The last time Express Train ran 1 1/8 miles at Santa Anita he won the Grade 2 San Pasqual Stakes in January.
In five subsequent starts, Express Train has one win – the Grade 2 San Diego Handicap at 1 1/16 miles at Del Mar in July. Express Train is back in a race at 1 1/8 miles at Santa Anita in Saturday’s Grade 1 Awesome Again Stakes.
This time, the stakes are more valuable than in January.
Trainer Saffie Joseph Jr. said that Chance It suffered a soft-tissue injury during the running of Saturday’s Grade 2 Kelso Handicap at Belmont Park, placing his racing future in doubt. Jockey Manny Franco pulled up Chance It down the backstretch of the Kelso.
Joseph said the injury was similar to the one that forced Chance It to the sidelines for 14 months following the 2020 Tampa Bay Derby.
ELMONT, N.Y. - When Maxfield runs in next Saturday’s Grade 1 Woodward at Belmont Park, he will likely do so in blinkers, equipment he has yet to wear in a race.
On a beautiful Saturday morning at Belmont Park, Maxfield worked a half-mile in 49.59 seconds over the main track, wearing a small set of blinkers, commonly referred to as cheaters. Jockey Jose Ortiz was aboard for the move, which Daily Racing Form timed in 24.88 seconds for the quarter, 49.59 for the half, with a five-furlong gallop-out in 1:02.31 and up six furlongs in 1:14.95.
ELMONT, N.Y. – Baby Yoda, who earned a whopping 114 Beyer Speed Figure for winning a first-level allowance race Sept. 4 at Saratoga, is under consideration for the Grade 2, $250,000 Vosburgh Stakes on Oct. 9, trainer Bill Mott said.
ELMONT, N.Y. – Maxfield, runner-up to Knicks Go in the Grade 1 Whitney at Saratoga, heads a field of six expected to run in the Grade 1, $500,000 Woodward Stakes here Oct. 2.
Maxfield, with seven wins from nine starts, will be looking for his first Grade 1 victory since he took the Breeders’ Futurity at 2 in 2019. Trainer Brendan Walsh shipped Maxfield from Saratoga – where he was stabled most of the summer – to Belmont Park earlier in the week. He was scheduled to have his final breeze over Belmont’s main track on Saturday.
Peter Tunney, the longtime racing executive at Golden Gate Fields in Northern California, died Wednesday after a lengthy illness, his family and friends said Thursday.
Tunney, 83, died at his home in Piedmont, Calif., not far from Golden Gate Fields.
The son of a racing official and steward, Tunney began his involvement in racing in the 1960s, working as a racing official at Southern California tracks, including Del Mar where he was the racing secretary for three years from 1972-74.
Charmaine’s Mia began 2021 with three consecutive graded stakes wins in turf races at six furlongs and a mile at Santa Anita only to follow that success with sixth-place finishes in two important races in the spring and summer.
The versatile 5-year-old’s season will change again this fall when she starts for the first time on Santa Anita’s unique hillside turf course and faces males in the Grade 2 Eddie D Stakes at about 6 1/2 furlongs on Oct. 1, opening day of the track’s five-week autumn meeting.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Surely she doesn’t know it, but a filly named Famed will be carrying very high expectations Sunday when making her career debut in the eighth race at Churchill.
Famed is a 2-year-old filly by Uncle Mo out of Delightful Quality, which makes her a half-sister to her Brad Cox stablemate Essential Quality, the current leader of the 3-year-old division. Both are Godolphin homebreds.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – They don’t enter for the final two stakes of the September meet at Churchill Downs until Wednesday, so Tommy Drury is giving himself a little more time to think about which Grade 3 race is next for Sprawl.
Either the $400,000 Lukas Classic or the $300,000 Ack Ack next Saturday represent a logical next spot for Sprawl, the resurgent 4-year-old who earned a career-best 98 Beyer Speed Figure in winning the West Virginia Governor’s on Aug. 7 at Mountaineer Park in his latest start.
