RUIDOSO DOWNS, N.M. – On a recent weekend, there was widespread evidence a normal summer was under way at Ruidoso Downs.
With free general admission, the grandstand and box-seat areas were packed with racing fans from not only southern New Mexico but throughout West Texas, tourists escaping a late spring heat wave for cooler temperatures at 7,100 feet.
Storm the Court, the champion 2-year-old male of 2019, will not race again this year.
Trainer Peter Eurton said over the weekend that Storm the Court has been turned out on a central California farm and will return to the track for a 5-year-old campaign in 2022.
“We’re giving him a couple of months off to get him ready for next year,” Eurton said.
Eurton said this is Storm the Court’s first vacation.
“He hasn’t been off the track,” he said.
Big City Lights and Bochombo, the first two finishers of the $100,000 Fasig-Tipton Futurity on June 20 at Santa Anita, may meet again in the Grade 2 Best Pal Stakes at six furlongs on Aug. 7 at Del Mar.
Big City Lights, owned by William Peeples, won the Fasig-Tipton Futurity by 7 1/4 lengths in his stakes debut. Unbeaten in two starts, Big City Lights is trained by Luis Mendez.
CYPRESS, Calif. – Jockeys Alexis Centeno and Trevor McCarthy escaped injury on Sunday after being involved in a two-horse spill shortly after the start of the fourth race at Los Alamitos.
The riders were briefly hospitalized for tests late Sunday afternoon and were released at about 6 p.m. Both are expected to resume riding Friday, the next day of racing at Los Alamitos.
The incident occurred in a five-furlong maiden special weight race for 2-year-olds.
Not much at Emerald Downs gets past Joe Withee, who has been the director of publicity at the Auburn, Wash., oval since the track opened in 1996. However, he was taken by surprise when prior to the races on Sunday he was led to the winner’s enclosure where he was inducted into the Washington Horse Racing Hall of Fame.
“I had no idea,” Withee said. “I am part of the committee that selects nominees for the Hall of Fame, so they really put one past me.”
Withee was first exposed to horse racing by his father.
The 31-day summer meet at Ellis Park in western Kentucky got started Sunday amid sultry weather and with a pair of trainers, Eric Foster and Brad Cox, both winning back-to-back races. Foster, based at Ellis for much of the year, won races 2 and 3, and Cox went next in races 4 and 5.
“Family and friends who don’t always get to go to the races were here,” Foster said. “That makes winning that much better.”
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Essential Quality had his first breeze since he won the Belmont Stakes on June 5 when going a half-mile in 48.80 seconds without company early Saturday at Churchill.
Trainer Brad Cox said he intends to work Essential Quality again this coming weekend at Churchill.
“I’m planning on working quite a few of our best horses before we scoot out of here with everything” on Monday, he said, including Mandaloun. “Some of our stable is leaving for Saratoga earlier in the week.”
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Maxfield came out of his emphatic Saturday victory in the Grade 2 Stephen Foster at Churchill Downs in fine shape and will be among the Brendan Walsh stable shipping Monday to Saratoga.
Maxfield earned a 103 Beyer Speed Figure in winning the Foster by 3 1/4 lengths under Jose Ortiz. The Godolphin homebred now has won 7 of 8 career starts, with his only defeat coming in the Santa Anita Handicap on March 6.
Two-time Grade 1 winner Ce Ce was scheduled to arrive Tuesday in South Florida as a confirmed starter in the Grade 2, $350,000 Princess Rooney, the centerpiece of the Summit of Speed card Saturday at Gulfstream Park.
Trainer Michael McCarthy said Sunday from his California base that Ce Ce was booked on a FedEx flight and that the 5-year-old mare was to be entered Wednesday, when fields for the Princess Rooney and the rest of the Saturday card were to be drawn at the South Florida track.
Jockey Jorge Vargas Jr. returned to race riding Saturday at Belmont Park and won with his second mount when Back Channel captured the 10th race at 57-1.
The mounts were the rider’s first since March 20, 2021, which was the date Vargas went down in a frightening spill at Aqueduct. The rider sustained a lumbar fracture, said agent Jimmy Riccio Jr. Vargas has since recuperated. He was named on a mount Friday at Belmont Park, but the horse was scratched, said Riccio, so Vargas had his first two mounts back Saturday.
