DEL MAR, Calif. – Watching from Kentucky, Hall of Fame trainer Bob Baffert saw what he expected when Brant won Sunday’s Grade 1 Del Mar Futurity.
Brant set the pace and won the seven-furlong race as the 1-10 favorite to confirm his status among the nation’s leading 2-year-old males as the summer draws to a close.
“I’m just glad he’s in my barn and I don’t have to run against him,” Baffert said in a phone interview.
Percy’s Bar went to Saratoga from her Keeneland base and finished second behind Tommy Jo in the Grade 1 Spinaway on Aug. 30. It was not a close second. More than six lengths separated first and second in the seven-furlong Spinaway.
Percy’s Bar’s trainer, Ben Colebrook, is not exactly looking forward to a rematch with fellow 2-year-old filly Tommy Jo in the Alcibiades Stakes next month at Keeneland, but a change of venue and a move from one to two turns at least gives Colebrook a glimmer of hope.
When the calendar flipped to August, trainer Keith Desormeaux was muddling through 2025. From Jan. 1 through July 31, the Desormeaux stable scratched out 12 winners from 128 runners for earnings of about $654,0000.
“We weren’t necessarily in a funk, but just getting so close all the time,” Desormeaux said. “You got to stop on a horse right when it’s ready – things like that. We’re right there, but it’s just not happening.”
Jose D’Angelo has run horses at Churchill Downs, but late this summer and into fall – if not beyond – the trainer will stable horses there as well.
D’Angelo, at Kentucky Downs this weekend, said he has stalls for the September racing season that starts Thursday in barn 44, the former longtime home of the late D. Wayne Lukas’s stable. Among his Churchill stock are three prominent runners in recent Kentucky Downs races.
Hastings Racecourse in Vancouver, British Columbia, has canceled its Friday night card due to poor air quality wrought by wildfires in the area.
There were five races set to be run Friday. A track spokeswoman told Daily Racing Form that they will likely be redrawn for next week.
Reef Runner, demoted from first to second for causing interference in the Grade 3 Green Flash Handicap at Del Mar on Aug. 30, has remained in California and may start in the Grade 2 Eddie D Stakes for turf sprinters at Santa Anita on Sept. 27.
Trainer David Fawkes said on Thursday that the Eddie D Stakes could serve as a prep for Reef Runner for the Breeders’ Cup Turf Sprint at Del Mar on Nov. 1.
“If he wins, he gets points,” Fawkes said in reference to one of the qualifying methods for the BC Turf Sprint. “That would have to help him."
Ag Bullet, the winner of the Grade 1 Jaipur Stakes at Saratoga in June and the Grade 2 Kentucky Downs Ladies Turf Sprint on Aug. 30 in her last two starts, will not race again until the Breeders’ Cup Turf Sprint at Del Mar on Nov. 1, trainer Richard Baltas said.
“We’ll freshen her and get her ready for Breeders’ Cup,” Baltas said on Friday.
This year’s BC Turf Sprint is likely to be Ag Bullet’s last start for owners Calvin Nguyen and Joey Tran. The 5-year-old mare is scheduled to be sold at the Fasig-Tipton Kentucky November mixed sale on Nov. 3, Baltas said.
Overnight purses at the forthcoming Los Alamitos September meeting will be equal to the track’s summer meeting and higher than the corresponding September meeting in 2024.
Los Alamitos will have a six-day meeting over two three-day weekends on Sept. 12-14 and Sept. 19-21. The current Del Mar meeting ends on Sunday. The Santa Anita autumn meeting begins on Sept. 26.
For jockey Antonio Fresu, the 2025 Del Mar summer meeting will be remembered for his near misses as much as an abundant number of wins.
Through Thursday, Fresu is second in the standings with 35 wins, ranking behind Juan Hernandez with 41. Fresu is unlikely to catch Hernandez before Sunday’s final day of the season.
Other than closing the gap in the standings, Fresu is hoping to correct a lopsided record of close losses. In 187 mounts, Fresu has had a remarkable 44 second-place finishes, much more than Hernandez's 18 seconds.
The Jockeys’ Guild and horsemen at Remington Park in Oklahoma City have formally agreed to a new fee structure that will guarantee at least $100 per mount for the next three years, ending a standoff that led to a widespread boycott by riders.
The two sides confirmed on Thursday morning that the agreement had been reached, and in a statement said that they would jointly submit the proposal to the Oklahoma Horse Racing Commission for ratification. As a result of the agreement, jockeys will accept mounts starting with Saturday's card.
