The two graded stakes for 2-year-olds at Los Alamitos will be held two weeks apart for the first time in several years.
The Grade 1 Starlet Stakes for fillies at 1 1/16 miles is scheduled for Dec. 5, while the Grade 2 Los Alamitos Futurity at 1 1/16 miles will be Dec. 19. Racing secretary Bob Moreno said last week that the position of the $300,000 Starlet two weeks before the $200,000 Futurity may allow a filly to run in both races.
Virtually all of the top jockeys in North America will be part of the daily riding colony at Kentucky Downs, the turf-only track that will host a six-day meet Sept. 7-16.
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LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Sole Volante, whose last start resulted in a distant sixth-place finish in the June 20 Belmont Stakes, was scheduled to arrive by van Sunday at Churchill for the Kentucky Derby after sizzling five furlongs in 57.80 seconds over turf Friday at the Palm Meadows training center in south Florida.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Major Fed doesn’t figure to garner much wagering action when he goes postward Saturday in the 146th Kentucky Derby at Churchill Downs, but that’s to be expected. The colt has won just once in six career starts, whereas the favorites, Tiz the Law and Art Collector, both are 4 for 4 on the year.
Delta Downs in Vinton, La., has postponed its Thoroughbred meet until further notice because of damage sustained in Hurricane Laura, a track official said Friday.
Delta was to open its season Oct. 6. The track is scheduled to race 84 dates through Feb. 27, 2021.
Hurricane Laura was a Category 4 storm when it made landfall Wednesday night near Cameron, La., which is about an hour from Delta.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Jockey Irad Ortiz Jr. missed riding Thursday and Friday at Saratoga because of an issue with his wrist following an incident at the gate Wednesday.
Ortiz will miss the first 10 days of Belmont’s 27-day fall meet due to a pair of careless riding suspensions. He recently dropped his appeals of those suspensions and will sit Sept. 18 through Oct. 3. The suspensions are from rides at Belmont on July 2 and Saratoga on July 31.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Two of trainer Wesley Ward’s runners from this summer at Royal Ascot have already come back to win their next start. He will look to continue that trend next Saturday when he returns Kimari to the dirt in the Grade 2, $200,000 Prioress Stakes at Saratoga.
Kimari, a 3-year-old daughter of Munnings, finished second in the Group 1 Commonwealth Cup on June 19 at Royal Ascot. She has been training on dirt at Keeneland and was scheduled to have another breeze Sunday before shipping to New York.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Spinoff, winner of the Alydar Stakes here Aug. 9, and Moretti, winner of the Birdstone Stakes here Aug. 2, worked a half-mile together Friday in 49.06 seconds over the Saratoga main track preparing for a start in next Saturday’s Grade 1, $500,000 Woodward Stakes.
It was what Spinoff did after the wire that stood out. He gradually pulled away from Moretti after five furlongs in 1:01.95 and galloped out six furlongs in 1:14.59 and seven furlongs in 1:27.99.
Last December, the colt Devil Made Me Doit won the first race of the Santa Anita winter-spring meeting in such impressive style that observers rightfully wondered how much he could accomplish in the 3-year-old division in 2020.
Devil Made Me Doit did not race for the rest of the winter or spring. He will have his 2020 debut in a first-level allowance with a $40,000 claiming option at five furlongs on turf Sunday at Del Mar, a reflection of how trainer Doug O’Neill has had to alter goals.
Laura’s Light, a four-time stakes winner who was sixth as the 3-2 favorite in the Grade 1 Del Mar Oaks on Aug. 22, will not race again this year.
“Laura’s Light is going to get a break,” trainer Peter Miller said on Friday. “She’s done enough. She’s tired and we’re going to give her a proper break.”
Owned by Gary Barber, Laura’s Light has won 5 of 8 starts and earned $304,870. Earlier this year, Laura’s Light won three graded stakes for 3-year-old fillies on turf, including the Grade 2 San Clemente Stakes at a mile at Del Mar in July.
