Wednesday, August 06 2008

SARATOGA NOTES; Wednesday, August 6, 2008

Saratoga Race Course got exciting news Tuesday afternoon when Jess Jackson of Stonestreet Farms announced that the next race for 2007 Horse of the Year Curlin will be the 55th running of the Grade 1, $500,000 Woodward for three-year-olds and up at nine furlongs on Saturday, August 30.

For years a fixture at Belmont Park’s Fall Championship Meet, where its victors included four-time winner Forego (1974-’77)’ three-time winner Kelso (1961-’63) and two-time winners Sword Dancer (1959-’60), Slew o’Gold (1983-’84), Cigar (1995-’96) and Lido Palace (2001-’02), the Woodward was moved to Saratoga in 2006, where Premium Tap (2006) and Lawyer Ron (2007) were winners. Curlin later defeated Lawyer Ron in Belmont Park’s Grade 1 Jockey Club Gold Cup and won the Breeders’ Cup Classic in the slop at Monmouth Park, defeating a field that included Lawyer Ron.

MIXED UP OUT OF SMITHWICK

Hall of Fame rainer Jonathan Sheppard indicated that he would scratch Mixed Up from Thursday¹s $80,000 A.P. Smithwick Memorial (Gr. II) at Saratoga Race Course. The morning-line favorite at 3-1, Mixed Up developed a leg injury after a workout Monday on the Oklahoma training track¹s turf course.

“It¹s been sort of a nagging problem,² said Sheppard of the high suspensory ligament. “When he had that fast work (5 furlongs in 1:00 2/5) the other day it flared up again. We had it scanned and they said `if you like this horse you probably shouldn¹t run.’ Well, we like him so we¹ll give him some time.”

SPLENDID SOLUTION COULD STEP UP IN MONMOUTH OAKS

OCEANPORT, N.J. * Splendid Solution, who had an eye-catching breeze here Tuesday, is a possibility for Saturday’s 84th running of the $150,000 Monmouth Oaks (G3), trainer Chad Brown reports * Brown and his wife, Terrill, welcomed a new addition to the family Tuesday with the birth of a daughter * Eddie Broome is nearing the 1,000 career victory mark, entering Wednesday’s card with 996.

The $150,000 Monmouth Oaks (G3), which will be run for the 84th time on Saturday, has a rich history. It is the oldest Oaks run in America (first run in 1871, four years before the Kentucky Oaks), and its roster of winners includes six Hall of Fame fillies and 17 champions of the 19th and 20th Centuries. And this century, it’s been a highly entertaining race as well.

Maryland Racing News - Wednesday, August 6

DE FRANCIS DASH AMONG STAKES RACES SUSPENDED DURING FALL MEET

The Maryland Jockey Club and Maryland Thoroughbred Horsemen’s Association (MTHA) have agreed to slash the stakes schedule, including the Grade I Frank J. De Francis Dash, for the 2008 fall racing campaign at Laurel Park as the industry faces a shortfall in the purse account by the end of the calendar year. The only stakes races on the calendar will be state-bred or state sired stakes, headlined by the 23rd running of the Maryland Million on Saturday, October 4.

PRECIOUS KITTEN, MAURALAKANA, CICEROLE FACE LOCAL HEROINE DREAMING OF ANNA IN STAR-STUDDED BEVERLY D

ARLINGTON HEIGHTS, Ill. (August 6, 2008) – Multiple graded stakes winners Lael Stables’ Precious Kitten, Robert Scarborough’s Mauralakana and locally-based Eclipse Award champion Frank Calabrese’s Dreaming of Anna plus the well-regarded European invader Rothschild Family’s Cicerole are the headline attractions in Saturday’s Grade I Beverly D. Stakes.

The $750,000 race, the sister race to the Grade I Arlington Million, will be run at a distance of a mile and three-sixteenths on turf. In addition to its lucrative purse, the Beverly D. offers the winner an automatic starting position in the $2 million Emirates Airline Breeders’ Cup Filly & Mare Turf under the Breeders’ Cup Challenge “Win and You’re In” format, with the winner of each of the Challenge races automatically qualifying for the corresponding divisional race in the 14-race, $25.5 million Breeders' Cup World Championships to be held at Santa Anita Park Oct. 24-25.

Barn Notes: Wednesday, August 06, 2008

SR. HENRY BREEZES ON TURF WEDNESDAY FOR SATURDAY’S SECRETARIAT

Barry Golden and Peter Callahan’s Sr. Henry breezed three-eighths in :39.60 over an Arlington turf course rated “good” shortly after 9 o’clock Wednesday morning in preparation for Arlington’s Grade I Secretariat Stakes this Saturday.

“We were just giving him a little blowout,” said trainer Mike Stidham, who had his chief assistant Hilary Pridham aboard for the move. “We got what we wanted.”

Sr. Henry finished second – beaten two and a quarter lengths by Tizdejavu – in Arlington’s Grade II American Derby at last asking July 12 but was overlooked in the wagering that day.

WORLDS COLLIDE AS EUROPEANS INVADE SATURDAY’S ARLINGTON MILLION

ARLINGTON HEIGHTS, Ill. (August 6, 2008) –Globetrotting Archipenko, with graded stakes victories on three continents this year, will try to add North America to that list when he faces seven rivals in Saturday’s 25th renewal of Grade I Arlington Million at Chicago’s showcase oval.

Named in honor of a Ukrainian sculptor who exemplified the Cubist movement of the early 1900s, Archipenko is cut like a statue – small in size but perfectly balanced – while carrying the large heart of a champion within his diminutive frame.

WESLEY TURNS IT UP IN HALL OF FAME STAKES

When trainer Mark Hennig elected to switch Wesley to the turf in June after the several disappointing outings on dirt, the result was a rousing come-from-behind victory in an allowance at Belmont Park.

And when Hennig decided to send the 3-year-old son of El Prado directly into stakes company in his next start, the result was exactly the same. Under a ground-saving ride from Javier Castellano, Wesley rallied through the stretch with a powerful late kick to take the 24th running of the Grade 2, $150,000 National Museum of Racing Hall of Fame Stakes Monday at Saratoga Race Course.

SAN MATEO COUNTY FAIR TO HOST FINAL 10 DAYS OF RACING AT HISTORIC BAY MEADOWS

SAN MATEO -- The San Mateo County Fair will host the final 10 days of horse racing at historic Bay Meadows when it conducts its 2008 meeting, a two-week session that begins Wednesday and continues through Sunday, Aug. 17.

Post time is 1:45 p.m. and racing will be presented Wednesday through Sunday. Grandstand gates open at 10 a.m. daily; club house and turf club gates at 11:30 a.m. weekdays and 11 a.m. weekends.

The Turf Club, which in past years was open only on weekends during the fair meeting, will be open every day during this final fair season of racing.

Arlignton International Festival of Racing Barn Notes: Tues. Aug. 5

ARCHIPENKO BREEZES ON SOFT ARLINGTON TURF

World traveler Archipenko, projected favorite in Saturday’s Grade I Arlington Million, accomplished a pedestrian seven-furlong breeze over Arlington’s turf course at 8:30 a.m. Tuesday, picking up the pace to get the last quarter in :27 with regular South African jockey Kevin Shea in the irons.

Owned by Sheikh Mohammed Bin Khalifa Al Maktoum and Dr. A. H. Parker, Archipenko’s last two starts this year consist of an impressive tally in Hong Kong’s Group I Queen Elizabeth II Cup last April 27 and another strong victory in Great Britain’s Group II Summer Mile Stakes July 12 at Ascot.

Tuesday, August 05 2008

A ROSE AMONG THORNS, CLASSY SHADOW STEPS UP IN SMITHWICK

Lilith Boucher wanted to train Class Shadow from the moment she saw her.

Now that Classy Shadow has proved herself in her last start, the 4-year-old Rock Point filly will take on eight experienced males and a reliable mare when she makes her Saratoga Race Course debut in Thursday’s 13th running of the Grade 2, $80,00-added A.P. Smithwick Memorial Steeplechase at two miles and a sixteenth.

It is tough enough that she will be facing William Pape’s 9-year-old Mixed Up, the 2007 Smithwick winner, but she will also have to contend with The Fields Stable’s Guelph, a 7-year-old Sky Classic mare who is on a two-race winning streak. Those horses are trained by Hall of Famer Jonathan Sheppard and Tom Voss, respectively.

THREE CHIMNEYS FARM TO SPONSOR HISTORIC HOPEFUL STAKE

Two prestigious names in the world of thoroughbred racing are now linked as Three Chimneys Farm has become the title sponsor of the Grade 1, $250,000 Three Chimneys Hopeful Stakes. The most significant stakes for two-year-olds run at the New York Racing Association’s Saratoga Race Course, the seven-furlong Three Chimneys Hopeful will be run for the 104th time on Labor Day, Monday, September. 1.

“The Hopeful Stakes has long held a unique place on the Saratoga stakes schedule, as the winner is automatically stamped as the crop’s first classic hopeful,” NYRA President and CEO Charles Hayward said. “Three Chimneys Farm has such strong associations with classic-type horses, so we’re thrilled they’ve extended those associations to include the Three Chimneys Hopeful.”