Racing News

Jacks or Better Farm and trainer Stanley Gold, who have teamed for a record 16 victories in the Florida Sire Stakes series, are in a good position to improve on that tally at Gulfstream Park Aug. 8.

The owner-trainer duo, which raced series sweepers Jackson Bend (2009),Awesome Feather (2010), and Fort Loudon (2011), have eight horses entered on the card that consists of seven stakes, two that are part of the Sire Series.

The New York Racing Association announced Aug. 6 that attendance at Saratoga Race Course will be capped at 50,000 for the Aug. 29 blockbuster race card highlighted by the 146th Travers Stakes (gr. I).

NYRA also announced that all Travers Day reserved seating, dining, and clubhouse admission are sold out. Grandstand general admission tickets are available for $10. General admission tickets can be purchased online at Ticketmaster.com, as well as in-person at the NYRA box office at Saratoga, or by phone at 1-844-NYRA-TIX. There is a purchase limit of eight general admission tickets per person.

Sagamore Farm reports their 5-year-old gelding Happy My Way had to be put down following surgery. The grade III-winning son of Wilko   had run fifth in the West Virginia Legislature Chairman's Cup Stakes Aug. 1 at Mountaineer Casino, Racetrack & Resort.

"It is with a heavy heart that we share the news of the passing of Happy My Way," said Sagamore president Hunter Rankin in a release. "Following his run in the West Virginia Legislature Chairman's Cup we found he slab-fractured his knee and was immediately sent to surgery. However, the severity of the injury was greater than expected and it could not be repaired. 

The Ohio State Fair races returned to Scioto Downs on Wednesday (Aug. 5) with 2-year-old filly trotters and pacers taking the stage.

The pacers split into three divisions with My Tweed Heart and Kayne Kauffman being the fastest of them all, coming from the back of the pack to win by three-quarters of a length in 1:54. The Carly Atley owned, Jim Dailey trained filly has now earned $42,500 in two starts, both of them wins. My Tweed Heart is by Manhardt, out of the Towner’s Big Guy mare Tweedle D and was purchased out of the Ohio Select Yearling Sale last year for only $2,500.

The other filly pace winners were Angry Shelby (Big Bad John-Tura Hanover) with driver Greg Grismore in 1:54.2 and Big Bad Ashley (Big Bad John-Cruise On Ashley) with driver Dan Noble in 1:55.1.

Take Charge Brandi will cut back in distance, but not in class, when last year's champion 2-year-old filly starts for the first time since January in the $500,000 Longines Test Stakes (gr. I)Saturday, Aug. 8 at Saratoga Race Course.

Willis Horton's Take Charge Brandi extended her win streak to four races when the daughter of Giant's Causeway   opened her 3-year-old season with a narrow victory in the Martha Washington Stakes Jan. 31 at Oaklawn Park. After that win she was sidelined by a non-displaced bone chip in her right knee.

As is the norm for turf races in New York this season, trainer Chad Brown will send out multiple runners to contest the $200,000 Fasig-Tipton Waya Stakes for fillies and mares, upgraded this year to grade III status on the inner turf atSaratoga Race Course Aug. 8. 

Tony Alagna says Lock Down Lindy’s performance in her Hambletonian Oaks elimination last weekend was “a chance to show everybody she’s the filly I thought she was last year.” The trainer hopes she shows off again in Saturday’s $500,000 Hambletonian Oaks final for 3-year-old female trotters at Meadowlands Racetrack.

Lock Down Lindy won her Oaks elimination by two lengths over Wild Honey in a career-best 1:51.4 on Aug. 1. She will start the final from post No. 1, with driver Tim Tetrick, and is 3-1 on the morning line. Wild Honey, with Yannick Gingras driving for trainer Jimmy Takter, is the 5-2 favorite from post two.

The Hambletonian Oaks is Race No. 12 on a jammed-packed stakes card, with the $1.2 million Hambletonian Stakes for 3-year-old trotters as the centerpiece. The two $100,000 Hambletonian eliminations are races eight and nine and the $1 million final is race 13.

String King, the Louisiana-bred gelding who has earned $890,552 for owner-breeder-trainer Charles Craig Smith, will be seeking his third straight win in theLouisiana Cup Turf Classic at Harrah'sLouisiana Downs Casino & Racetrack Aug. 8.

At 1 1/16 miles on grass, the Cup Turf Classic is one of eight races, including seven stakes on the card, with six of those stakes restricted to accredited Louisiana-breds.

The aptly named current king of Louisiana racing, String King has won 16 of 36 starts, with 12 additional placings. Included among his victories are 11 stakes, the most prominent of which is the Col. E. R. Bradley Handicap (gr. IIIT) earlier this year at Fair Grounds Race Track & Slots.

Looking to replicate V. E. Day's success last year in the Curlin Stakes as a springboard to an upset victory in the Travers Stakes (gr. I), a field of seven has been entered for the July 31 test atSaratoga Race Course.

The $100,000 Curlin, at 1 1/8 miles, is limited to 3-year-olds which have not won graded stakes over a mile in 2015. It has been carded as the fourth race on the 10-race Friday card at the Spa.

Trainer Todd Pletcher will be represented by two starters, including recent Long Branch Stakes winner Stanford, owned by Stonestreet Stables, Susan Magnier, Michael Tabor, Derrick Smith. A $550,000 purchase from the 2014 Barretts March sale of 2-year-olds in training, Stanford broke his maiden at Monmouth Park before moving right into graded stakes company. In last year's Saratoga Special (gr. II), the son of Malibu Moon   bobbled at the start and encountered a difficult trip before finishing sixth. 

Jimmy Takter will try to become the sixth trainer in harness racing history to win the Hambletonian Stakes in back-to-back years when he sends five horses into Saturday’s 90th edition of the trotting classic for 3-year-olds at Meadowlands Racetrack.

Mission impossible? No. But standing in his way could be Mission Brief.

Takter’s Pinkman is the 8-5 morning line favorite in the first of two $100,000 Hambletonian eliminations Saturday at the Meadowlands. Mission Brief, who is trying to become the first female trotter to win the Hambletonian since Continentalvictory in 1996, is the 6-5 choice in the second division.

Two horses enter Saturday’s $1.2 million Hambletonian Stakes at Meadowlands Racetrack having already posted victories at the Big M on Hambletonian Day -- colt Centurion ATM and filly Mission Brief. Centurion ATM won last year’s Peter Haughton Memorial while Mission Brief captured the Merrie Annabelle, both in world-record-equaling times.

On Saturday the two will compete in the Hambletonian, marking only the second time that the winners of the Meadowlands’ top races for 2-year-old trotters have returned in the same year for the premier event for 3-year-olds. The first occurrence was in 1986 when filly Britelite Lobell and colt Express Ride finished third and fifth, respectively, in the Hambletonian.

Nuncio is the talk of the town in Scandinavia. On Wednesday night (Aug. 5) the 4-year-old trotter returned to action at Solvalla and though he raced for the first time over the 1-5/16th mile distance -- and with shoes round -- he managed to beat the favorite Daley Lovin by a half-length.

Nuncio was timed in 1:54.4f (mile rate) and that was a new Swedish record for 4-year-old foreign-bred totters. Magic Tonight, who races Saturday afternoon at the Meadowlands in the Cashman Memorial, had the old record at 1:55.3f (mile rate).

Nuncio returned to racing after one month off and he didn’t get the best trip of the day.

Fanticola got the proverbial monkey off her back last time out, earning her first graded score in the Royal Heroine Stakes (gr. IIT), and will look to continue her success in the John C. Mabee Stakes (gr. IIT) Aug. 8 at Del Mar.

Before the one-mile Royal Heroine atSanta Anita Park June 27, the speedy Canadian-bred mare trained by Phil D'Amato had two heartbreaking losses in the Santa Barbara Handicap (gr. IIIT) April 18 and Gamely Stakes (gr. IT) May 25.

In the Santa Barbara, fellow Mabee entrant Queen of The Sand caught the front-running 5-year-old mare at the wire to win by a nose, and in the Gamely, it was Hard Not to Like who skimmed the rail to catch Fanticola by neck.

With a slew of early-blooming 2-year-olds in his stable, it's no surprise Doug O'Neill has two prominent runners entered in Southern California's first graded race for young horses in the $200,000 Best Pal Stakes (gr. II) at Del Mar Aug. 8.

Found Money and Nyquist, both owned by Reddam Racing, enter the Best Pal without a loss.

A Square Eddie   homebred for Reddam, Found Money broke his maiden at first asking May 15 at Santa Anita Park, then turned around five weeks later to take the Santa Anita Juvenile Stakes by an impressive 1 3/4 lengths over stablemate Mrazek, another son of Square Eddie. The races were at 4 1/2 and 5 1/2 furlongs, respectively, and he'll stretch out to 6 1/2 for the first time in the Best Pal, but so will the rest of the six-colt field.

With a slew of early-blooming 2-year-olds in his stable, it's no surprise Doug O'Neill has two prominent runners entered in Southern California's first graded race for young horses in the $200,000 Best Pal Stakes (gr. II) at Del Mar Aug. 8.

Found Money and Nyquist, both owned by Reddam Racing, enter the Best Pal without a loss.

A Square Eddie   homebred for Reddam, Found Money broke his maiden at first asking May 15 at Santa Anita Park, then turned around five weeks later to take the Santa Anita Juvenile Stakes by an impressive 1 3/4 lengths over stablemate Mrazek, another son of Square Eddie. The races were at 4 1/2 and 5 1/2 furlongs, respectively, and he'll stretch out to 6 1/2 for the first time in the Best Pal, but so will the rest of the six-colt field.

Stonestreet Stable's Hillaby, the beaten favorite last time out in the Sweet Briar Too Stakes, figures to bounce back in her second start of the year Aug. 8 in the $150,000 Seaway Stakes (Can-III) atWoodbine.

Hillaby, a daugher of Distorted Humor  —Sealy Hill, by Point Given  , won last year's Bessarabian Stakes (Can-II) at the Seaway's seven-furlong distance. She returned off a seven-month break July 1 in the Sweet Briar Too, dropping a three-quarter length decision to Endless Light. Sealy Hill was Canada's 2007 Horse of the Year while taking Canada's filly Triple Crown.

Hillaby continues to train strongly for Mark Casse, with a 1:00 3/5 five-furlong move Aug. 1. She was bred by Eugene Melnyk and was a $500,000 purchase by Stonestreet Stables last year during Melnyk's dispersal as part of the Fasig-Tipton Kentucky July Horses of Racing Age sale. She's a four-time winner from eight starts and is three-for-five over the local surface.

As advertised, Parx Racing will greatly increase purses across the board when it reopens Aug. 29, after a short break that is part of a reduction in racing dates.

The first condition book for Aug. 29-Sept. 22 shows $84,000 open maiden special weight events, up from the current $45,000, and $100,000 open allowance races. The minimum purse of $25,000 is reserved for $10,000 maiden claimers, while an open $5,000 claimer will go for $30,000.

In addition Parx has added several stakes from September to mid-October to go along with the existing mix of graded stakes and Pennsylvania-bred stakes. The period is being called the Parx Racing Festival.

Kaleem Shah's Dortmund will have his training delayed for a week or two because of bruised ribs, trainer Bob Baffert said Aug. 5.

"He was cast the other morning and got scraped up on his head and ribs," Baffert said. "He has some bruised ribs, so it's going to set us back a week or two, hopefully."

Dortmund has worked out twice since relocating to Del Mar for the summer. He drilled three furlongs in :36 1/5 July 21, the fastest of seven works at the distance, and four furlongs in :48 3/5 July 27. 

Grand Circuit action kicks off this Saturday (Aug. 8) at Meadowlands Racetrack with one of the biggest cards of the season. The afternoon program is led by the $1.2 million Hambletonian, the first leg of trotting’s Triple Crown for 3-year-olds.

Other major stakes races to be contested that day are the $500,000 Hambletonian Oaks for 3-year-old filly trotters, the $301,500 John Cashman Memorial for older male trotters, the $215,400 U.S. Pacing Championship for older male pacers, the $251,250 Lady Liberty for older pacing mares, the 181,450 Fresh Yankee for older trotting mares, the $319,400 Cane Pace, the first leg of Pacing’s Triple Crown for 3-year-olds, the $109,500 Shady Daisy for 3-year-old pacing fillies, the $349,850 Peter Haughton Memorial for 2-year-old colt trotters, and the $389,450 Jim Doherty Memorial for 2-year-old filly trotters.

Finesse is a quality in short supply given the non-stop racing and betting pressure that surrounds everything we do. Try standing in a betting shop for five minutes.

The cacophony of virtual racing and machine play alone makes it harder to appreciate feature events. But of course when something genuinely special does emerge, as it did with Swift Hoffman’s stunning Betfred Select triumph last Tuesday, it seems all the more important.

Category One winners such as Swift Keith and Viking Jack were run off their feet, while the way he pulled away from Eden The Kid more than justified his connections’ excitement. There was a sense of wonderment from Pat Rosney as he floated the question: might The Hoff be another Ballyregan Bob over six bends?