Tue, 06/02/2020 - 12:43

Ship and Win program returns for Del Mar

Emily Shields
Attendance at Del Mar has dipped nearly 10 percent for the first two weeks of this year's meet compared to 2018.

Del Mar will bring back its popular Ship and Win program for the 10th consecutive summer meet this year and has extended its tentacles to reward qualifying horses for the entire meeting, which begins July 10 and runs through Sept. 7.

Mon, 06/01/2020 - 15:46

Speech to have Prat aboard for Santa Anita Oaks

Emily Shields
Speech runs in the 1 1/16-mile Santa Anita Oaks on Saturday.

Leading rider Flavien Prat will ride Speech in Saturday’s Grade 2 Santa Anita Oaks for 3-year-old fillies.

Speech, trained by Michael McCarthy for Eclipse Thoroughbred Partners, was second in her stakes debut in the Grade 3 Santa Ysabel Stakes on March 8 at Santa Anita and was later second by a neck in an allowance race with a $100,000 claiming option on May 2 at Oaklawn Park. Both races were at the 1 1/16-mile distance of the Santa Anita Oaks.

Mon, 06/01/2020 - 15:36

Maximum Security has first work for Baffert

Jockey Club of Saudi Arabia/Neville Hopwood
Maximum Secirity (left) holds off a rallying Midnight Bisou to win the $20 million Saudi Cup.

Maximum Security, the champion 3-year-old male of 2019 and winner of the $20 million Saudi Cup in February, worked a half-mile in 49.60 seconds on Monday at Santa Anita, the colt’s first workout since joining trainer Bob Baffert’s stable earlier this spring.

Baffert said he hopes to race Maximum Security this summer.

“We’re getting to know him,” Baffert said. “He’s a classy horse. He worked by himself. I’m getting him used to the way I do things.”

Mon, 06/01/2020 - 14:06

Mother Mother among two Baffert horses to arrive

Benoit Photo
Mother Mother drew clear for a 1 1/4-length win in Sunday's Kalookan Queen Stakes.

ELMONT, N.Y. – Bob Baffert has shipped in two horses to Belmont Park, including Mother Mother, who was one of 10 fillies and mares entered Sunday for Friday’s $80,000 Harmony Lodge Stakes for fillies and mares at six furlongs. Mother Mother, a daughter of Pioneerof the Nile, is a two-time listed stakes winner including the Kalookan Queen Stakes at Santa Anita in January. On Sunday, Mother Mother worked a half-mile in 48.33 seconds over the main track.

Mon, 06/01/2020 - 14:00

Saez to serve suspensions during first eight days of meet

Emily Shields
Luis Saez will serve suspensions from two incidents.

ELMONT, N.Y. – Jockey Luis Saez will miss the first eight days of the condensed 25-day Belmont Park spring/summer meet while he serves out two suspensions from 2019.

Saez will miss Wednesday’s opening-day card as that will be the final day of the 15-day suspension handed him by the Churchill Downs stewards for his ride on Maximum Security in the 2019 Kentucky Derby, in which the horse was disqualified from first and placed 17th for interfering with several runners nearing the top of the stretch.

Mon, 06/01/2020 - 14:00

Code of Honor ready to roll in Westchester

Barbara D. Livingston
Code of Honor is expected to make his 2020 debut in the Grade 3 Westchester on June 6 at Belmont Park.

ELMONT, N.Y. – Code of Honor, who won two Grade 1 stakes last year as a 3-year-old, completed preparations for this seasonal debut in Saturday’s Grade 3, $100,000 Westchester by working a half-mile in 49.09 seconds Monday morning over Belmont Park’s main track. Belmont clockers caught his final quarter in 23.49 and had him galloping out five furlongs in 1:01 and six furlongs in 1:13.40.

“I thought he went as good as I’ve ever seen him go,” trainer Shug McGaughey said. “He handled his leads good, everything was perfect.”

Mon, 06/01/2020 - 13:50

Fauci will attempt to practice social distancing in Wednesday debut

Barbara D. Livingston
Trainer Wesley Ward

ELMONT, N.Y. – On the day the New York Racing Association returns to action after an 11-week shutdown caused by COVID-19, a 2-year-old colt named Fauci makes his career debut at Belmont Park.

Fauci, of course, is named after Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, who for many weeks was a fixture at President Donald Trump’s press briefings related to the coronavirus.

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Mon, 06/01/2020 - 13:36

Tiz the Law, Math Wizard look good in works

Barbara D. Livingston
Tiz the Law is scheduled to ship back to New York on June 1 to continue preparations for the Belmont Stakes.

Tiz the Law departed South Florida for Belmont Park on Monday, one day after turning in the last of a very impressive series of local works prepping for his upcoming start in the Belmont Stakes on June 20. Tiz the Law worked an easy half-mile in 48.20 seconds on Sunday morning at Palm Meadows.

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Mon, 06/01/2020 - 13:26

Trainer Alfredo Velazquez comes to Florida to stay

The effects of the coronavirus pandemic on racing schedules around the country have brought some new faces down to South Florida for the summer. The latest is trainer Alfredo Velazquez, who shipped seven horses into Gulfstream Park this past week, including He’s Incredible, one of nine entered in Wednesday’s $47,000 main event, carded under optional-claiming conditions for Florida breds at five furlongs on the turf.

Mon, 06/01/2020 - 13:16

An abbreviated Belmont meet will have a shorter Classic

John Bambury
This year's Belmont Stakes will be run June 20 at a one-turn, 1 1/8 miles. The race will be the first leg of the 2020 Triple Crown.

ELMONT, N.Y. – New York becomes the last major circuit to resume live racing in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic when Belmont Park opens Wednesday for the first program of an abbreviated 25-day meet.

Wednesday’s 10-race program comes 80 days after the last card of racing was held in New York, at Aqueduct, and none too soon for trainers and owners who struggled to keep their stables afloat, unable to make money.