HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. - Defending champion Ce Ce tops a list of 18 filly and mares invited for the $250,000-guaranteed Princess Rooney Invitational at Gulfstream Park on July 2.
The seven-furlong fixture, whose purse also includes a $50,000 Florida bred “win only” bonus, is a Win and You’re In challenge race for the Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Sprint and highlights a card that also includes the Grade 3, $100,000 Smile Sprint.
ELMONT, N.Y. -- Favorites won at a 40 percent clip through the first 28 days of the Belmont Park spring/summer meet. A correction was in order.
Well, that correction happened over the last two days as a bevy of upsets resulted in big payoffs and ultimately into big carryovers into Saturday’s 10-race card. Over the last 12 races, there has been only one winning favorite.
Thus, there will be a pick six carryover of $219,429 at Belmont Park Saturday as well as a late pick five carryover of $291,108.
Tizamagician, the winner of two Grade 3 races at 1 1/2 miles on dirt last year, will have his 2022 debut in the Grade 2 San Diego Handicap at Del Mar on July 30.
Trainer Richard Mandella said on Friday that the $300,000 San Diego Handicap at 1 1/16 miles is shorter than Tizamagician’s preferred distance, but that the Grade 3 Cougar II Handicap at 1 1/2 miles at Del Mar on July 24 would be a difficult assignment for the 5-year-old’s first start since November.
The undefeated superstar Flightline is back in California and training at Santa Anita following a win in the Grade 1 Metropolitan Mile Handicap at Belmont Park on June 11.
On Friday, Flightline was jogged at Santa Anita for the second consecutive day. The 4-year-old colt was flown to California on Tuesday and was given a rest day on Wednesday, trainer John Sadler said on Friday.
“He looked pretty good,” Sadler said.
Del Mar is close to selling out the opening-day program of its summer meeting on July 22, track president Josh Rubinstein said on Friday.
The track plans to limit ontrack attendance on July 22 to approximately 22,000, well above the 15,874 from 2021 when all customers were required to purchase seats because of pandemic-related restrictions. This year, general admission tickets were available, but have been sold. Rubinstein said some reserved seats are available, but expects those to be gone next week.
ELMONT, N.Y. - Charge It, the seemingly forgotten 3-year-old in the barn of trainer Todd Pletcher, on Friday had his third workout since the Kentucky Derby and is pointing to the Grade 3 $250,000 Dwyer Stakes on July 2 at Belmont Park, the Hall of Fame trainer said Friday.
Charge It worked five furlongs in 1:00.80 by himself over the Belmont training track. He got his last quarter in 23.40 seconds.
“I thought it was a very good work, good finish, good gallop-out, I’d say he’s maintained his fitness well,” Pletcher said.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Simplification has returned to trainer Antonio Sano’s barn at Gulfstream Park after spending several weeks on the farm of owner Tami Bobo in Ocala following his sixth-place finish in the Preakness.
ELMONT, N.Y. - The New York State Gaming Commission fined New York Racing Association veterinarian Steven Lascher $4,000 for failure to follow proper Lasix procedures, which resulted in the late scratch of four horses from the seventh race at Belmont Park on June 9.
Jockey Armando Ayuso knows his way around Santa Anita.
A fixture on the jockey roster in Northern California since the autumn of 2020, Ayuso worked in the late 2010s as an exercise rider in Southern California for trainers such as Mark Glatt and Jim Cassidy.
Ayuso returned to Santa Anita this week. While the Santa Anita winter-spring meeting ends on Sunday, Ayuso plans to ride the three-week Los Alamitos meeting, which begins on June 25, and the Del Mar summer meeting, which begins on July 22.
Horseshoe Indianapolis in Shelbyville has shifted first post for its weekday cards next week to 6:45 p.m. in anticipation of another heat wave blanketing the area, the track announced on Thursday.
The cards scheduled for Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday next week will all start at 6:45, according to the track, approximately four hours later than normal. Long-range forecasts are predicting heat indexes exceeding 100 degrees for much of next week.
