Owner Ziba Graham, trainer Doug Cowans, and jockey Dean Sarvis have won a pair of stakes here the last few weeks, the $50,000 Hoover last Saturday with No Garlic and the $55,000 Cincinnatian two weeks ago with Festive Girl.
No Garlic, a 2-year-old colt, and Festive Girl, a 3-year-old filly, are full siblings bred by Graham. They were each sired by Habayeb and are out of Yellow Springs, a 19-year-old mare who has produced eight foals. Two of her other foals, M & Em and Cait, are stakes placed.
VANCOUVER, British Columbia – Three of the first four finishers in the $54,404 Chris Loseth Stakes last Sunday at Hastings will likely renew acquaintances in the B.C. Cup Stellar’s Jay on Aug. 2.
The connections of Dyna Stroll, who won the 1 1/16-mile race, are the only ones not committed. Instead, they are considering the possibility of heading right into the Grade 3, $300,000 Canadian Derby at Northlands Park on Aug. 21.
INGLEWOOD, Calif. – The $200,000 Swaps Stakes at Hollywood Park on Saturday lost another stakes-winning contender Wednesday when trainer Bob Baffert opted to pass the race with Concord Point, winner of the Grade 3 Iowa Derby last month.
Earlier in the week, trainer Ron Ellis said that Golden Itiz, winner of the Grade 3 Affirmed Handicap at Hollywood Park on June 19, would skip the race.
GRAND PRAIRIE, Texas – Jockey Aaron Gryder is taking the overland route to his next base, Remington Park, after the close of the current Lone Star Park meet Sunday. He could spend a little time riding in Southern California and France before he gets settled in at Remington, the Oklahoma City track that won’t begin its meet until Aug. 19.
ARLINGTON HEIGHTS, Ill. – When General Quarters won the 2009 Blue Grass Stakes and went on to the Kentucky Derby, the story-line screamed, ‘Write me!’ And any scribe covering last year’s Derby readily obliged. The horse had been claimed early in his 2-year-old campaign by Tom McCarthy, a retired school teacher with half a foot in the racing business. McCarthy owned the horse and trained him too – the sort of one-horse stable that quickly fills a turf writer’s notebook.
ARLINGTON HEIGHTS, Ill. – Tuscan Evening, the pro tem leader of the North American female turf division, worked seven furlongs in 1:27.40 on Wednesday at Hollywood Park and remains on track to make her next start July 17 at Arlington in the Modesty Handicap, trainer Jerry Hollendorfer said Thursday.
“She’ll likely blow out a little bit on Tuesday, and she ships on Wednesday,” Hollendorfer said.
Bubbler, who in the last six months has won stakes at Fair Grounds, Lone Star Park and Sam Houston, has been retired, said her trainer, Bret Calhoun. She recently injured her hock while being freshened on a farm. Calhoun said plans are to offer Bubbler as a broodmare prospect in a November auction in Kentucky.
“She was a fun filly,” said Calhoun, who trained Bubbler for Du-Zee Stables. “She was very, very consistent. She won going short, long, on dirt, turf. She was very talented.”
FORT ERIE, Ontario – Chris Griffith has been climbing aboard Thoroughbreds at Fort Erie for more than 20 years and the laid-back rider is nearing career win number 1,400.
Griffith, 40, had 1,377 wins entering Sunday’s card. He has won the Fort Erie riding title three times and is currently second in the standings with 22 wins, 10 behind leading rider Krista Carignan.
The soft-spoken, relaxed, and reliable Griffith is happy with the results.
INGLEWOOD, Calif. – For the next 10 days, the focus of the final weekend of Hollywood Park and the opening day at Del Mar is on 3-year-olds – the established main-track stars and the up-and-coming hopefuls on turf.
Hollywood Park concludes its spring-summer meeting this Sunday, and the most lucrative race of the final weekend is Saturday’s $200,000 Swaps Stakes for 3-year-olds over 1 1/8 miles on the synthetic main track.