DEL MAR, Calif. – Weston won his stakes debut in Saturday’s Grade 2 Best Pal Stakes for 2-year-olds at Del Mar, giving trainer Ryan Hanson his first Thoroughbred graded stakes win in a leading prep race for the Grade 1 Runhappy Del Mar Futurity on Sept. 7.
Two hours later, Hanson saw a runner likely to be rated among the leading contenders for the $250,000 Del Mar Futurity at seven furlongs.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Pure Sensation, an 11-time stakes winner who finished last in Saturday’s Grade 3, $200,000 Troy Stakes at Saratoga, has been retired from racing, trainer Christophe Clement said Sunday.
Clement said Pure Sensation came back from the Troy sound, but after that performance coupled with his seventh-place finish in the Grade 1 Jaipur at Belmont on June 20 “there was no point to go on” with the 9-year-old Florida-bred gelding by Zensational, owned and bred by Frank and Patricia Generazio.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Trainer Joe Orseno said he thought about appealing the disqualification of Imprimis from first in Saturday’s Grade 3, $200,000 Troy Stakes, but his owners, Mike Hall and Sam Ross, who race under the moniker Breeze Easy Stable, opted against.
“I suggested it, and they didn’t want to do it,” Orseno said Sunday. “They know their horse was good enough and won. We’ll get him ready for the next one.”
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – After a pair of dominant victories in Grade 1 stakes run around one turn, Gamine will now be pointed to the Grade 1, $1.25 million Kentucky Oaks, run at 1 1/8 miles around two turns Sept. 4 at Churchill Downs.
Gamine was most impressive winning Saturday’s Grade 1, $300,000 Test, at seven furlongs, by seven lengths at Saratoga. That victory came seven weeks after she won the Grade 1 Acorn, a one-turn mile at Belmont Park, by 18 3/4 lengths. Gamine earned a 108 Beyer Speed Figure for the Test, which followed the 110 she earned in the Acorn.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – With her impeccable breeding – she’s a half-sister to champion Sistercharlie – and promising racing record during her 3-year-old campaign in France, expectations were high when My Sister Nat joined trainer Chad Brown’s barn for the 2019 season.
Things didn’t quite pan out as hoped when My Sister Nat finally returned to the races last summer. But her career is definitely headed in the right direction now following Saturday’s game victory over 7-5 favorite Mrs. Sippy in the 1 1/2-mile, Grade 3 Waya.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Trainer Tom Amoss said it’s taken him a year and a half to finally figure out what Serengeti Empress really wants to do. It’s a revelation that became crystal clear in the aftermath of his multiple Grade 1-winning filly’s incredibly game, one-length victory over favored Bellafina in Saturday’s seven-furlong Ballerina.
DEL MAR, Calif. – Maximum Security on Sunday morning at Del Mar had a drill that trainer Bob Baffert described as "the best he's worked," as he motored through six furlongs in 1:12.80 in preparation for the Grade 1, $500,000 Pacific Classic here Aug. 22.
Maximum Security made his first start for Baffert last month in the San Diego Handicap, in which he gutted out a narrow win over Midcourt.
"That race really woke him up," Baffert said. "I couldn't be happier with the way he's doing."
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Seventeen years after winning the Kentucky Derby with the New York-bred gelding Funny Cide, who pulled off a 12-1 upset, trainer Barclay Tagg and Sackatoga Stable will be heading back to Churchill Downs with another New York-bred who will be a much shorter price in the world’s most famous horse race.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - About 13 hours before some of the best 3-year-old colts were to square off in the Grade 1, $1 million Travers at Saratoga, Swiss Skydiver, arguably the leader of the 3-year-old filly division, put in her final workout in preparation for next Saturday’s Grade 1, $500,000 Alabama Stakes.
Swiss Skydiver, working shortly after the Oklahoma training track opened at 5:30 a.m., went five furlongs in 1:01.56. Breaking from the 4 1/2-furlong pole, Swiss Skydiver went her opening quarter in 25.44 seconds and her final three furlongs in 36.12.
The Del Mar press box will be named for Dan Smith, the longtime publicist who retired this year following 56 years of service, the track announced in a release Friday.
The ceremony will take place next year, in the hope that the press box will be functioning at capacity after the interruptions caused this year by the coronavirus pandemic.
