Trainer Phil D’Amato has won six of the last seven runnings of the Grade 2 Del Mar Handicap, starting one horse each of the last two years and three in 2018.
Saturday, D’Amato has a more aggressive approach in mind for the leading distance turf race of the track’s summer meeting. As of Monday, D’Amato planned to have three runners – Acclimate, Red King, and Say the Word – and perhaps as many as five with Ready Soul and Red Storm Risen under strong consideration.
“All options are open,” he said.
Trainer Dallas Stewart, never bashful to take a shot in a big race, will send out Will’s Secret against Malathaat and Maracuja in Saturday’s Grade 1, $600,000 Alabama Stakes at Saratoga.
Will’s Secret’s solid 3-year-old form went off kilter in last month’s Grade 3 Indiana Oaks where she finished a well-beaten sixth. Stewart believes there was a legitimate excuse for her poor performance.
DEL MAR, Calif. – For more than a year, trainer Richard Mandella had been trying to beat Cigar, going across the country and around the world in that futile quest, from Oaklawn Park to Hollywood Park, to Belmont Park and finally Nad al Sheba. He had found him, as Tom Durkin famously said in the 1995 Breeders’ Cup Classic, to be “unconquerable, unbeatable, invincible.”
Seven jockeys have received suspensions for careless riding since the Del Mar season began on July 16.
Most are likely to serve the days in the autumn.
Court action has enabled a majority of the affected jockeys to ride without disruption. Through Sunday, the 18th day of the 31-day season, seven riders had been suspended for riding infractions, but only one – Drayden Van Dyke – has accepted the penalty.
Hugh Robertson celebrated the biggest win of a 50-year training career in high style.
A couple hours after Two Emmys had held off odds-on favorite Domestic Spending to win the Grade 1, $600,000 Mister D. Stakes by a neck, Robertson was back home. “I had a bowl of applesauce,” he said. “And a chocolate milk.”
DEL MAR, Calif. - Fast workouts have become commonplace of late for Express Train in advance of what may be his richest win in Saturday’s Grade 1 Pacific Classic at Del Mar.
The Pacific Classic will be Express Train’s second appearance in a $1 million race, preceded by a third to Silver State in the Grade 2 Oaklawn Handicap at Oaklawn Park in April.
Letruska, the leading older female in the country, is expected to ship to Saratoga on Tuesday and will have her final work on Thursday for the Grade 1 Personal Ensign Stakes here Aug. 28, trainer Fausto Gutierrez said Sunday.
Letruska had been based at Keeneland since her victory in the Grade 2 Fleur de Lis at Churchill Downs, but last week, due to some stabling issues, Gutierrez moved his stable from Keeneland to Monmouth Park. Letruska and Vegas Weekend - who is entered in a $50,000 claiming race on Thursday at Saratoga - are expected to van from Monmouth on Tuesday.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - It has been four weeks since Midnight Bourbon clipped heels with Hot Rod Charlie, stumbled and unseated his rider, Paco Lopez, in the Grade 1 Haskell Invitational at Monmouth Park in a scary-looking incident.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - Trainer Mark Casse does not see the ideal race for Got Stormy to prepare for the Breeders’ Cup Mile on Nov. 6 at Del Mar.
He doesn’t believe Got Stormy can get a mile at Woodbine, so the Woodbine Mile is out. There is no turf at Churchill Downs this fall. The Keeneland turf course in the fall is usually softer than Got Stormy prefers, so the First Lady may not be an option.
So, Casse will likely cut Got Stormy back in distance to 6 1/2 furlongs and point to the $600,000 Ladies Sprint at Kentucky Downs on Sept. 11.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - When High Oak drew off to a very convincing 4 1/4-length victory in Saturday’s Grade 2 Saratoga Special, the performance capped a very special half-hour for Hall of Fame trainer Bill Mott, coming as it did on the heels of perhaps an even more impressive effort by his highly regarded 3-year-old prospect Speaker’s Corner in the previous race.
