HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla – With Bell’s the One opting to stay at home and capturing last Saturday’s Roxelana Stakes at Churchill Downs and trainer Wesley Ward looking elsewhere for Kimari’s next start, Ce Ce becomes the only Grade 1 winner still in consideration for the $350,000 Princess Rooney Invitational here July 3.
Following a 9 1/2-length victory in Tuesday’s $100,000 Crowd Pleaser at Parx Racing, Beren is bound for Saratoga.
A 3-year-old son of Weigelia, Beren has won five of his last six starts. The Crowd Pleaser, an off-the-turf event for Pennsylvania-breds, was the colt’s first journey around two turns.
With the Churchill Downs backside closing for the summer, the stable areas at numerous other tracks and training centers are being filled to capacity, including at Ellis Park in western Kentucky, where stall vacancies have typically abounded, even during the live meet.
The fifth race Friday at Churchill will mark the end of the remarkable training career of William “Buff” Bradley, who announced in early May that he is disbanding his stable while intending to keep his hand in the game as an owner-breeder and also hoping to transition to a yet-undetermined role in the racing industry.
Bradley, 57, will saddle Total Impact in the fifth race, a maiden-special turf route for 3-year-olds and upward. Total Impact was ninth at 64-1 in his only prior start, and he’ll be long odds to send Bradley out a winner.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Silver State, whose unbeaten streak dating to last fall has made him one of the leading older horses on the continent, has resumed a regular breeze schedule and will be among the Steve Asmussen contingent leaving Churchill Downs on Monday for Saratoga.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario - Pink Lloyd exited his troubled run in Sunday’s Grade 3 Jacques Cartier a little banged up, but the four-time Canadian champion sprinter could be healed up in time for the Grade 3 Vigil on Aug. 1, according to trainer Robert Tiller.
ELMONT, N.Y. – The 7-year-old mare Oleksandra, who completed her accomplished career on Sunday with a last-to-first victory against males in the Grade 3, $250,000 Poker Stakes while in foal to Into Mischief, will be sold at the Keeneland November sale, according to Barry Irwin, president of the Team Valor International partnership that owns her.
ELMONT, N.Y. – Trainer Steve Asmussen’s first Grade 1 stakes victory came in the 1999 Mother Goose Stakes with Dreams Gallore. The Hall of Fame trainer has since won the race three more times with the likes of Rachel Alexandra (2009), Untapable (2014), and Midnight Bisou (2018).
ELMONT, N.Y. – Country Grammer, who won the Grade 1 Hollywood Gold Cup for trainer Bob Baffert last month at Santa Anita, has been transferred by WinStar Farm to trainer Todd Pletcher and the horse is under consideration for a start in the Grade 2, $400,000 Suburban Stakes on July 3 at Belmont Park.
Should Country Grammer not run in the Suburban, there is the Grade 1, $1 million Whitney on Aug. 7 at Saratoga. WinStar won last year’s Whitney with the Baffert-trained Improbable, who went on to be voted the Eclipse Award for top older male.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Nominations were released Sunday for the $200,000 Smile Sprint Invitational, which headlines the Summit of Speed program July 3 at Gulfstream Park along with the Grade 2, $350,000 Princess Rooney Invitational.
