With entries being drawn as far in advance as a whole week, entries were already out Wednesday afternoon for the first three cards of the six-day meet at Kentucky Downs, where colossal purses once again will attract some of North America’s top jockeys and trainers to the turf-only track in rural south-central Kentucky.
The 1993 season at Ruidoso Downs is one of many fond memories for former jockey Nancy Summers, now a trainer at The Downs at Albuquerque.
That year, Summers, then 31, was the regular rider of Treacherously, who won the Ruidoso Futurity in May and the Rainbow Futurity in July only to miss a sweep of the Triple Crown with a third-place finish in the All American Futurity on Labor Day.
DEL MAR, Calif. – Phil D’Amato is showing this summer at Del Mar that it’s not how you start, it’s how you finish.
D’Amato, who topped the trainer standings solo during the summer meet in 2015 and tied for the title in 2016, had an uncharacteristically chilly start to this year’s meet, winning with just one of his first 36 starters. But he’s turned it around of late. D’Amato has won with 13 of his last 54 starters to vault to a tie for third in the standings with 14 wins heading into the final week of the season.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Ironstone gave Willy Armata his biggest win Sunday at Woodbine in the $201,200 Simcoe Stakes. The personable trainer has some big plans for the son of Mr Speaker.
After ending up second in his June 20 debut, Ironstone flattened out to finish fifth in a longer 5 1/2-furlong maiden special weight sprint on July 18.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Trainer Kelly Breen said there are no visits from a psychiatrist or any other changes in his plans for Firenze Fire in the wake of what transpired here Saturday in the Grade 1 Forego Stakes, when his horse reached over and savaged the pacesetting Yaupon in the closing stages of the race.
Firenze Fire, with Jose Ortiz aboard, finished second, beaten a head by the favored Yaupon, in a renewal of the Forego that racing fans will remember for years to come.
Gamine on Saturday won a Grade 1 race at Saratoga for the second straight summer and now will look toward winning the Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Sprint for the second straight year, but her path to the Nov. 6 race at Del Mar is yet to be determined, trainer Bob Baffert said Monday.
Gamine was scheduled to return to Del Mar from Saratoga on Tuesday, three days after capturing the Ballerina for the fifth Grade 1 victory of her 10-race career. Last year, Gamine won the Test at Saratoga, then ran in the postponed Kentucky Oaks before being freshened for the Breeders’ Cup.
DEL MAR, Calif. – Trainer Bob Baffert has two recent maiden race winners in Murray and Pinehurst bound for Monday’s Grade 1 Del Mar Futurity, a race he has won a record 14 times since 1996.
Baffert has another promising 2-year-old colt in Rockefeller, who won a maiden special weight in fine fashion on Saturday. Ridden by Abel Cedillo, Rockefeller dispute the early pace and pulled clear to win by 2 1/4 lengths as the 9-5 favorite. Rockefeller ran six furlongs in 1:11.18.
DEL MAR, Calif. – Jockey Tyler Baze, who escaped serious injury in a seven-horse spill at Del Mar on Aug. 22, does not plan to resume riding until the start of the Santa Anita autumn meeting on Oct. 1.
“I want to take it easy for a couple of weeks,” Baze said on Sunday. “I’ll be back at Santa Anita. I want to take care of my body.”
Baze was briefly hospitalized after the spill and released that evening. He has not ridden since, taking off the four-day racing week that ended on Sunday. He cited body soreness for the absence.
DEL MAR, Calif. – Dance to the Music has been a poised filly at Del Mar this summer, in the manner she won her debut in a maiden race on July 24 and her training over the last five weeks.
That’s the perspective of trainer Mark Glatt, who is hopeful Dance to the Music will leave Del Mar a Grade 1 stakes winner. Owned by Red Baron’s Barn and Rancho Temescal, Dance to the Music rates as a leading contender in Sunday’s $300,000 Del Mar Debutante at seven furlongs, the summer meeting’s top race for 2-year-old fillies.
DEL MAR, Calif. – Medina Spirit and Rock Your World on Monday both appeared to have emerged in good order from their pitched battle Sunday in the Shared Belief Stakes at Del Mar, and both have the same potential options for their next starts, either the Pennsylvania Derby against fellow 3-year-olds on Sept. 25 at Parx Racing or the Awesome Again against elders Oct. 2 at Santa Anita.
