Lee Einsidler won the feature race last Friday at Aqueduct but even the enthusiastic horse owner had to admit that was only the second-best thing that happened to him that afternoon.
Einsidler watched T Kraft win a third-level allowance Friday on a big screen television from Saratoga National Golf Club, where about 45 minutes after the race Einsidler married his longtime girlfriend Aimee Brisson.
Knightsbridge steamrolled his way through the winter in South Florida, seemingly establishing himself as the top dirt miler in the country.
Sent off the favorite in the Grade 1 Churchill Downs Stakes, a seven-furlong race on May 2 at Churchill Downs, Knightsbridge failed to fire, chasing the early pace and retreating to sixth, 8 1/4 lengths behind Japanese shipper T O Elvis.
“I’m totally baffled,” trainer Bill Mott said. “I thought he went into the race good. It was a tougher type of race in the Churchill Downs.
ARCADIA, Calif. – Early Encore won his debut by 6 3/4 lengths in a maiden race for California-bred 2-year-olds at Santa Anita on Sunday, leaving trainer John Sadler eager to start the colt at the Del Mar summer meeting.
Ridden by Joel Rosario, Early Encore ($3) took the lead strides from the gate and was quickly clear of seven rivals. He led by 2 1/2 lengths with a furlong remaining.
Sadler said the $100,000 Graduation Stakes for statebreds at 5 1/2 furlongs on Aug. 7 is a goal for Early Encore, who races for a large partnership that includes Desert Sun Stables.
ARCADIA, Calif. – Ag Bullet, one of the nation’s top female sprinters, is likely bound for Saratoga in coming weeks for her first start of 2026.
Trainer Richard Baltas said over the weekend that Ag Bullet is under consideration for two stakes at 5 1/2 furlongs on turf – the Grade 2 Intercontinental Stakes, a $250,000 race for fillies and mares on June 4, or the Grade 1 Jaipur Stakes, a $500,000 race against males on June 6. Both races are being run during the Belmont Stakes Racing Festival.
Los Alamitos canceled an eight-race mixed-breed program on Saturday evening after an area east of the track was ordered evacuated because of concern over a potential chemical spill.
The track was not open for simulcasting earlier on Saturday, according to a midday statement. It was not clear whether Los Alamitos will be open for simulcasting on Sunday, or will race that evening, according to Saturday’s statement.
Saturday’s eight-race program did not include a stakes.
Fair Hill has canceled the first day of the Fair Hill Turf Showcase on Sunday due to “heavy, sustained precipitation.” The two-day event was slated to feature flat racing on Sunday and primarily steeplechases on Monday. Racing is expected to resume on the second day.
Earlier this week, several trainers speculated that the eight-race Sunday card on the turf course was going to be in jeopardy. The rain came as expected, spoiling the first part of the highly anticipated event, the second at Fair Hill since the track returned from a six-year hiatus last August.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. - Six Speed, the UAE Derby runner-up who finished 13th after setting the pace in the Kentucky Derby, is now with trainer George Weaver. On Friday, Six Speed worked a half-mile in 49.95 seconds over Saratoga’s Oklahoma training track. Six Speed will be nominated to the Grade 1 Woody Stephens, a seven-furlong race for 3-year-olds, and the Grade 1 Metropolitan Handicap, a one-turn mile race for 3-year-olds and up. Both races are on June 6.
Journalism, a leading 3-year-old of 2025 who was third in the Grade 2 Oaklawn Handicap in April in his first start of the year, worked five furlongs in 59.40 seconds at Santa Anita on Friday for a scheduled start in the Grade 1 Metropolitan Mile Handicap at Saratoga on June 6.
Trained by Michael McCarthy, Journalism has had four works at Santa Anita this month. Friday’s exercise was his first at five furlongs.
ARCADIA, Calif. – Jockey Florent Geroux will ride at Santa Anita for the first time in four weeks on Saturday before returning to his current base at Churchill Downs on Sunday.
Geroux relocated to California in February and won 12 races at Sana Anita through the end of April. He has ridden at Churchill Downs this month, winning six races, notably the Grade 2 Pat Day Mile on May 2 on the exciting 3-year-old Crude Velocity.
El Potente, a two-time Grade 3 winner since the beginning of 2025, will miss a scheduled start in Monday’s Grade 1 Shoemaker Mile at Santa Anita because of an illness, trainer Dan Blacker said on Friday.
“He’s got a fever and he’s not going to run,” Blacker said.
El Potente was rated as a leading contender for the $300,000 Shoemaker Mile, the only annual Grade 1 race at a mile on turf in California.
“We’ve been pointing to this race all year,” Blacker said. “He’s good enough to win a Grade 1, I believe that. I’m heartbroken for Mike Way, the owner.”
