ELMONT, N.Y. – Happy Saver, who came off a seven-month layoff to win a one-mile allowance race last Friday, will be pointed to the Grade 2, $400,000 Suburban Stakes at 1 1/4 miles on July 3, trainer Todd Pletcher said Monday.
Pletcher said the timing of the Suburban appeals to him as much, if not more than the 1 1/4-mile distance of the race. Happy Saver won the Grade 1 Jockey Club Gold Cup at 1 1/4 miles here last October.
ELMONT, NY. – Trainer Steve Asmussen will seek his third victory in the Grade 1, $1 million Metropolitan Handicap in the last four years when he runs the streaking Silver State in the prestigious one-mile race on Saturday’s Belmont Stakes undercard.
Silver State, a son of Hard Spun, returned from a seven-month layoff last October to win a first-level allowance race by seven lengths on Oct. 22 at Keeneland. He won a second-level allowance at Churchill Downs before wintering at Oaklawn Park and winning three stakes, all around two turns, topped by the Grade 2 Oaklawn Handicap.
ELMONT, N.Y. – Chub Wagon, an undefeated Pennsylvania-bred mare, will have her toughest test to date when she is scheduled to face seven rivals in Friday’s Grade 3, $300,000 Bed o’ Roses Stakes at seven furlongs.
Trained by Guadalupe Preciado, Chub Wagon has gone 6 for 6 beginning with a $20,000 claiming victory in her debut and culminating with a victory in the Skipat Stakes at Pimlico on Preakness Day.
Chub Wagon will take on a field that includes Vagrancy winner Victim of Love, Pacific Gale, Lake Avenue, Bayerness, Alandra, Estilo Talentoso, and Piedi Bianchi.
ELMONT, N.Y. – When Mean Mary won the Grade 2 New York Stakes last year, she did so off a three-month layoff, due in large part to the disruption of racing schedules caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Friday, when she seeks a repeat victory in the $750,000 New York Stakes at Belmont Park, Mean Mary will be running back in three weeks, following a facile victory in the Grade 3 Gallorette Stakes at Pimlico. The relative ease in which Mean Mary achieved her Pimlico victory played a role in trainer Graham Motion choosing to run in the New York.
ARCADIA, Calif. – Raymundos Secret, scratched from racing on Monday, will have her next start in the Grade 3 Wilshire Stakes for fillies and mares at a mile on June 20, the closing day of the winter-spring meeting.
Raymundos Secret was entered in two Grade 1 turf races worth $300,000 on Monday – the Gamely Stakes for fillies and mares and the Shoemaker Mile against males, but trainer Phil D’Amato said the $100,000 Wilshire Stakes is a more suitable race for her.
ARCADIA, Calif. – Crazy Beautiful won the Grade 2 Summertime Oaks at Santa Anita on Sunday, continuing a remarkable span of success in California in recent years for Kentucky-based trainer Ken McPeek.
Since the start of 2017, McPeek has won four graded stakes from five starters at Santa Anita, including the Grade 1 Beholder Mile in March with Swiss Skydiver, the champion 3-year-old filly of 2020.
It will not be long before McPeek has another West Coast starter.
In what is best described as a small sacrifice in the present for a better overall product in the future, work is scheduled to begin next Monday at Gulfstream Park on the installation of a Tapeta synthetic racing surface over what is currently the outer third portion of the turf course.
ELMONT, N.Y. – Rock Your World went off the 9-2 second choice in the Kentucky Derby. Any of his backers in earshot of trainer John Sadler shortly after the break would have known early on those tickets would not be cashed.
Rock Your World bumped with Essential Quality coming out of the starting gate and in the first few strides was in front of just two horses. Though he raced in mid-pack throughout the race, in the end, Rock Your World finished 17th, in front of just two horses, 24 1/4 lengths behind Medina Spirit.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Before the seven stakes were run Saturday at Churchill, a first-time starter named Beau Liam had the ontrack crowd buzzing. Trained by Steve Asmussen for owner-breeder Stonestreet Stables, the 3-year-old Liam’s Map colt earned a 94 Beyer in a 7 1/2-length romp, getting six furlongs in 1:08.62.
“It’s very exciting,” Asmussen said Monday. “He’d obviously shown talent in the mornings, but you never know until they do it in the afternoon.”
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Poor start? No worries. Fulsome and Set Piece both spotted the opposition head starts in separate stakes Saturday at Churchill Downs, but the Juddmonte Farms homebreds bounded home easy winners under the wire the second time around.
Fulsome, with Florent Geroux riding, earned a career-best 97 Beyer Speed Figure in his eye-catching score in the Grade 3 Matt Winn and now joins Essential Quality, Mandaloun, and Caddo River as top-flight 3-year-olds in the powerhouse Brad Cox stable.
