SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Five horses suffered fatal injuries over a four-day period at Saratoga, including two on Monday who were injured while putting in a workout.
On Monday, Obsidian Flow, an unraced 2-year-old trained by Jimmy Jerkens, suffered an injury to his right foreleg after completing a workout out of the gate over the main track.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Based on their 2019 campaigns, a lot was expected from Code of Honor and Performer in 2020. Little of it has materialized.
Code of Honor, last year’s Travers and Jockey Club Gold Cup winner, has gone 1 for 3 this year and is coming off a fourth in the Grade 1 Whitney on Aug. 1. Performer has not run since winning the Grade 3 Discovery on Nov. 20 at Aqueduct. He suffered an ankle injury that scrapped an anticipated return in the Grade 1 Carter in June.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Trainer James Bond is enjoying his best Saratoga in nearly two decades, so there is no better time to take a swing at a Grade 1 stakes with a longshot. Saturday, Bond will do just that when he sends out Prioritize in the Grade 1, $500,000 Woodward Stakes.
Bond has won 10 races from 34 starters at this meet, his most wins at Saratoga since 2001, when he went 11 for 41. Four of his wins at this meet came with horses returning from an extended layoff owing to the COVID-19 pandemic. Bond was a part or sole owner of four of the 10 winners.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Trainer Chad Brown has an arsenal of talented 2-year-olds to draw from here this summer, among the most noteworthy being Founder and Highly Motivated, who finished first and second in a field filled with highly touted juveniles in Saturday’s sixth race.
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LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Unlike in past years, when a $1 minimum for superfecta wagers was in effect for all races on the Kentucky Oaks and Derby cards, Churchill this year will be offering 10-cent superfectas on all Sept. 4-5 races.
The logic behind the former policy was that dime supers could cause logjams at wagering windows both at the track and at simulcast outlets. Theoretically, dime-super bettors would spend more time calling out numerous combinations that could create long delays at mutuel windows at brick-and-mortar facilities.
Wayne Scherr had tried to reach the Kentucky Derby via traditional ownership routes, buying young horses at yearling and 2-year-old auctions. But when the search for his Derby horse proved fruitless, he proposed a different avenue to trainer Chris Hartman.
“A couple years ago, he decided, why don’t we claim a horse?” Hartman recalled. “I said, ‘Wayne, they don’t run Derby horses for a tag. It just doesn’t happen. You don’t claim Derby horses. But I’ll be more than glad to look.’”
The new 20-horse starting gate that Churchill Downs acquired to accommodate what is typically a large field for the Kentucky Derby is in use during morning training for this year’s contenders and will get a test run in a race this week.
Dutton and Time for Gold couldn’t have been more impressive winning their respective stakes races last Thursday, and they could hook up in the $75,000 Gottstein Futurity on Oct. 1. They would both be going around two turns for the first time in the 1 1/16-mile Gottstein.
Time for Gold would seemingly have an edge. She won the Barbara Shinpoch for 2-year-old fillies by 11 lengths and is bred to run all day. With three races, she also has more experience than Dutton, who won the $36,000 WTBOA Lads by nine lengths in his debut.
