SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Trainer Bill Mott is planning to have a runner in Sunday’s $500,000 Saratoga Oaks with recent acquisition Ricetta, a daughter of Camelot owned and bred by Juddmonte Farms. Ricetta won 2 of 3 starts in Europe, where she was trained by trainer John Gosden.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Harvey’s Lil Goil is a stakes winner on turf and dirt. Some speed figures have her faster on turf, others dirt.
Naturally, trainer Bill Mott has two options this weekend in which to run Harvey’s Lil Goil – Saturday’s Grade 1, $500,000 Alabama on dirt, or Sunday’s $500,000 Saratoga Oaks Invitational, an ungraded race, on turf.
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SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Both trainer Todd Pletcher and the betting public were expecting big things from the highly touted 2-year-old prospect Mutasaabeq when he debuted here last Saturday. And in the end neither was disappointed after the promising juvenile drew off to a 4 1/2-length victory as the 4-5 favorite in the 5 1/2-furlong maiden special weight dash.
Mutasaabeq, a son of Into Mischief owned by Shadwell Stable, had posted a pair of bullet gate works in the weeks leading up to his first start.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – The Saratoga meet reaches the halfway point Wednesday, and New York Racing Association officials can only hope business remains as robust during the second half of the summer as it was the first.
All-sources handle through the first 19 days of the 40-day meet was $362,577,261, a 17.3 percent increase over the $309,125,934 handled through the same time period of 2019.
HENDERSON, Ky. – Art Collector emerged from his fourth straight victory in good order as trainer Tommy Drury starts making plans to get the colt ready for the Sept. 5 Kentucky Derby.
Art Collector earned a 100 Beyer Speed Figure as a front-running, 3 1/4-length winner of the $200,000 Runhappy Ellis Park Derby on Sunday. It was the fourth open-lengths triumph in as many starts this year for the son of Bernardini, as well as his third straight triple-digit Beyer.
“Everything seems fine this morning,” Drury said early Monday.
Green Gratto, the 10-year-old Grade 1 winner who finished last Sunday in his return to the races off a two-year-layoff at Monmouth Park in New Jersey, will be retired and sent to his owners’ farm in Florida, his trainer said Monday.
Kathleen O’Connell, Green Gratto’s trainer, said that the horse banged his right foreleg at the start of the race, and she provided a picture showing a superficial wound at the bottom of his right fetlock. He finished last of seven in the optional-claiming race and was jogged to the finish line.
Kentucky Derby-winning jockey Stewart Elliott reached a milestone of 5,000 career victories late Sunday night, when he won Lone Star Park's eighth race aboard Power End.
Elliott captured the 2004 Kentucky Derby and Preakness aboard Smarty Jones.
DEL MAR, Calif. – Hit the Road, winner of the $103,500 Runhappy Oceanside Stakes on July 10 at Del Mar, has been turned out for three months after being diagnosed with a minor injury.
Trainer Dan Blacker said in late July that Hit the Road was sidelined with a bruised foot, but additional evaluation indicated the colt will need a longer rest, he said Sunday.
The setback comes at a time when Blacker was hoping to start Hit the Road in the Grade 2 Del Mar Derby on Sept. 6.
DEL MAR, Calif. - Total handle figures for the current 27-day summer season at Del Mar are projected to exceed the corresponding 36-day summer season in 2019 and result in a surplus in the purse account, track president Josh Rubinstein said Sunday.
The track ran the 13th day of the season on Sunday. The meeting concludes Sept. 7 and has been held amidst significant changes this year because of the coronavirus pandemic.
Following his Saturday romp in the Runhappy Travers, Tiz the Law is by far the heaviest individually listed favorite in the 21-year history of the Kentucky Derby Future Wager.
Tiz the Law was the 11-10 favorite when the seventh and final pool toward the 2020 Derby closed Sunday following the customary three days of betting. Those odds easily break a record set when Empire Maker was 5-2 in the final pool of 2003. The mutuel field, the 24th or “all others” option, has closed as low as 3-5 in prior years, but this is the lowest price ever on a separately listed interest.
