DEL MAR, Calif. - A 45-1 upset by Healthy Addiction in Wednesday's Osunitas Handicap has led to a pick six carryover of $147,463 for Thursday's eight-race program at Del Mar.
The pick six covers the third through eighth races on a program that starts at 2 p.m.
There is one turf race and five sprints in Thursday's pick six.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - Chantal Sutherland is getting noticed for more than her good looks this summer at Saratoga.
A two-time Sovereign Award winner as Canada's leading apprentice, Sutherland has demonstrated the ability to compete with the best journeymen riders in the country at Saratoga. Through the first two weeks of the meet, Sutherland has 5 wins from 19 mounts. Only six riders have more wins, and those riders have at least twice as many mounts.
ARLINGTON HEIGHTS, Ill. - There are years when the comes around in August and one wonders where all the top-class grass horses have gone.
This is not one of those years.
Ten names, including that of the 6-5 morning-line favorite, Kitten's Joy, were drawn when entries for the Million were taken during an elaborate ceremony Wednesday at Arlington. Eight horses, headed by English Channel, were entered in the Secretariat, and a star-studded field of 10, led by the Bobby Frankel-trained duo of Melhor Ainda and Megahertz, went into the Beverly D.
ARLINGTON HEIGHTS, Ill. - English Channel, one of a handful of horses to pull through the stable gate Wednesday afternoon following a charter flight from upstate New York, was assigned post 1 as the likely favorite for the third and final Grade 1 turf race Saturday at Arlington Park, the $400,000 Secretariat Stakes.
ARLINGTON HEIGHTS, Ill. - Megahertz long has been the queen of California grass racing, but her impact has been non-existent outside her home circuit. So when the 6-year-old mare runs Saturday as a top contender in the $750,000 Beverly D. at Arlington Park, she will be trying to expand her horizons - all the way to a divisional Eclipse Award.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - One day after it was announced that the Coaching Club American Oaks winner Smuggler would miss the Grade 1, $750,000 Alabama Stakes here on Aug. 20, Saratoga's most prestigious stakes race for 3-year-old fillies lost another of its top contenders on Wednesday when trainer Steve Asmussen said that the Kentucky Oaks winner Summerly had been injured in a recent workout.
Summerly worked six furlongs at Saratoga on Monday, but came out of the drill with a splint bone injury, Asmussen said.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - Latice won the first four starts of her career, including last year's French Oaks, which she won as the 9-5 favorite against 16 rivals. On her best day, it's obvious she is top class. But when she returns to the races on Friday at Saratoga, in the $65,000 Waya Stakes, she will be making her first start since December, and will be attempting to rebound after losing her form at the end of last year.
DEL MAR, Calif. - Whether it has been on the workout sheet or in a stakes, the juvenile Bashert has demanded attention this summer.
Tuesday at Del Mar, Bashert worked five furlongs in 57.60, the fastest of 37 recorded works at the distance.
The work may seem very quick for a 2-year-old, but trainer Bill Currin is convinced that it will help the colt when he makes his fourth career start in Sunday's $150,000 Best Pal Stakes over 6 1/2 furlongs at Del Mar.
DEL MAR, Calif. - After being sent around the country in recent months in a failed search for a rich stakes win, Thor's Echo is staying home for Friday's $100,000 Real Good Deal Stakes at Del Mar.
Trainer Doug O'Neill is hoping that sending Thor's Echo in a sprint against statebreds will result in the horse's first stakes win since the $500,000 WinStar Derby at Sunland Park in April.
"He has done a lot of shipping in a short period of time," O'Neill said. "We'd thrown a lot of races at him. Now we're getting back to what he wants to do."
Pimlico Race Course will offer a meat-and-potatoes nine-day race meet beginning Friday, as a short respite for Maryland horsemen weary of shipping to Mid-Atlantic tracks during the summer months.
Average daily purse distribution during the meet will be $170,000, according to Lou Raffetto, the chief operating officer of the Maryland Jockey Club, which owns Pimlico and its sister track, Laurel Park. Two stakes are on the schedule, both $50,000 races restricted to Maryland-bred horses.
