Lori Smock has a New Hampshire cell-phone number, a half-dozen mares boarded in Florida, a 25-horse string stabled at Hoosier Park in Indiana, and, for the first time, a set of horses spending the meet at Presque Isle Downs in western Pennsylvania. And Smock, from all appearances, has a major player for Tuesday’s featured seventh race at Presque Isle in comebacking Allie’s Event.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – The Saratoga meet has gotten better for trainer Seth Benzel. It could not have gotten much worse.
The first weekend of the meet, Giant Legacy, a promising 2-year-old trained by Benzel, suffered fatal injuries shortly after completing what would have been his final workout in preparation for his debut, which likely would have come on Saturday, on the undercard for the Whitney Handicap.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - Jockey Jermaine Bridgmohan, kicked in the paddock before the third race Saturday at Saratoga, was discharged from Albany Medical Center shortly after 5 p.m. Saturday and has been cleared by doctors to ride, according to Dan Silver, director of communications and media relations for the New York Racing Association.
Bridgmohan was "kicked by his mount in the abdominal area," according to Silver. He was scheduled to ride first-time starter Cincinnati Kid, who was subsequently scratched.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Shug McGaughey thought enough of the Chilean import Casablanca Smile to run her in a Grade 3 stakes in her North American debut off a 4 1/2-month layoff. Casablanca Smile’s solid third-place finish in the Grade 3 All Along at Colonial Downs on June 19 validated McGaughey’s opinion of the filly.
With that race under her belt and meeting seemingly easier opponents, Casablanca Smile looks poised to win Monday’s $70,000 Signature Stallions Waya Stakes at Saratoga. The Waya, run at 1 1/2 miles over the inner turf course, drew a field of eight.
ALTOONA, Iowa - Sherriff Cogburn scored an impressive 9 1/2-length victory in the inaugural running of the Prairie Meadows Juvenile Mile on Friday night. The $60,000 stakes tested six 2 year olds over the distance of a mile.
Sherriff Cogburn went off as the 9-5 favorite, in this, his second career start. He was coming off a seven-length victory in a maiden race at Arlington Park.
DEL MAR, Calif. - Wickedly Perfect gave jockey Rafael Bejarano his fourth win on Friday with a game performance in the $150,000 Sorrento Stakes for 2-year-old fillies at Del Mar.
Bejarano won the third through fifth races, did not ride the sixth, and returned to win the Grade 3 Sorrento. Sent off as the fourth choice, Wickedly Perfect ($13.80) was always near the front, stalking pacesetters Dawnie Macho and Final Mesa through a quick pace of 21.89 and 44.90 seconds.
Crow’s Nest, a 6-year-old gelding who was running for a $20,000 claiming tag as recently as June, scored the biggest victory of his 23-race career Friday night at Penn National Race Course when he upset the $75,000 Robellino Stakes for Pennsylvania-breds.
ARLINGTON HEIGHTS, Ill. – Apple Martini and Home’s the Best might well be the top two betting choices in the featured fifth race on Sunday at Arlington, but there are concerns of time and distance in play.
Apple Martini raced and won barely more than two weeks ago, and trainer Chris Block is uncertain what to expect from the short turnaround. Home’s the Best raced and won by more than five lengths on July 16, but that victory came in a one-turn mile.
AUBURN, Wash. – Emerald Downs’s muddled 2-year-old picture will come into sharper focus Sunday with the running of two $50,000 stakes races, the Premio Esmeralda for colts and geldings and the Angie C. for fillies. Both races are six furlongs, and they’ll go as the sixth and eighth events on a nine-race card that begins at 2 p.m. Pacific.
Six horses were entered for the Premio Esmeralda, with Couldabenthewhisky, undefeated in two starts, and Seattle Sniper likely to vie for the role of favorite.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – South Florida can be awfully inhospitable this time of year, be it the heat, the humidity, or the results for shippers for the Summit of Speed. Hour Glass headed to Calder last month as one of the top contenders for the Grade 1 Princess Rooney Handicap, but she never fired, finishing sixth of 11 on a day when they might as well have put up a sign that said “locals only.”