Friday, July 20, 2012
Contact: NYRA Press Office
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- Summer Front confirmed for Sunday’s $100,000
- Winter Memories scheduled to work out Monday for Diana
- Lopresti chooses G2 Fourstardave for Wise Dan; Successful Dan aiming for Whitney
- Last-out stakes winners Fiddlers Afleet,
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Waterford Stable’s Summer Front, who was cross-entered in Saturday’s Grade 2 Virginia Derby at Colonial Downs and Sunday’s $100,000 Duluth at Saratoga Race Course, will run in the latter race, trainer Christophe Clement confirmed on Friday.
Clement cited the expected thunderstorms in New Kent, Va. as the primary reason for keeping Summer Front, a half-length winner of Belmont Park’s Grade 3 Hill Prince on June 16 last time out in New York.
“The combination of stretching him [from one mile to 1 ¼ miles] and the weather was slightly overwhelming,” said Clement. “The owner wanted to make a decision yesterday about what place to go. We decided to send the horse to
Ramon Dominguez was named to ride Summer Front, who is unbeaten in four starts on grass, in both the Virginia Derby and the one-mile
“If he runs well [on Sunday], we’ll have some other races where he could run this summer,” said Clement. “Ramon will be riding him, which is great, and we’ll go from there.”
From the rail out, the Duluth also drew Film Shot and Howe Great, third and second, respectively, in the Hill Prince; Star Channel, third in Belmont’s London Company overnight stakes on June 29; Lockout, who broke his maiden on dirt on June 16 at Churchill Downs; Gold Megillah, 10th in the James W. Murphy on May 19 at Pimlico; Spring to the Sky, fifth in the Hill Prince; Heavy Breathing, second in the Lamplighter on May 26 at Monmouth Park, and Our Entourage, sixth the Hill Prince. Trainer Graham Motion said via Twitter that Howe Great is more likely to run in the Jersey Derby on Saturday at Monmouth than the
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Two-time graded stakes winner Hungry Island tuned up for the July 28 Grade 1, $600,000 Diana with a 48.85 four-furlong breeze on the
“She went fine and is doing fine,” said Hall of Fame trainer Shug McGaughey. “All things being equal, we’ll run next Saturday.”
“She broke fine [in the Just a Game], but then [John Velazquez] had to ride her to get her into the race,” said McGaughey. “You kind of have got to get her covered up. Nobody was going to beat [Tapitsfly] that day as fast she ran, but I think stretching [Hungry Island] out is going to help her. She’s going to be back [in the field], but she’s got to be back the right way. She had a pretty quick work earlier in the week [prior to the Just a Game], and maybe that took some of the sting out of her.”
McGaughey added that Stuart S. Janney, III’s Hymn Book, the Grade 1 Donn Handicap winner who was runner-up in the Grade 2 Suburban Handicap on July 7, has been confirmed for the Grade 1 Whitney Invitational Handicap on August 4 and will work an “easy half” on Saturday. Point of Entry, victorious in last Saturday’s Grade 1 Man o’ War at
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Winter Memories, whose dramatic victory in the Grade 2 Lake George last summer was one of the more memorable races of the summer, is scheduled to breeze Monday as she prepares for her next start in the Grade 1 Diana. Second to front-running Tapitsfly in the Grade 1 Longines Just a Game on Belmont Stakes day last time out, the El Prado filly opened her 4-year-old campaign with a 2 ¼-length win in the Grade 3 Beaugay at
“She’s doing great,” said trainer Jimmy Toner of Winter Memories, who is owned by the Phillips Racing Partnership. “Hopefully she can get the meet off to a good start.”
In addition to
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Trainer Charles Lopresti only has five horses on the grounds, but two of them rank among the top runners in training.
Lopresti, in his third meet based at Saratoga, is pointing 5-year-old Wise Dan toward the Grade 2, $500,000 Fourstardave Handicap, a one-mile turf race on August 11. His 6-year-old Successful Dan will run in the Grade 1, $750,000 Whitney Handicap, a 1 1/8-mile dirt race and one of the marquee events of the meet, on August 4.
Choosing objectives would look complicated, considering Wise Dan finished second in his most recent start – on the dirt – last month in the Grade 1 Stephen Foster at Churchill Downs, beaten on the line by Ron the Greek. Yet, Lopresti wants to keep his aces apart, and Wise Dan is as flexible as they come, having run in the Breeders’ Cup Sprint, winning the Grade 2 Firecracker at a mile on grass at Churchill and placing in top company on dirt. His victory in the Grade 3 Ben Ali in April at Keeneland earned a 117 Beyer Speed Figure, the highest ever on a synthetic track.
“He ran a great race in the Firecracker, a great race in the Ben Ali and I wanted to watch him work over the grass [at Saratoga], and I think he’s a better mover on the grass,” said Lopresti after sending Wise Dan out Friday morning to a five-furlong grass work in 1:02.76 and change under exercise rider Damien Rock. “Successful Dan is doing well and Wise Dan is doing well and I want to keep them apart.”
Lopresti’s primary base is at Keeneland, where he has approximately 20 horses in the care of his wife, Amy. Thirty more are on his farm in
Successful Dan has been no slouch himself, having won five of his past seven starts, including a victory two starts back in the Grade 2 Alysheba in which he earned a 110 Beyer Speed Figure.
“We breezed him at Keeneland, and I’ll work him here the next couple days,” Lopresti said. “We galloped him a couple miles today [Friday]. He’s coming off that good race at Prairie Meadows [second to
Lopresti’s other star, the crack turfer Turallure, is on the shelf with bone bruises. “It’s not career-ending,” the trainer said.
Lopresti will send out horses this summer at Ellis Park and Presque Isle, but he plans on spending the summer at
“It’s more of what a racetrack is supposed to be like,” he said. “Horses that come up here from Keeneland, they love it.”
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With two Kentucky Derbies, one Preakness and a pair of Belmont Stakes victories to his credit, Hall of Famer Nick Zito may be best known as a trainer of Classic horses. But as he’s emphasized with Grade 1 winner Jackson Bend, his training style suits sprinters as well. So it’s not surprising that owner Fred Brei has shipped his homebred 3-year-old
“I had Mr. Greeley, I had a lot of good sprinters,” said Zito. “Mr. Greeley was as good a sprinter as there was. Over the years I always maintained trying to get distance horses, trying to get Classic horses, but you know, Najran still holds the track record for a mile at
Conditioned in Florida by Stanley Gold – who trained Jackson Bend early in 2011 before he was sent back to Zito last summer – Fort Loudon won his first graded stakes on July 7, when he prevailed by neck over 2-5 favorite Trinniberg in the Grade 3 Carry Back at Calder Race Course.
“He’s talented,” said Zito of the Awesome of Course colt, who has won three straight sprints at Calder after an unsuccessful stint on the Triple Crown trail. “Fred breeds a good horse and he proves it time in and time out. Whatever his methods are, they work. I guess you could say they’re from the wrong side of the tracks, the other side of the tracks, but they wind up beating everybody, so it sounds good to me. The
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Monday’s $100,000 Evan Shipman for New York-breds attracted seven entries, led by last-out stakes winners Fiddlers Afleet and Johannesburg Smile.
Fiddlers Afleet, who has raced in Kentucky, Louisiana, and Southern California in the past two years, returned to New York to win the Chasin’ Wimmin’overnight stakes by 7 ¼ lengths on July 6 at Belmont Park his first start for trainer David Jacobson. The 6-year-old Gary Barber color-bearer will stretch out from six furlongs to 1 1/8 miles in the Evan Shipman.
Javier Castellano was named to ride Fiddlers Afleet from post position 2.
Johannesburg Smile led the field from gate to wire in
Cornelio Velasquez has the call aboard Johannesburg Smile from post 4.
Looking to make it four in a row is Lunar Victory, a Juddmonte Farms runner who was 3-1-0 in four starts on Aqueduct’s inner track since coming to the
Lunar Victory will leave from post 7 with Junior Alvarado in the irons.
The field also includes Good Karma, Pure Attitude, Mineswept, and Sailmate.
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