thoroughbred | Horse Racing Free Tips

After Small Setback, Trainer Joe Sharp Will Undergo Another Surgery Wednesday

Trainer Joe Sharp underwent a 10-hour surgery to remove a benign brain tumor in June, but the 35-year-old may have gone back to working at the track a bit too quickly. According to Horse Racing Nation, Sharp had to be admitted to the hospital on July 6, where he spent five days after the diagnoses of “a tear in the skin of the brain that apparently was caused by exertion.”

When a less invasive procedure didn't solve the problem, doctors determined Sharp would require another surgery. He will return to the site of the first surgery, M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, Tx., to undergo the second surgery on Wednesday, this time lasting about three hours. One of his owners, Brad Grady, is sending his private plane to transport the trainer.

“It was really humbling to see how many people reached out and provided help to (wife and former jockey) Rosie (Napravnik) and I,” Sharp told Horse Racing Nation.

“It's sent a message to both of us that we have to slow down,” echoed Napravnik. “Especially at the racetrack, that is so hard to do.”

‘Hope To Provide Some Opportunities’: George Bradvica Taking On New Role As Agent For Brice Blanc

George Bradvica, a fixture at management level positions and in racing offices at Santa Anita, Pomona and Del Mar for over 30 years, is tackling a racetrack job that's new to him with characteristic enthusiasm.

On Wednesday, Bradvica agreed to become the agent for jockey Brice Blanc, beginning at Del Mar.

“I contacted 47 trainers by phone today and I start making the rounds in the backstretch tomorrow,” Bradvica said. “I think Brice is a hell of a rider. He's got a reputation for being better on the turf than dirt which I think is unfounded and I don't believe.

“I think he's very good on either surface and I'm going to promote him, and that idea, and give him representation like he hasn't had before. I know I'm not going to change people's minds on the spot, but I hope to provide some opportunities and then the proof will be in the winning.”

Bradvica said he has been around horses since the age of five. His father and uncle owned ranches in Riverside County and he has early memories of a training center there that was home to trainer Rex Ellsworth where he was allowed to do stable work.

Veterinary school at UC Davis didn't work out, but he earned a degree in economics and was hired by Alan Balch to work at Santa Anita in the early 1980s. As an assistant to Balch he was instrumental in innovations like a nightly TV replay show, park and ride arrangements for fans when the track drew upwards of 80,000 on Big 'Cap Days and assisting in operations as the track served as the main equestrian venue -along with Fairbanks Ranch Country Club near Del Mar – for the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics.

England's Prince Phillip, husband to Queen Elizabeth, was the president of the Federation Equestrian Internationale at the time.

“I met him three times,” Bradvica said. “He said it (1984 Olympics) was the best Equestrian event ever. And I'm pretty sure it was the only one ever to make money.”

Bradvica was the general manager for the race meetings at Pomona, which followed the Del Mar summer session, for 20 years and for the last 13 has been in a similar position for the Surfside Race Place satellite facility on the Del Mar Fairgrounds. During the Del Mar Thoroughbred Club meetings he has worked in the racing office and as a placing judge.

“I've never been a jockey agent, but I've gotten to know a lot of them, as well as trainers from working in the racing office,” Bradvica said. “I think this is a natural fit for me and I'm looking forward to it.”

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Weekend Lineup: Enable, Maximum Security Return To Racing

TVG will be live on site at Del Mar covering a loaded weekend of racing featuring seven stakes races from Friday through Sunday including the Grade 2 San Diego Handicap, which will feature 2019 Eclipse Award winner Maximum Security in his first start since joining the barn of Hall of Fame trainer Bob Baffert.

On Saturday morning, international racing fans can also tune into TVG to watch champion Enable (GB) make a bid for a historic third win in the Group 1 King George VI & Queen Elizabeth Stakes from Ascot. The race is scheduled for 10:35 a.m. ET. The King George VI & Queen Elizabeth Stakes is part of the “Win and You're In” Breeders' Cup Challenge Series and the winner will earn an automatic berth in the Breeders' Cup Turf.

TVG will also be broadcasting racing from Gulfstream Park, Laurel Park, Monmouth Park and more all weekend.

Saratoga Live, the critically-acclaimed and award-winning television program, will feature more than 210 hours of live programming from Saratoga, which runs through September 7. Saratoga Live will appear each racing day beginning at 1 p.m. ET on FOX Sports and MSG Networks and offer full-card coverage of a Saratoga meet offering. The daily schedule can be found at https://www.nyra.com/saratoga/racing/tv-schedule.

Friday July 24

5:46 p.m.—$100,000 Grade 3 Quick Call Stakes at Saratoga Race Course on FS2

A field of eight sophomore colts will assemble for the 11th running of the Quick Call going 5 ½ furlongs over the Mellon turf. Trainer Doug O'Neill will send out three-time stakes winner Fore Left for as he searches for his first triumph on grass. The bay son of Twirling Candy last raced when finishing a distant ninth in the Grade 1 Belmont Stakes to Tiz the Law, which came after a victory in the Group 3 UAE 2000 Guineas at Meydan Racecourse in Dubai. Fore Left has recorded one start over grass, which came in the Grade 3 Cecil DeMille on December 1 at Del Mar at the distance of one mile.

Entries: https://www.equibase.com/static/entry/SAR072420USA9-EQB.html

Saturday July 25

2:03 p.m.—$125,000 Grade 3 Marine Stakes at Woodbine on TVG

A key prep on the road to this year's Queen's Plate, the 1 1/16-mile main track Marine has attracted some noteworthy Canadian-breds hoping for a spot in the Plate starting gate. John Oxley's homebred Lucky Curlin chases his second straight win, this time in the Marine, after a sharp score on June 14 at Woodbine. The Mark Casse trainee, in his ninth career start and first test on the Toronto oval Tapeta, rallied from fifth at the stretch call of the seven-furlong race to win by a length under Kazushi Kimura.

Entries: https://www.equibase.com/static/entry/WO072520CAN3-EQB.html

2:18 p.m.—$200,000 Grade 2 Ballston Spa Stakes at Saratoga Race Course on FS2

Champion Sistercharlie (IRE) will kick off her 2020 campaign in the 32nd running of the Ballston Spa for older fillies and mares going 1 1/16 miles over the Mellon turf course. Trained by Chad Brown and owned by Peter Brant, Sistercharlie has put together a sensational record that includes seven Grade 1 triumphs while boasting $3,662,003 in lifetime earnings. In 2018, the daughter of Myboycharlie (IRE) earned the Eclipse Award for Champion Turf Female after winning all four of her Grade 1 efforts that year. She has not raced since November, finishing third to Iridessa (IRE) in the Breeders' Cup Filly and Mare Turf at Santa Anita.

Entries: https://www.equibase.com/static/entry/SAR072520USA3-EQB.html

4:53 p.m.—$125,000 Grade 3 Selene Stakes at Woodbine on TVG

Ten Broeck Farm's Owlette, a bay daughter of Frac Daddy, goes after her fourth Woodbine stakes crown in the Selene. The Wesley Ward trainee took last year's Shady Well and Victorian Queen, and then added another stakes title to her record with a win in this year's Star Shoot on June 13. Owlette will be tested by six other rivals, including the Casse trio of American Tap, Diamond Sparkles, and Two Sixty.

Entries: https://www.equibase.com/static/entry/WO072520CAN8-EQB.html

6:16 p.m.—$250,000 Grade 1 Alfred G. Vanderbilt Handicap at Saratoga Race Course on FS1

Six-time graded stakes-winner Whitmore will return to historic Saratoga Race Course for the first time since winning the 2018 Grade 1 Forego when the veteran son of Pleasantly Perfect looks to notch his third consecutive victory in the Alfred G. Vanderbilt on Saturday. Whitmore enters the Vanderbilt off back-to-back wins in the Hot Springs – which he captured for the fourth consecutive time – and a three-quarter length score last out in the Grade 3 Count Fleet Sprint in April at Oaklawn Park. Among those he will face is Mr. Amore Stable's Firenze Fire, who has four wins in his last five starts dating to November.

Entries: https://www.equibase.com/static/entry/SAR072520USA10-EQB.html

9 p.m.—$150,000 Grade 2 San Clemente Stakes at Del Mar on TVG

The likely favorite in the $150,000 San Clemente is Gary Barber's Laura's Light, a bay daughter of Constitution who has won four of her six lifetime starts and comes into the turf test off a tally in the Grade 3 Honeymoon Stakes at Santa Anita on May 30. Laura's Light's chief rivals appear to be a pair of stakes winners in Benjamin and Sally Warren's Warren's Showtime, who'll be handled by regular rider Jorge Velez, and the Florida shipper Cheermeister, who is owned by Teresa and David Palmer and gets the saddle services of Victor Espinoza.

Entries: https://www.equibase.com/static/entry/DMR072520USA9-EQB.html

9:30 p.m.—$150,000 Grade 2 San Diego Handicap at Del Mar on TVG

The presence of champion Maximum Security didn't deter the connections of six other horses from entering for the 79th running of the 1 1/16-mile main track event that has often served as a stepping stone to the Grade 1 Pacific Classic. Maximum Security, a 4-year-old son of New Year's Day, enters the race with eight wins in 10 starts and earnings of $11.8 million dollars. Last year the bay colt was first under the wire before becoming the first disqualification in Kentucky Derby history, but posted three subsequent wins to secure the Eclipse Award as 3-year-old champion. In his only 2020 start, Maximum Security won the inaugural $20 million Saudi Cup on February 29 in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

Entries: https://www.equibase.com/static/entry/DMR072520USA10-EQB.html

Sunday July 26

4:23 p.m.—$125,000 Grade 3 Seagram Cup Stakes at Woodbine on TVG

Grade 2 Eclipse Stakes winner Skywire, runner-up Avie's Flatter, and third-place finisher Mr Ritz will reunite when they square off in Sunday's Seagram Cup Stakes. Trainer Josie Carroll will look to win her second straight Seagram crown when she sends out a pair of multiple stakes winners in Avie's Flatter and Mr Ritz, who took last year's running of the 1 1/16-mile main track race for three-year-olds and upward. The graded stakes victors meet up again with four-year-old Skywire, the Mark Casse trainee who pulled off a 17-1 upset in the Eclipse on July 4 at Woodbine.

Entries: https://www.equibase.com/static/entry/WO072620CAN7-EQB.html

5:46 p.m.—$150,000 Grade 2 Bernard Baruch Handicap at Saratoga Race Course on FS2

Harrell Ventures' two-time stakes winner Halladay has done nothing but improve in his last two starts and will attempt to maintain his good form when taking on five others, including four stakes winners, in Sunday's 61st running of the Bernard Baruch for 3-year-olds and upward over the inner turf. Trained by Todd Pletcher, who saddled Dominus to a Bernard Baruch score in 2012, Halladay arrives at Sunday's test off a gate-to-wire triumph in the Sunshine Forever over a firm turf at Gulfstream Park, where he registered a career-best 103 Beyer Speed Figure over eventual Grade 1-winner Aquaphobia and stablemate Social Paranoia, who won the Grade 3 Poker at Belmont Park two starts later.

Entries: https://www.equibase.com/static/entry/SAR072620USA9-EQB.html

8:30 p.m.—$200,000 Grade 2 Eddie Read Stakes at Del Mar on TVG

Multiple graded stakes winner United aims to keep his recent hot streak going when he heads up a field of seven entered in the Eddie Read Stakes going 1 1/8-miles on the turf. Trained by Hall of Famer Richard Mandella, United is 2-for-2 thus far in 2020 having earned victories in the Grade 2 San Marcos Stakes and the Grade 2 Charlie Whittingham Stakes. The Giant's Causeway gelding has not been worse than third in his last seven starts and fell just a head short of eventual Horse of the Year Bricks and Mortar in the 2019 Breeders' Cup Turf.

Entries: https://www.equibase.com/static/entry/DMR072620USA8-EQB.html

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Halladay Will Try To Keep Hot Streak Going In Bernard Baruch

Trained by Todd Pletcher, who saddled Dominus to a Bernard Baruch score in 2012, Halladay arrives at Sunday's test off a gate-to-wire triumph in the Sunshine Forever over a firm turf at Gulfstream Park, where he registered a career-best 103 Beyer Speed Figure over eventual Grade 1-winner Aquaphobia and stablemate Social Paranoia, who won the Grade 3 Poker at Belmont Park two starts later.

Prior to his last effort, he defeated allowance optional claiming company over the South Florida oval on April 4 in similar frontrunning fashion over multiple-stakes winner and next-out winner Kroy.

The consistent gray or roan son of War Front defeated stakes company for the first time in the Tropical Park Derby at Gulfstream Park on December 28 and has put together a highly consistent record of 12-5-2-4. His only off-the-board effort was three starts back in the Grade 3 Tampa Bay on February 8, where he tracked the pace in fifth, appeared to be in a winning position from the three path coming around the far turn and was a bit green at the top of the stretch and flattened out in the final eighth of a mile.

“So far, the turf course has not been kind to horses close to the pace,” Pletcher said. “That's really my only concern. The horse is training super and we're excited about Sunday. He's in great form and seems to be steadily improving. Obviously, he took to the turf at Gulfstream quite well so I'm hoping that he can apply that to this turf course.”

Jockey Luis Saez was aboard for Halladay's last two winning efforts and retains the mount from the outermost post 6.

Trainer Chad Brown will saddle a pair of formidable contenders for the Bernard Baruch in the lightly-raced Good Governance and graded stakes winner Olympico.

Owned by Seth Klarman's Klaravich Stables, Good Governance broke his maiden last August over the Spa's inner turf before finishing a close second to Global Access in the Grade 3 Saranac. The 4-year-old son of Kingman did not race again until June of this year, where he defeated winners by 3 ¾ lengths over the Widener turf course at Belmont Park and registered a career best 95 Beyer.

“He's lightly raced but he's very talented,” Brown said. “Hopefully he's up to the challenge. He has a nice race under his belt and he looks good.”

Jockey Irad Ortiz, Jr., aboard in all three of his starts, will retain the mount from post 2 as he attempts a third Bernard Baruch triumph.

Michael Dubb, Madaket Stables and Wonder Stables Olympico will seek his first victory since lighting up the tote board at 18-1 in his North American debut in last year's Grade 2 Fort Marcy at Belmont Park.

The 5-year-old French-bred son of Rajsaman was fifth beaten 7 ½ lengths in last year's Bernard Baruch which was won by Qurbaan. He will be making his seasonal bow with his last start being a runner-up finish in the Grade 2 Knickerbocker over the inner turf at Belmont Park on October 14.

“He seems to be doing fine,” Brown said.

Jockey Joel Rosario will seek back-to-back Bernard Baruch triumphs when piloting Olympico from post 5.

Trainer Mike Maker also saddles a pair of contenders in graded stakes winners Somelikeithotbrown and Mr Dumas.

Owned by Skychai Racing and David Koenig, Somelikeithotbrown, a 4-year-old Big Brown bay, was third in the Grade 2 Fort Marcy on June 6 last out.

“It was a shorter field [in the G2 Fort Marcy] and we had another horse [Temple] in the race and we didn't want them to get into a duel,” said Maker's assistant trainer Nolan Ramsey. “I thought he ran an amazing race. He probably went a little quicker than I'd have liked him to early and if he'd been able to back off the pace just a little bit, he might have been able to hang tough for the win.”

Somelikeithotbrown will seek a second graded stakes triumph after winning the Grade 3 Jeff Ruby Steaks over the all-weather surface at Turfway Park in March 2019. He boasts the highest amount of lifetime earnings in the field with $464,338 and has finished in the money nine out of 12 times.

“He's doing very well right now,” Ramsey said. “He's always been a barn favorite and he's a horse that just seems to show up every time. He's had a number of setbacks throughout his career, but he's tough as nails and I expect a big run from him on Sunday.”

Jockey Tyler Gaffalione, who was aboard for his Jeff Ruby Steaks score, will be reunited with Somelikeithotbrown from post 3.

Maker also sends out Mr Dumas, who won last year's Grade 3 Commonwealth Turf at Churchill Downs while being trained by John Ortiz. The bay son of Majesticperfection defeated a salty allowance optional claiming group over the Churchill Downs turf two starts back which included graded stakes winner Casa Creed.

The WSS Racing and Hooties Racing owned four-time winner will break from post 4 and will be piloted by Manny Franco.

Completing the field is Juddmonte Farms' Seismic Wave for Hall of Fame trainer Bill Mott, who will attempt his sixth win in the Bernard Baruch.

The chestnut son of Tapit is a two-time stakes winner having won the English Channel on October 26 at Belmont Park in the final start of 2019, as well as the Cutler Bay last March at Gulfstream Park in his stakes debut.

Last out, Seismic Wave was second, beaten a length to Social Paranoia, in the Grade 3 Poker.

Jockey Jose Ortiz will pilot Seismic Wave from post 1.

The Bernard Baruch pays homage to the philanthropist, financier and thoroughbred owner who served as an advisor to late wartime presidents Woodrow Wilson and Franklin D. Roosevelt. As an owner, Baruch campaigned horses under the name Kershaw Stables, and won the 1927 Carter with Happy Argo.

The Bernard Baruch is slated as Race 9 on Sunday's 10-race card, which offers a first post of 1:10 p.m. Eastern. Saratoga Live will present daily television coverage of the 40-day summer meet on FOX Sports and MSG Networks. For the complete Saratoga Live broadcast schedule, and additional programming information, visit https://www.nyra.com/saratoga/racing/tv-schedule.

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