Pirate’s Punch won the Salvator Mile when the Monmouth fixture was contested last September, and he will try to win it again Saturday in his first race since November.
Pirate’s Punch exited a 12th-place finish in the Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile with a chipped knee that required surgical repair. Trainer Grant Forster took plenty of time bringing Pirate’s Punch back into racing shape and has deemed him ready for Saturday’s Grade 3 Salvator Mile.
Brad Cox, still basking in the glow of winning his first Triple Crown race June 5, when Essential Quality captured the Belmont Stakes, has plenty more 3-year-old firepower in his stable. Fulsome, Warrant, and Gagetown all recently won stakes races in the Midwest, and on Thursday night, Cox will load Mandaloun on a van and send him from Churchill Downs to race Sunday at Monmouth in the Pegasus Stakes.
ELMONT, N.Y. – Bankit, the New York-bred who became a millionaire when he dominated the Commentator Stakes by 13 1/4 lengths here May 31, will be pointed to the $800,000 Charles Town Classic on Aug. 27, trainer Steve Asmussen said.
“That will most likely be one of his targets going forward for the rest of the year,” Asmussen said. “What a cool old horse he is, freakishly consistent his whole life. For him to be a millionaire is pretty cool.”
ELMONT, N.Y. – Her first foray into New York racing is still in its infancy, but trainer Brittany Russell is satisfied with how things have gone this spring at Belmont Park.
Russell, whose main string is based in Maryland, has about 10 head in New York and has a win, two seconds, and three thirds from eight starters at the Belmont spring/summer meet. She came excruciatingly close to her second win on Sunday when her front-running Defy Expectations was run down late by Jill’s a Hot Mess in a $30,000 claiming race.
ARCADIA, Calif. – Gregorian Chant, a two-time stakes winner who finished seventh in his Grade 1 debut in the $400,000 Jaipur Stakes at Belmont Park last Saturday, will not race again until the Grade 3 Green Flash Handicap at Del Mar on Aug. 22.
The $100,000 Green Flash Handicap at five furlongs on turf will largely determine Gregorian Chant’s autumn campaign.
“It will be a nice trial race to see if the distance suits him for a possible Breeders’ Cup run,” trainer Phil D’Amato said.
ARCADIA, Calif. – Whatmakessammyrun used a late-running style to comfortably win the Desert Code Stakes for 3-year-olds at six furlongs on turf at Santa Anita on Sunday. Whatmakessammyrun will start at longer distances at Del Mar before an expected return to a turf sprint at Kentucky Downs in September.
Trainer Mark Glatt said on Wednesday that Whatmakesammyrun is likely to start in the $100,000 Oceanside Stakes at a mile on turf for 3-year-olds at Del Mar on July 16, the track’s opening day.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Pacific Gale was the queen of the filly and mare sprint set here this past winter. So it only stands to reason that her trainer, John Kimmel, is strongly considering shipping her back to South Florida for the richest and most important race in that division here this season, the $350,000 Princess Rooney on July 3.
The Grade 2 Princess Rooney is a Win and You’re In for the Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Sprint, and the only Breeders’ Cup Challenge race on the local stakes schedule.
Jockey Ramon Vazquez pulled a graded stakes double last week, when he won the Grade 2 Brooklyn on the Belmont Stakes undercard in New York just five days after winning Lone Star Park’s richest race, the Grade 3, $400,000 Steve Sexton Mile.
“It was incredible,” Vazquez said.
Vazquez is based at Lone Star, in Texas, and guided Mo Mosa to a 3 1/2-length win in the Sexton Mile for Perry and Denise Martin and trainer Mike Maker.
“I was really confident in Mo Mosa because I know he loved the sloppy track,” Vazquez said. “The last quarter, he responded.”
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Off a victory in the Grade 1 Jenny Wiley at Keeneland in April, Juliet Foxtrot figures as a heavy favorite in the Grade 3 Mint Julep, a 1 1/16-mile turf race that anchors an 11-race Saturday night card at Churchill.
Trained by Brad Cox for Juddmonte Farms, Juliet Foxtrot will have leading jockey Tyler Gaffalione aboard when she faces 10 other fillies and mares in the Mint Julep. First post is 6 p.m. Eastern.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Zulu Alpha, an Eclipse Award finalist among turf males last year, continues on a steady work pattern ahead of his 8-year-old debut. Unraced since September, the $2.26 million-earner could return in the Grade 1 United Nations on the July 17 Haskell undercard at Monmouth, according to owner Michael Hui.
