By David Grening
ELMONT, N.Y. - For most of the spring, trainer Barclay Tagg had the $300,000 Cornhusker Handicap at Prairie Meadows on June 27 circled on his calendar for Dry Martini. Since the 6-year-old Dry Martini had won that race two years ago, Tagg thought it a good spot to try again.
But the more he studied the prospective field for the , the more Tagg began to think this Grade 2 race might set up perfectly for his late-running gray son of Slew Gin Fizz.
OCEANPORT, N.J. - Presious Passion got a warm round of applause from the crowd of 15,210 Saturday at Monmouth Park as he returned bucking and kicking to the winner's circle following a record-smashing victory in the .
The U.N. was a Breeders' Cup Win and You're In race, assuring Presious Passion a spot in this year's BC Turf. There will certainly be pace in that race, if Presious Passion makes the trip to Santa Anita.
ELMONT, N.Y. - Owner Ed Evans already liked his chances to win Saturday's with trainer Todd Pletcher and the filly Light Green. So when trainer Tony Dutrow told him that he would like to run the lightly-raced Cat Moves in the race, Evans needed some convincing.
ELMONT, N.Y. - Owner Jess Jackson appears to have a pretty nice 3-year-old colt in his stable as well.
A week after watching his superstar 3-year-old filly Rachel Alexandra win the Grade 1 Mother Goose by 19 1/4 lengths, Jackson was back at Belmont Park on Saturday where he watched Kensei blow past pacesetter Just Ben in upper stretch and gallop off to a 3 1/4-length victory in the Grade 2, for 3-year-old males.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. - Hall of Fame jockey Mike Smith has committed to ride Mine That Bird for at least his next two races, trainer Chip Woolley announced Saturday at Churchill Downs.
Smith will ride Mine That Bird in the $750,000 West Virginia Derby at Mountaineer Park on Aug. 1, then the $1 million Shadwell Travers on Aug. 29. He replaces Calvin Borel, who rode Mine That Bird to win the May 2 Kentucky Derby and also rode the gelding in his last start, which resulted in a third-place finish in the June 6 Belmont Stakes.
OCEANPORT, N.J. - Musket Man, the third-place finisher in the Kentucky Derby and Preakness, is done for the year with a bone bruise.
The colt suffered the injury about two weeks ago as he was preparing for the $1 million Haskell Invitational at Monmouth Park on Aug. 2.
"It's nothing major," trainer Derek Ryan said on Saturday afternoon. "I don't have enough time to make the race. I jogged him this morning but he was just not 100 percent. You don't want to go into the Haskell only 80 percent."
INGLEWOOD, Calif. - First, she was a main-track sprinter, then a turf sprinter. Now, Strawberry Tart has reinvented herself as a turf miler.
Making her first start beyond seven furlongs, Strawberry Tart won the $100,000 Flawlessly Stakes over a mile on turf at Hollywood Park on Friday night, the most prestigious win of her six-race career.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. - Backtalk rewarded his many backers and became the first North American graded stakes winner for his famous sire, Smarty Jones, when rallying to win the on Friday at Churchill Downs.
With Miguel Mena aboard, Backtalk returned $3.60 after splitting horses and overtaking Flatter Than Me near the sixteenth pole to win by a length. Brassy Boy was another 1 1/2 lengths back in a field of eight 2-year-olds.
GRAND PRAIRIE, Texas - Red Lead has established himself as one of the better 3-year-olds in the region, and next month he will try to further improve his resume. Red Lead, who in May was second to Mythical Power in the Grade 3, $400,000 Lone Star Derby, traveled to Prairie Meadows last week and ran third in the $250,000 Iowa Derby.
MIAMI - Has Benny the Bull lost a step in the one year that has passed since his victory in the 2008 Smile Sprint Handicap? Apparently not, at least in the judgment of Calder's racing secretary, Mike Anifantis, who has assigned Benny the Bull the same 124-pound assignment he carried to a two-length decision over How's Your Halo last summer when he returns to defend that title on Saturday.
