What's old is new again at Saratoga, where the 141st season once again features at least one Grade 1 race on each of the six Saturdays and 15 Grade 1's overall.
Duke of Magenta, we hardly knew you.
The revised prime-time lineup kicks off with the Grade 1 Diana, the coming-out party last year for the eventual filly-mare turf champ Forever Together, and the Grade 2 Jim Dandy, the key Travers prep over the 1 1/8-mile main track, on the first Saturday, Aug. 1.
Sky Mom looks to return to her old form Saturday at Presque Isle Downs when she faces 11 fillies and mares in the $100,000 Windward.
Trainer Al Stall is confident that will happen in the one-mile Windward, which will be held over Presque Isle's Tapeta surface.
"She is kind of finicky about the kind of track she runs on," he said. "She has been training at Keeneland and loves the Polytrack there. I am sure she will like the surface at Presque Isle."
SHAKOPEE, Minn. - Trainer Donnie Von Hemel chuckled when asked what he thought of Euphony's chances in Saturday's $100,000 Lady Canterbury. After all, what could he say? Euphony has won 9 of 11 career starts. She has won her last six, all in stakes company, and figures to rule a prohibitive favorite Saturday.
OCEANPORT, N.J. - Rachel Alexandra, Summer Bird, and company will be running for enhanced money in the Grade 1 Haskell Invitational.
Monmouth Park added $250,000 to the Haskell on Thursday, lifting the purse to $1.25 million for the biggest event of the meet on Aug. 2.
The winner's share will be $700,000. Second is worth $250,000; third, $125,000; fourth, $85,000; and fifth, $50,000. All other runners get $20,000.
SHAKOPEE, Minn. - There certainly is precedent for Hall of Fame jockeys to find their way to Canterbury Park in the northern reaches of the American heartland. Bill Shoemaker, Laffit Pincay Jr., Pat Day, and Julie Krone all made appearances here at one time or another, while Sandy Hawley and Mike Smith were regulars during the track's infancy in the mid-to-late 1980s.
DEL MAR, Calif. - Del Mar set an all-time ontrack attendance record of 44,907 for Wednesday's opening-day program, but the handle figures failed to keep pace with 2008.
The attendance figure was higher than the previous record of 44,181 set for the 1996 Pacific Classic, and higher than the 2008 opening-day audience of 43,459, the previous record for opening day. Ontrack attendance for opening day has risen annually since 2005.
"I was pleased with the crowd," track president Joe Harper said. "I thought it would be smaller than it was."
DEL MAR, Calif. - Jockey Rafael Bejarano, injured in a terrifying accident at Del Mar on Wednesday, underwent surgery early Thursday morning on his fractured left cheek and jaw. It went so well that he could be back in action by the middle of Del Mar's meeting next month, his agent, Joe Ferrer, said Thursday morning.
DEL MAR, Calif. - Afleet Eagle was sent from California to Toronto in the spring to start in two synthetic track stakes at Woodbine. He missed both races because of illness.
It turns out his first stakes win occurred where his career started, back in Southern California. Making his stakes and turf debut, Afleet Eagle stormed clear in the final furlong of Wednesday's $112,800 Oceanside Stakes at Del Mar.
DEL MAR, Calif. - They came from near and far for opening day at Del Mar on Wednesday, from the valleys to "The Hills."
Audrina Patridge, of the MTV series "The Hills," without co-star Lauren Conrad - certainly without Heidi and Spencer Pratt - was among the parade of celebrities and wanna-bes parading around Del Mar on Wednesday, when the track kicked off its 70th summer season on a warm afternoon.
