horses.”