Category: Horse Racing News

Saturday’s Cross Country Pick 5 Features Graded Stakes From Saratoga, Del Mar

The New York Racing Association, Inc. (NYRA) will host a Cross Country Pick 5 featuring four graded stakes overall and three Grade 1s between historic Saratoga Race Course and Del Mar on Saturday.

Live coverage will be available with Saratoga Live on FOX Sports and MSG Networks. Free Equibase past performances for the Cross Country Pick 5 sequence are now available for download at https://www.nyra.com/saratoga/racing/cross-country-wagers.

Saratoga will start the wager with a full field of juveniles going 1 1/16 miles on the inner turf in Race 5 at 3:28 p.m. Eastern. The maiden contest will feature a pair of entrants for Hall of Fame trainer Bill Mott in Lease and Thorn, while fellow Hall of Fame conditioner Mark Casse will send out American Diamond from the outermost post 10. Winfromwithin, trained by Todd Pletcher, will break from post 8.

The day's feature race at the Spa will comprise the second leg, as the Casse-trained Got Stormy will look to repeat in the Grade 1, $400,000 Fourstardave in Race 9 at 5:46 p.m. Last year, Got Stormy became the first female to win the Fourstardave, setting a track record for the one-mile inner turf course test by completing the course in 1:32 flat. This year, she drew post 4 with Tyler Gaffalione aboard as she competes against a talented field that includes Eclipse Award-winner Uni, who is one of four runners for trainer Chad Brown along with Raging Bull, Valid Point and Without Parole. Mott will send out a pair in Chewing Gum and Casa Creed. The Fourstardave is a “Win and You're In” qualifier to the Grade 1 Breeders' Cup Mile in November at Keeneland.

Del Mar will feature the wager's final three races with three graded stakes, starting with the Grade 2, $200,000 Del Mar Handicap for 3-year-olds and up going 1 3/8 miles on the turf in Race 7 at 8 p.m. United, who ran in the Grade 1 Breeders' Cup Turf last year, will compete in a race that will offer the winner an automatic berth in the Grade 1 Breeders' Cup Turf. Combatant won a Grade 1 in March when he captured the Santa Anita Handicap over the main track. The 11-horse field also features Oscar Dominguez, the Irish bred who won the 1 ½-mile Grade 2 Hollywood Turf Cup.

The Grade 1 action continues in the fourth leg in the $250,000 Del Mar Oaks for 3-year-old fillies going 1 1/8 miles on the turf in Race 9 at 9 p.m. Laura's Light, trained by Peter Miller, won the Grade 3 Honeymoon at the same distance. She will face an 11-horse field that includes European horses such as Miss Extra, winner of the Group 2 Prix de Sandringham in France, and the French-bred Neige Blanche, who captured the Group 3 Prix Cleopatre in her native country.

The finale will be the Grade 1, $500,000 Pacific Classic in Race 10 at 9:30 p.m. Maximum Security, who won the Eclipse Award last year as Champion 3-year-old, is 2-for-2 to start his 4-year-old campaign after winning the Saudi Cup and the Grade 2 San Diego Handicap last out. The horse who crossed the wire first in last year's Grade 1 Kentucky Derby before being disqualified and placed 17th and has won four graded stakes since the “Run for the Roses,” taking the Grade 1 Haskell at Monmouth Park, the Grade 3 Bold Ruler at Belmont Park and the Grade 1 Cigar Mile Handicap in December at Aqueduct Racetrack. Now trained by Hall of Famer Bob Baffert, Maximum Security is one of six contenders in the 1 ¼-mile test, which includes Midcourt, Higher Power, Mirinaque, Dark Vader and Sharp Samurai.

The minimum bet for the multi-track, multi-race wager is 50 cents. Wagering on the Cross Country Pick 5 is also available on ADW platforms and at simulcast facilities across the country. Every week will feature a mandatory payout of the net pool.

The Cross Country Pick 5 will continue each Saturday throughout the year. For more information, visit NYRABets.com.

Cross Country Pick 5 – Saturday, August 22:
Leg 1 – Saratoga, Race 5: (3:28 p.m.)
Leg 2 – Saratoga, Race 9: G1 Fourstardave (5:46 p.m.)
Leg 3 – Del Mar, Race 7: G2 Del Mar Handicap (8:00 p.m.)
Leg 4 – Del Mar, Race 9: G1 Del Mar Oaks (9:00 p.m.)
Leg 5 – Del Mar, Race 10: G1 Pacific Classic (9:30 p.m.)

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Cox Hoping To Send Warrior’s Charge From Iselin To Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile

Trainer Brad Cox is doing his best to focus solely on Saturday's $200,000 Grade 3 Philip H. Iselin Stakes at Monmouth Park for Warrior's Charge, but it's not always easy when the ultimate goal – the Breeders' Cup Dirt Mile – is this close.

Warrior's Charge, fourth in the Grade 1 Met Mile in his last start and a close-up fourth in the Preakness a year ago, heads a compact field of six for the 85th edition of the Iselin, the feature on a 14-race card.

“Our goal, our dream I guess you could call it, is the Breeders' Cup (Dirt) Mile (Nov. 7 at Keeneland),” said Cox. “I don't know if this would be his last race for that. We probably have some options.

“But I'm a one race at a time guy. I want to get through Saturday before we pick out our next couple of races. The goal is definitely to get this horse to the Breeders' Cup (Dirt) Mile and I feel like Monmouth Park's course, the way it plays, the mile and a sixteenth around two turns, would be something he will like. So we'll see.”

A 4-year-old Florida-bred son of Munnings-Battling Brook by Broken Vow, Warrior's Charge launched his 2020 campaign with a win in the Grade 3 Razorback at Oaklawn on Feb. 17. He followed that by finishing second in the Grade 2 Oaklawn Handicap before being beaten just two lengths in the Met Mile at Belmont Park on July 4 in his last start.

Warrior's Charge sports a 4-1-3 from 10 career starts with earnings of $715,310.

“I thought he ran huge,” Cox said of the Met Mile. “I thought it was a big effort. He ran against some Grade 1 horses and he showed he can compete. I was very pleased with the effort and he bounced out of it in good shape.

“He has definitely matured. I think he has shown in his races this year that he has stepped up and run big against some of the best horses in the country.”

The speedy Warrior's Charge looks the most likely candidate on paper to control the pace with his front-running style, though the Grant Forster-trained Pirate's Punch is also a speedy type.

“Obviously we have a great jock for Monmouth Park in Paco Lopez,” said Cox. “So I feel comfortable with the set up. If all goes well and he gets a good, clean trip he will definitely be a factor.

“Bal Harbour is obviously a nice horse. Pirate's Punch is a nice horse as well. It's not a big field but it's a very competitive race. It's a group of horses that are very well matched.”

Bal Harbour, who has competed in graded stakes company his last eight starts, is trained by Gregg Sacco, who also supplemented multiple Grade 1 winner Mind Control to the race. Sacco said a decision on whether Mind Control will go in the Iselin Stakes will be made on Friday. The 4-year-old colt has tried two turns just once in his 14-race career, finishing seventh in the Breeders' Cup Juvenile in 2018.

“He's ready if that's the direction the owners want to go,” Sacco said.

Mind Control last raced in the Grade 1 Vanderbilt at six furlongs at Saratoga on July 25, finishing third.

Warrior's Charge, owned by Ten Strike Racing and Madaket Stables, will ship to Monmouth Park from Churchill Downs on Friday morning, Cox said, with the trainer's 21-year-old son Bryson handling the horse when he arrives in New Jersey.

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Coolmore Australia’s Virtual Stallion Parade Features Justify, American Pharoah

With the Southern Hemisphere breeding season kicking off and travel clamped down on a global scale, Coolmore Australia has released an hour-long “virtual stallion parade” to show off its 2020 roster, including Triple Crown-winning shuttle stallions Justify and American Pharoah.

The video series features virtual inspections and walk videos of each stallion, along with interviews with several prominent figures within the Coolmore organization, and surrounding the careers of the individual horses.

The Coolmore staff is represented by some of its highest-ranking members, including John Magnier, M.V. Magnier, David Wachman, and James Bester.

Justify, in particular, got a spotlight during the virtual stallion parade, featuring a conversation with the aforementioned Coolmore staff discussing the 2018 Triple Crown winner, as well as trainer Bob Baffert and Ashford Stud manager Dermot Ryan.

“It's so unusual to win a Triple Crown,” John Magnier said. “People have to realize there's only been 13 of them ever, and this fella is an unbeaten Triple Crown winner. You could be talking about he could be a Northern Dancer or he could be a Sunday Silence. He could be the next big thing.

“The world will get fixed sooner than everybody thinks, and when these Justify-type animals go to the yearling sales down there, the international people are going to be interested in Justifys and things of that nature,” he continued. “The way this game is going, the people that are going to survive, I believe, are the people that have the international outlook.”

For both Justify and American Pharoah, Magnier said their underlying appeal to turf racing made them priorities to add to the stallion roster, even though neither raced on the surface themselves, because that perceived affinity for the grass opens them up to greater international success in parts of the world where turf is the dominant surface, such as Europe and Australia.

“It's probably far more likely that Justify should get grass horses than American Pharoah,” Magnier said. “That was the reason that we just had to have him. He shouted for grass, really, and all of his racing was done on the dirt.”

American Pharoah, the winner of the 2015 Triple Crown, has already proven Coolmore's turf hunch to be true, as the sire of prominent grass runners including 2019 Breeders' Cup Juvenile Turf Sprint winner Four Wheel Drive. However, Magnier was confident the surface success would balance itself out over time.

“It's only a matter of time before American Pharoah will get a good dirt horse,” he said. “He's had some success in Japan.”

Baffert echoed Magnier's sentiment that Justify could have had it in him to compete on the turf, if he had been called on to do so.

“People have always asked me, 'You need to bring a horse to Ascot,'” Baffert said. “Now, that would have been the horse to take to Ascot. I think he would have been just phenomenal. But, the really great ones, they can run on anything…He brought his track with him.”

Noting Justify's imposing physical and penchant for getting to the lead early, Baffert said Justify probably could have succeeded on the opposite side of the surface and distance spectrum, as well.

“I came from the Quarter Horse world, and believe me, he could have won the All American Futurity, a $2-million race,” he said. “He's that quick. He's that versatile that he's quick on his feet and just gets running really fast. I could have trained him to win an 870 [yard] race.”

Justify's first Northern Hemisphere foals are weanlings of 2020, and Ryan said they're already starting to emulate their sire in terms of their physicals.

“They have that big hip, rear end, and good hind leg,” he said. “That big ass-end, strength, that drives him. That's very dominant in nearly all of them, that rear end and muscle behind.”

The full virtual stallion parade video can be found below, but the landing page to break the show out by individual stallions can be found here.

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