DEL MAR, Calif. – Extra Hope, third in the Damascus at Santa Anita on Nov. 2, tops the likely starters in the Grade 3, $100,000 Native Diver Stakes on Saturday at Del Mar.
The Native Diver, a 1 1/8-mile race for 3-year-olds and up, had eight nominations, including Santa Anita Derby winner Roadster, who was second in the Damascus. But trainer Bob Baffert said Roadster might instead head to Churchill Downs for the Grade 1 Clark later this month.
DEL MAR, Calif. – After rushing Mundaye Call into a stakes race earlier in her career and then having to back off, a more conservative approach will be taken with her following her easy victory against maidens on Saturday at Del Mar, her trainer, Don Chatlos, said Sunday morning.
Mundaye Call, in the third start of her career, breezed home under Mike Smith in the 6 1/2-furlong race for 2-year-old fillies. She was second in her debut at Saratoga on Aug. 11, then tired and finished last of seven in the Grade 1 Spinaway on Sept. 1.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – He still has a long way to go to live up to his older sister’s legacy, but Mr. Monomoy began his own scrapbook Saturday with a 5 1/2-length romp in a 6 1/2-furlong maiden race at Churchill Downs.
It was an auspicious second start for Mr. Monomoy, a 2-year-old half-brother to last year’s 3-year-old filly champion Monomoy Girl, following a troubled debut last month at Keeneland. The son of Palace Malice earned a 74 Beyer Speed Figure.
DEL MAR, Calif. – Chad Brown, the nation’s Eclipse Award-winning trainer the past three years, has made the turf festival at Del Mar a major focal point of his post-Breeders’ Cup plans in recent years, and it appears he’ll be taking aim at the meet’s major prizes yet again.
Brown has won the Hollywood Derby twice in the last three years, and the Matriarch Stakes the past two years, and he has nominated runners to both Grade 1 races the final weekend of the meet.
Reconditioning of Santa Anita's main track, scheduled for this coming week, will be postponed one week owing to the forecast of rain, according to a text notice sent to horsemen by Santa Anita's racing office on Saturday morning.
The main track was scheduled to be worked on Monday, Nov. 18, following training hours. Only jogging and galloping – but no works – were to be permitted Tuesday through Thursday, though the training track would be open and available for workers those days.
All that has been "pushed back one week," the Saturday notice said.
The Oklahoma Department of Agriculture announced Friday tests have confirmed a horse euthanized Tuesday at Remington Park was positive for equine herpesvirus. It is the EHV-1 strain. The barn where the horse was stabled has been placed under a 14-day quarantine.
Remington was to race Friday night, confirmed track spokesman Dale Day.
DEL MAR, Calif. – Irv Noren, who spent 10 years as an outfielder in the major leagues and owned horses for many years on the Southern California circuit, died Friday morning at his home in Oceanside, Calif., according to Del Mar's publicity department.
MIAMI – Kukulkan, who along with his stablemate Jala Jala stole the show at the 2018 Clasico Internacional del Caribe at Gulfstream Park, is back in town and ready to pick up where he left off.
Kukulkan rallied to a 10 1/4-length victory under jockey Irad Ortiz Jr. last December in the main event, the $300,000 Clasico del Caribe for 3-year-olds. The pair are scheduled to team up once again on Dec. 8 in the 1 1/4-mile Confraternity Cup for older horses.
DEL MAR, Calif. – Del Mar will not race next Thursday out of concern for a rainstorm that is expected to arrive in the area on Tuesday and last through Thursday, the track announced Friday.
Josh Rubinstein, the track’s president, said the Thursday cancellation was being done “out of an abundance of caution.”
“We looked at the forecast, talked to our guys,” Rubinstein said, referring to Dennis Moore, the director of track maintenance, and Leif Dickinson, the turf course superintendent. “We should be fine by Friday.”
DEL MAR, Calif. – Trainer Neil Drysdale likes to play the long game, and with Toinette, it is paying off. A two-time graded stakes winner last year at age 3, Toinette was off for more than nine months before returning to action this year in August, and she has been brought along in a progressive, deliberate fashion.
Now it’s time for the main goal of the year.
