ELMONT, N.Y. – Venetian Harbor, dominant winner of the Grade 2 Las Virgenes at Santa Anita and runner-up in the Grade 3 Fantasy Stakes at Oaklawn, will skip an expected start in Saturday’s Grade 1 Acorn Stakes at Belmont Park, trainer Richard Baltas said.
“I just think she needs more time between races,” Baltas said. ”She’s doing okay, not perfect. I don’t want to rush her.”
ELMONT, N.Y. – No Parole may not have the stamina to be a graded stakes winner going long, but trainer Tom Amoss feels he has the speed to be top-caliber going short.
No Parole will get a chance to prove Amoss correct Saturday at Belmont Park when he runs in the Grade 1, $250,000 Woody Stephens Stakes for 3-year-olds at seven furlongs.
ELMONT, N.Y. – After wavering a bit over the weekend, the connections of Sole Volante on Monday confirmed the horse will wheel back in 10 days and run in Saturday’s $1 million Belmont Stakes.
Sole Volante could end up the second betting choice behind probable odds-on favorite Tiz the Law in what is shaping up to be an eight- or nine-horse field for the Belmont, which due to the COVID-19 pandemic will actually be the first leg of the 2020 Triple Crown and be run at 1 1/8 miles.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Trainer Josie Carroll emerged from the weekend with two serious Woodbine Oaks contenders, reigning Canadian champion 2-year-old filly Curlin’s Voyage and Avie’s Samurai.
Curlin’s Voyage rallied along the rail for second behind the speedy favorite Owlette in the six-furlong Star Shoot Stakes, earning a career-high 87 Beyer Speed Figure. Earlier on the Saturday program, Avie’s Samurai won a seven-furlong allowance by 4 3/4 lengths with an 85 Beyer. Both were returning from six-month layoffs.
They’re getting the band back together.
Last fall, after McKinzie lost the Awesome Again Stakes for his second loss in his last three races, trainer Bob Baffert replaced regular rider Mike Smith. Though they had combined for a Triple Crown sweep just 16 months earlier with Justify, the Baffert-Smith partnership was clearly not as solid as before.
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Charles Town racetrack in West Virginia plans to allow spectators into limited areas of the racetrack as of Monday next week, the track has announced, joining a number of racetracks that have begun to allow patrons ontrack in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic.
United, who has emerged as the leading distance turf runner in California this year, is likely to start in the Grade 2 Eddie Read Stakes at 1 1/8 miles on turf at Del Mar on July 19.
Trainer Richard Mandella had considered sending United to the Grade 2 Elkhorn Stakes at 1 1/2 miles at Keeneland on July 12, but said the $200,000 Read is a more attractive option.
“It might be too short, but he’s an old pro and I think he can figure it out,” Mandella said. “It seemed like he needed a mile and a half to get it together before. I think we can sharpen him up.”
Santa Anita concludes a tumultuous winter-spring meeting with a three-day racing week from Friday through Sunday. There are eight stakes on Saturday and Sunday, including four Grade 3 races.
The track lost 21 days of racing from late March to mid-May because of the coronavirus outbreak after it was ordered closed by the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health. County health officials allowed the track to resume racing on May 15.
Maximum Security, the champion 3-year-old male of 2019, had his third work of the spring at Santa Anita on Saturday, exercising five furlongs in 1:00.80.
Trainer Bob Baffert said on Sunday that the intensity and distances of the workouts will increase in coming weeks as Maximum Security nears his first start since a win in the $20 million Saudi Cup in Saudi Arabia on Feb. 29.
“I think the next work I’ll get a little serious with him,” Baffert said. “He’s doing really well. He looks healthy.
“He’s coming right along. The good ones are really easy to train.”
Storm the Court, the champion 2-year-old male of 2019 who is winless in three starts this year, will have his next start in the Ohio Derby at Thistledown on June 27, trainer Peter Eurton said on Sunday.
Eurton said the $500,000 purse of the 1 1/8-mile Ohio Derby was a deciding factor, compared to the $150,000 purse of the Grade 3 Los Alamitos Derby on July 4 or the competition in Saturday’s Grade 1 Belmont Stakes.
