ELMONT, N.Y. - Preakness and Belmont Stakes winner Afleet Alex had a serious piece of work at Belmont Park on Thursday morning. In his second work since winning the Belmont Stakes by seven lengths, Afleet Alex covered a mile over the main track in 1:36.74, handily, according to the Belmont clockers.
Afleet Alex will make his next start in the $1 million Haskell Invitational at Monmouth Park on Aug. 7.
ARLINGTON HEIGHTS, Ill. - The best horses wind up in the richest races, and the $750,000 Virginia Derby was just run last weekend, but still there are eight pretty good ones ready to go Saturday in the Grade 2, $250,000 American Derby.
The race is part of Arlington's three-stakes Million Preview Day, and top to bottom, the Saturday card is the best of this meet, with mind-bending maiden and allowance races wrapped around the American Derby, the Arlington Handicap, and the 11-horse Modesty Handicap.
ARLINGTON HEIGHTS, Ill. - No horse ever has come out of the Arlington Handicap to win the Arlington Million - though a couple have run second - and calling Saturday's race a Million prep might be a bit of a misnomer. Most years. But this year, the national turf division lacks depth, and the Arlington Handicap has talent, with , both Grade 2 winners and both Million hopefuls, heading the field.
ARLINGTON HEIGHTS, Ill. - Trainer Mitch Shirota sounded a little nervous, a little gun-shy.
"She's not in there, right?" Shirota asked Thursday morning.
"She" is Delta Princess, "there" is Saturday's Modest Handicap, and "no" was the answer to Shirota's question.
ARLINGTON HEIGHTS, Ill. - Cool Conductor always was cut out to be a good grass horse, but he had kinks to smooth. Ralph Nicks was stamped as a horse trainer, and after a couple of bumps, he seems to have made it.
Nicks's big horse? Cool Conductor, who runs Saturday in a robust edition of the Arlington Handicap. Cool Conductor beat Grade 1 winners Artie Schiller and Good Reward in the May 21 Dixie Handicap just days after Nicks took over training from his longtime mentor, Bill Mott.
DEL MAR, Calif. - El Roblar remained unbeaten after three starts and Becrux revived his career with wins in divisions of the Oceanside Stakes on Wednesday's opening day at Del Mar.
Both handle and attendance on Wednesday increased from last year's opening day. Wednesday's ontrack crowd of 40,046 was an increase of 1.7 percent and the second-highest opening day in track history. The all-sources handle of $14,880,714 improved 1.9 percent over last year, while the ontrack handle of $4,673,891 jumped 7.3 percent. The all-sources handle was an opening-day record.
OMAHA, Neb. - A pair of stakes, topped by the $40,000 Queen's Handicap, will be held Saturday on day three of Horsemen's Park's four-day Festival of Racing.
The program's other stakes is the $27,500 Who Doctor Who Handicap, where a field of eight older Nebraska-breds will meet at a mile. Fittingly, the former voice of Ak-Sar-Ben, Terry Wallace, has returned to call the races here for another season. One of Wallace's best-remembered calls at Ak-Sar-Ben was his trademark "Who! Doctor! Who!" whenever the local hero raced.
Trainer Leroy Hellman's decision to enter his formidable 4-year-old filly Lady Riss against males in Saturday's one-mile Pete Condellone Memorial Handicap at Fairmount Park boiled down to two key factors.
Confident Lady Riss could run with the best of the locals, Hellman wanted to see whether there would be any lights-out Chicago shippers set to go in the $40,000 race.
The entry of Mingo Mohawk and Perfect Pose looks formidable in the $60,000-added Iowa Stallion Stakes for 3-year-olds at Prairie Meadows.
Mingo Mohawk looks like the stronger half of the entry in the mile and 70-yard Stallion Stakes. Both Mingo Mohawk and Perfect Pose are trained by Dick Clark, this track's all-time leading trainer.
Mingo Mohawk finished second, beaten a neck, against open allowance company here two weeks ago at Saturday's distance. In his previous start, Mingo Mohawk rallied to score a two-length victory over statebred allowance foes here June 23.
