John Lies, the television paddock commentator, will call the races for the final four days of the current Del Mar summer meeting from Sept. 4-7, the track announced on Wednesday.
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SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – After several unsuccessful attempts to go two turns, Basin will cut back to six furlongs in Saturday’s Grade 2, $150,000 Amsterdam Stakes for 3-year-olds. It will be his first start since he was transferred from Steve Asmussen to Todd Pletcher by Jackpot Farm.
Weston, the undefeated winner of the Grade 2 Best Pal Stakes on Aug. 9, will have a pre-dawn workout on Friday that will determine whether he starts in the Grade 1 Runhappy Del Mar Futurity on Sept. 7.
“If he works good, we’re going to go for the futurity,” trainer and co-owner Ryan Hanson said on Wednesday. “There is no pressure to run. He has to come back good.”
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – The 7-year-old Sadler’s Joy appeared to get his first win of the year when he crossed the finish line first in the Grade 2 Bowling Green Stakes here on Aug. 1. But the horse veered in a path on two occasions in the stretch, and the stewards deemed he caused enough interference to warrant a disqualification from first to third.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – The path of Hurricane Laura as it turns toward the East Coast over the weekend could be the deciding factor as to whether Firenze Fire is in the starting gate here for Saturday’s Grade 1 Forego.
WHO’S HOT
There have been no adjustments to the Derby Watch top 20 lineup or the odds penned by Daily Racing Form’s Marty McGee since last week. Tiz the Law remains the 6-5 favorite. Assuming his starting price will be no higher than 9-5, he will be the first horse to go off at less than 2-1 in the Derby since Point Given in 2001. The last odds-on favorite was Arazi in 1992. Entries for the Derby are to be taken Tuesday morning, and posts drawn later that morning.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Jockey Rafael Bejarano will miss the last three days of the Runhappy meet at Ellis Park in western Kentucky while still recovering from Aug. 12 surgery to have a small, benign growth removed from his pancreas. Bejarano will be ready for opening day at Churchill Downs, said his agent, Julio Espinoza.
“We just didn’t want to push it,” said Espinoza, who had hoped to have Bejarano back by Friday. “He’s been running and exercising, feeling really good.”
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – As contenders for the 146th Kentucky Derby continue to settle into the stable area at Churchill Downs, the final round of breezes for the Sept. 5 race are set for a busy coming weekend – both at Churchill and elsewhere.
Tiz the Law, expected to be the heaviest Derby favorite since Arazi was 9-10 in 1992, is scheduled to work Sunday at Saratoga before being flown Monday to Louisville via equine charter. The New York-bred colt, winner of the Belmont Stakes and Runhappy Travers, will be bedded down in Barn 20 upon his arrival at Churchill.
Oaklawn Park in Hot Springs, Ark., on Wednesday announced a record racing program for 2021 led by a slate of 33 stakes races worth a cumulative $11 million.
There are four $1 million offerings – the Rebel, Arkansas Derby, Oaklawn Handicap, and Apple Blossom – while the minimum stakes purse will be $150,000.
