Medina Spirit, the first-place finisher in the Kentucky Derby on May 1 at Churchill Downs, worked six furlongs in 1:11.80 on Thursday at Del Mar.
This was the second consecutive week that Medina Spirit had a bullet work. Medina Spirit worked a half-mile in 59.60 seconds on Aug. 5.
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Zoffarelli won his American debut via disqualification in the Grade 3 La Jolla Handicap for 3-year-olds on turf at Del Mar last Sunday, becoming the latest in a years-long trend of stakes-winning European imports for Red Baron’s Barn and Rancho Temescal. The recent standard of success for an import owned by Red Baron’s Barn and Rancho Temescal is River Boyne, a seven-time stakes winner from 2018 to 2020 who is now at stud in Ireland.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Trainer Wesley Ward said his 2020 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf Sprint winner Golden Pal was scheduled to depart Kentucky for England on Thursday evening and will make his next start at York in the Group 1 Nunthorpe Stakes on Aug. 20.
Last week trainer Chris Stenslie said she was probably not going to run Hard to Deny in the Grade 3, $100,000 Longacres Mile, which drew 11 horses and will be run as the eighth race Sunday at Emerald Downs.
But after watching how well Hard to Deny trained this week, she changed her mind, and on Wednesday entered him in the Mile. A 5-year-old Kentucky-bred gelding by Hard Spun, Hard to Deny will break from post 4 with leading rider Anthony Cruz aboard. He replaces Juan Gutierrez, who will ride the Peter Miller-trained Anyportinastorm.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – A speedy 2-year-old is not a bad thing to have when you’re sprinting. Norm Casse is hoping to harness the speed Glacial has shown when he removes the blinkers from the colt’s equipment when he goes 6 1/2 furlongs in Saturday’s Grade 2, $200,000 Saratoga Special.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Got Stormy beat the boys in the Grade 1 Fourstardave here in 2019 and finished second in the race in 2020. She is back for a third straight appearance in the Fourstardave, but she won’t be the only female starter in the one-mile, $500,000 turf race Saturday at Saratoga.
The mares Blowout and Daddy Is a Legend also were entered Wednesday for Saturday’s Fourstardave, which offers its winner a fees-paid berth into the Breeders’ Cup Mile on Nov. 6 at Del Mar.
ARLINGTON HEIGHTS, Ill. – When Naval Laughter came back from a 1 1/2-year layoff and won an Arlington Polytrack allowance race June 3 by nearly 20 lengths, earning a graded stakes-class 96 Beyer, the performance felt fluky. And Naval Laughter did nothing to dispel that notion when, three weeks later, she finished a well-beaten second as the odds-on favorite in an Arlington first-level allowance race.
Yet there was Naval Laughter winning the Grade 3 Modesty by a half-length on July 17 and earning a shot Saturday in the Grade 1 Beverly D. Stakes.
ARLINGTON HEIGHTS, Ill. – Larry Rivelli won his first Arlington training title in 2014 and will win his eighth straight this season. He has been not just a perennial leading trainer at the meet, but an utterly dominant one. His 55 wins this season are 35 more than the next-highest training total. In 2020, he won the title with 43 winners to 16 for the runner-up. In 2019, the spread was 78-24, in 2018 it was 76-26, and so on and so forth.
Kyle Frey, the leading rider at the Golden Gate meeting earlier this year, has been riding at Del Mar and plans to stay in Southern California after the meeting ends Sept. 6 if he finishes in the top five in the standings.
“I’m thinking of sticking around,” he said last weekend. “It depends on how business goes for the rest of the meet.”
Through Sunday, Frey ranked sixth with eight wins, well behind leader Flavien Prat, who has 21 wins. Joe Bravo, who relocated from New Jersey earlier this summer, is fifth with nine wins.
