Racing News

Siena Farm's homebred Isabella Sings, a winner of the faster division of the July 26 Little Silver Stakes at 1 1/16 miles on the Monmouth Park turf, figures to add her voice to the outcome of the Boiling Springs Stakes (gr. IIIT). The $100,000 race for 3-year-old fillies "down the shore" drew a well-matched field of 10.

There are plenty of angles for the Boiling Springs: Isabella Sings has a win over the course for trainer Todd Pletcher; trainer Chad Brown has a trio in the line-up; trainer Graham Motion has a pair including import Jellicle Ball; and Pine Needles, trained by turf master Christophe Clement, was a close second to Isabella Sings as the favorite in the Little Silver.

This Week: Yonkers Trot and Messenger Stakes, Yonkers Raceway, Yonkers, N.Y.; Canadian Pacing Derby, Metro, She’s A Great Lady, Simcoe Stakes, and Champlain Stakes, Mohawk Racetrack, Campbellville, Ontario; American-National, Balmoral Park, Crete, Ill.; and Miss Versatility, Tioga Downs, Nichols, N.Y.

South African champion Wild One has died after complications following surgery. The gelding, who was recently crowned the country's champion stayer, was 6 at the time of his death.

Bred by the Scott Bros, the Sean Phillips-owned Wild One cost R95,000 (US$7,060) as a yearling but would go on to earn over R2.1 million (US$157,132).

Originally trained by Jeff Freedman before being moved to champion trainer Mike de Kock in May of 2014, Wild One raced from ages 3 to 6, with his four wins including two at group level.

While he has struggled since last year's front-running victory in the Presque Isle Mile, the connections of Decisive Moment hope a return to the Pennsylvania track helps the veteran runner in this year's edition of the $200,000 race Sunday, Sept. 6 at Presque Isle Downs.

Just For Fun Stable's Decisive Moment led every step in winning last year's Presque Isle Mile by a head over Allie's Event, who also is entered this year. Since that effort, Decisive Moment has lost eight straight races but Sunday's test for 3-year-olds and older marks the first start at Presque Isle and first start on a synthetic surface since that race for the 7-year-old son of With Distinction.

Fans packed the race track in Saratoga Springs, N.Y. and tuned to NBC in big numbers this past Saturday, Aug. 29, for American Pharoah's second-place finish in the Travers Stakes (gr. I).

Viewership for the NBC telecast peaked at 3.4 million viewers between 5:45-6:05 p.m. EDT, as Triple Crown winner American Pharoah was edged in the stretch run by Keen Ice.

Compared to American Pharoah's victory in NBC's one-hour William Hill Haskell Invitational Stakes (gr. I) telecast Aug. 2, viewership for the 5-6 pm EDT hour of the Travers Stakes increased 32% (2.5 million for Travers; 1.9 million for Haskell).

One of the first rules of Thoroughbred racing is "they all get beat," so while there was a collective groan when Keen Ice rolled past American Pharoah in front of 50,000 at Saratoga Race Course and on a nationally televised broadcast Aug. 29 in the Travers Stakes (gr. I), we shouldn't have been shocked.

American Pharoah joins some select company in losing at the Spa, and his defeat can only add to the mystique of the upstate New York track's nickname "Graveyard of Champions." Two other Triple Crown winners went down to defeat at the Spa in the '70s. In 1973 Secretariat lost to Onion in the Whitney Stakes (gr. II) and in 1978 Affirmed's number was taken down from first to second after jockey Laffit Pincay Jr. came in on Alydar heading to the far turn.

Another Triple Crown winner Gallant Fox dropped the Travers to Jim Dandy in 1930, and, of course, Upset topped Man o' War in the 1919 Sanford Memorial.

Hayley Turner, the most successful female jockey in British racing history, has announced that she will retire in November.

According to the Racing Post, Turner, 32, attributed at least part of the decision on the difficult time she’s had regaining her confidence after a spill at Doncaster in 2013. Turner was riding the James Fanshawe-trained Seal Of Approval in the Park Hill Stakes when the accident occurred. She sustained back and pelvic injuries as a result of the accident.

Turner was a graduate of the Northern Racing College, and rode her first winner in 2000. During a 13-year association with trainer Michael Bell, she became the first woman to claim the leading apprentice title.

Victor Espinoza will trade his jockey silks for a pair of dancing shoes this fall.

Espinoza, who rode American Pharoah to the first Triple Crown in 37 years this summer, is among those who will star in the 21st season of "Dancing with the Stars," ABC announced Wednesday.

Espinoza has more 3,000 wins, but none were bigger than the Kentucky Derby-Preakness-Belmont Stakes sweep that made American Pharoah the 12th horse to capture the Triple Crown and first since Affirmed did it in 1978.

Ever since the beginning, Alan Katz and his brothers have enjoyed watching JK Endofanera.

“He’s been a pleasure from Day One,” said Katz, who owns the 4-year-old male pacer with brothers Ron and Steve under the 3 Brothers Stables moniker. “He hasn’t put in too many bad races. He’s just a good horse. He came back good this year and he’s getting better as the year goes on, which is a good thing.”

JK Endofanera will be looking for his third consecutive win when he faces nine rivals in Saturday’s C$685,000 Canadian Pacing Derby at Mohawk Racetrack. Last week, he won his CPD elimination by 1-3/4 lengths over favorite Shamballa in 1:50.1 over a track labeled “good” because of rain.

Fresh off an impressive group I triumph at Royal Ascot, Undrafted tops the 10-horse field entered in the $300,000 More Than Ready Mile Stakes on the opening-day card at Kentucky Downs Sept. 5.

The More Than Ready Mile, for 3-year-olds and up, is one of three $300,000 stakes on the 10-race card offering more than $1.5 million in purses. With the lucrative purses infused by revenues from the popular historical racing electronic gaming, 140 horses were entered for the 10 races on the card.

Many of the top Pennsylvania-bred runners of the last few years will compete in four stakes, one of which will have two divisions, Sept. 5 at Parx Racing.

The “Pennsylvania’s Day at the Races” card will offer 12 races, all for state-bred horses. Each stakes will carry a purse of $100,000; the Mrs. Penny Stakes for fillies and mares on the grass was split into two $100,000 divisions. Nominations were taken for the $100,000 Banjo Picker for older sprinters but the race isn’t on the program.

Adam Sample and Jalin Racing Stables’ Page McKenney (byEavesdropper), who got back on the winning track in the Robellino Stakes for state-breds at one mile on the grass Aug. 22 at Hollywood Casino at Penn National Race Course, returns to dirt for the Roanoke Stakes for 3-year-olds and up at 1 1/16 miles. The Mary Eppler trainee finished second or third in three graded stakes this spring and will be ridden as usual by Horacio Karamanos.

Gleneagles, the four-time group I-winning son of Galileo, is being aimed at the Breeders' Cup Classic (gr. I) and a possible showdown with Triple Crown winner American Pharoah at KeenelandOct. 31.

Aidan O'Brien, who trains the talented 3-year-old colt for the Coolmore Stud connections of Michael Tabor, Mrs. John Magnier, and Derrick Smith, said Gleneagles will run in the Sept. 12 QIPCO Irish Champion Stakes (Ire-I), contingent upon the turf being suitable, and if not that outing then the Queen Elizabeth II Stakes (Eng-I) at Ascot in October.

"His end-of-season target is the Breeders' Cup Classic at Keeneland where he may face American Pharoah," O'Brien said in a statement Sept. 1.