ELMONT, N.Y. – With the Arlington Million shelved this year, trainer Chad Brown will most likely have to wait a while before being able to run Instilled Regard and Rockemperor, the 1-2 finishers in Saturday’s Grade 1 Manhattan Stakes.
Brown will likely wait until the $1 million Old Forester Turf Classic on Sept. 5 at Churchill Downs.
“That’s what we’re going to have to do,” Brown said. “I don’t see anything between now and then. I’ll freshen these horses up and go for it.”
ELMONT, N.Y. – When George Weaver first came to New York in 1991 to work for D. Wayne Lukas, one race he made sure to witness in person was the Grade 1 Metropolitan Handicap. Regardless if he had a horse in the race or not, Weaver said he would watch the Met Mile from the platform just outside the Belmont Park winner’s circle.
“That’s one of my favorite races,” Weaver said. “It’s crazy cool that I had a horse good enough to win it.”
DEL MAR, Calif. – The cancellation of the San Diego County Fair, which traditionally precedes the Del Mar race season and whose dates make for a frenetic turnaround before the meet begins, has afforded both the track and trainers a chance to settle in here far earlier than usual. One of the first to arrive and take advantage of the schedule was Michael McCarthy, who not only is preparing for the meet that begins Friday, but also was able to give some of his stakes runners a pair of works before important out-of-town engagements this week.
Just when Anneau d’Or was rounding back into form, an illness has knocked him out of a scheduled start on Saturday in the Grade 3 Los Alamitos Derby.
Anneau d’Or, runner-up last year in the Grade 1 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile and Grade 2 Los Alamitos Futurity, and fourth in the Grade 1 Santa Anita Derby two months ago, shipped midweek from Golden Gate Fields to Los Alamitos. But on Friday, trainer Blaine Wright suspected the colt would not start in the Los Alamitos Derby.
ELMONT, N.Y. - Monomoy Girl won the Grade 1 Acorn at Belmont Park as part of her championship 3-year-old season in 2018, but she has not been back at Belmont since. Saturday morning, Monomoy Girl got reacquainted with the Belmont main track by working a half-mile in 49.28 seconds in preparation for a start in next Saturday’s Grade 2, $150,000 Ruffian Stakes.
Heavy rain Friday night left the Belmont main track in a sealed, sloppy state early Saturday morning. That prompted Monomoy Girl’s connections to push the work back from 6 a.m. to 8:45 in hopes of getting a drier surface.
ELMONT, N.Y. – Complexity, winner of the Grade 1 Champagne in 2018, made a successful 4-year-old debut Thursday at Belmont, winning a stakes-caliber allowance race by 2 1/4 lengths over Win Win Win.
Complexity raced four wide throughout under Jose Ortiz and pulled away in the lane, covering a mile in 1:34.44. He earned a 99 Beyer Speed Figure for the performance.
It was his first start since he finished fourth in the Grade 1 Malibu last December at Santa Anita.
ELMONT, N.Y. – Oleksandra, who rallied from last to first to win the Grade 1 Jaipur in a near course record-setting time, was diagnosed with a fractured splint bone and will be confined to stall rest for two months, according to Barry Irwin, president of Team Valor International, which owns the Australian-bred mare.
“We hope to make the Breeders’ Cup,” said Irwin, who was hoping to run Oleksandra in the Grade 3, $200,000 Troy Stakes on Aug. 8 at Saratoga.
ELMONT, N.Y. – In a normal world, Prisoner would have went from his impressive maiden win on June 3 to the Sanford Stakes at Saratoga on opening weekend.
This year, however, the Grade 3 Sanford was not scheduled by the New York Racing Association, owing to a lack of 2-year-old maiden races at the Belmont meet. Thus, Prisoner will be forced to wait for the Grade 2, $150,000 Saratoga Special on Aug. 7.
On Friday, Prisoner worked a half-mile in 50.15 seconds with the unstarted 2-year-old maiden Walden Pond.
ELMONT, N.Y. – Dr Post, the Belmont Stakes runner-up, was scheduled to return to the work tab Saturday at Belmont Park, and trainer Todd Pletcher said he is leaning toward running him in the $1 million Haskell Invitational on July 18 at Monmouth Park.
“Seems like he’s come out of the race well, so this will be the first step toward making a decision,” Pletcher said Friday.
Sharon Alesia, who co-owned such stakes winners as Ashleyluvsugar, Champagne Room, Dance With Fate, and Weemissfrankie in the last decade, died June 15 in Carlsbad, Calif., after an illness, according to her business manager, Howard Grossman.
Alesia was 83.
Alesia and her late husband, Frank, owned horses since the mid-1980s, always with trainer Peter Eurton. Sharon Alesia, who often owned horses in small partnerships, maintained the stable after Frank Alesia’s death in 2011.
