DEL MAR, Calif. - With an eye on the immediate future, and the near future, trainer Bob Baffert sent out his two best horses, Captain Steve and Point Given, for workouts Tuesday morning at Del Mar.
Captain Steve's drill was the far more serious of the two. In his final work for Sunday's Grade 1, $1 million Pacific Classic, Captain Steve covered five furlongs in 59.60 seconds. The colt's owner, Mike Pegram, was among those watching.
DEL MAR, Calif. - Saturday could mark the biggest day of trainer Simon Bray's career. He sends out Astra, the nation's leading female turf runner, in the Beverly D. Stakes, and Startac, a talented 3-year-old turf runner, in the Secretariat Stakes, both Grade 1 events at Arlington Park that are part of the Arlington Million card.
Yet Bray views the day with more trepidation than excitement. "I've had a few sleepless nights," he said. A chronic worrier by nature, Bray is, by his own admission, subsisting on a diet of Tylenol PM this week. "It's a big friend of mine," he said.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - Jockey Frank Lovato Jr. is playing a one-night stand in Saratoga. But you won't find him at the Parting Glass with his guitar.
Instead, Lovato will be here Wednesday to ride Lunar Bounty, the probable favorite in the Grade 2, $150,000 Saratoga Special for juvenile colts, which helps kick off the second half of the Saratoga meeting.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario - Bob Tiller appears to be showing no signs of slowing down in his quest to be Woodbine's leading trainer this year.
Tiller, who won Saturday's Duchess Stakes with Meadow Gem, will saddle the entry of Oye Yoye Yoye and Rare Endeavour in Wednesday's feature, a $100,000 claimer on the grass for 3-year-olds.
DEL MAR, Calif. - After a pair of laughably easy victories against California-breds, Officer steps out against open company and meets a strong field of 2-year-olds in Wednesday's Grade 3 $150,000 Best Pal Stakes at Del Mar. His rivals include recent maiden winners Essence of Dubai and Werblin, along with Metatron, who was second to the West's pro-tem leader, Came Home, in the Hollywood Juvenile Championship.
VANCOUVER, British Columbia - Lasting Code went into the July 21 Timber Music Stakes as a first-time starter but came out of it a stakes winner and will be one of the favorites in this Saturday's $35,000 Lassie Stakes at Hastings Park.
According to her trainer, Steve Henson, Lasting Code was "one work short" going into the Timber Music, though she came away with a 1 1/4-length victory over 6-5 favorite Beautiful Stranger.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario - A Breeders' Stakes victory is the latest feather in the cap for trainer Roger Attfield, who saddled his seventh winner of that race, final leg of the Canadian Triple Crown, when Sweetest Thing romped to victory at Woodbine Saturday.
But Attfield, who also has won 11 other Canadian Triple Crown races - seven Queen's Plates and four Prince of Wales Stakes - was quick to pass on much of the credit to jockey Jim McAleney, who rode Sweetest Thing to the biggest victory of his career.
ARLINGTON HEIGHTS, Ill. - Steve Sexton, brought into the Arlington management team as an executive vice president this year, has taken over for Scott Mordell as the president of Arlington Park. Mordell, president and CEO of Arlington since 1995, will move into a position as executive vice president at Duchossois Industries Inc.
Pennwood Racing, a Pennsylvania-based partnership of the owners of Philadelphia Park and Penn National Race Course, has reached an agreement to purchase Atlantic City Racecourse in New Jersey, officials said Monday.
The sale would give Pennwood two tracks in New Jersey. The company already owns Freehold Raceway, a harness track, in north-central New Jersey. Atlantic City is on New Jersey's southern shore.
ARLINGTON HEIGHTS, Ill. - It came as no surprise to see Silvano playfully bouncing back to Arlington's quarantine barn after cantering about a mile Monday morning during his first piece of exercise on American soil.
A long plane journey from Germany on Saturday apparently had sapped little of Silvano's energy.
