Banned From the Gate

- Rusty Downes, the starter at Philadelphia Park, has been suspended for a week for sending the fillies in the Pennsylvania Oaks off without one of the entrants, Private Gift.

"I blew it. It's my own fault," Downes said yesterday. "I just made a mistake, but it doesn't make the pain any less. There was a lot of crowd noise and I just didn't see the horse. It was the first time I ever did that in all those years."[Philadelphia Inquirer]

Downes has worked there for 30 years, and this is the first such snafu; but he picked the wrong day, and a horse owned by Will Farish to leave behind the gate. I hope he’s never caught doing anything really bad, lest he be demoted to cleaning the bathrooms in the coming racino there.

- Two Grade 1’s coming up for the opening weekend of the Belmont Fall meeting, and it seems as if neither the Woodward nor the Man O’War will be stolen with a slow pace. Nor by a moderate one. Nor a merely quick one for that matter. Trainers Richard Dutrow and Graham Motion will both enter rabbits for Saint Liam and Better Talk Now respectively.

Dutrow has a specific target in mind in Commentator, who held Saint Liam off in the Whitney last month.

"Most likely it will be Crafty Player," said Dutrow, who nominated four speed horses for the Woodward. "He can go three-quarters in [1:10], so that would be good. That would get the job done for us, I hope." [Thoroughbred Times]

Motion just wants to ensure a quick pace for Better Talk Now, and will use Shake the Bank, who did the job successfully in the United Nations. Tommy Turner will be along for the rabbit ride once again. "Tommy did a super job last time." [Bloodhorse] Well, yeah! He just gunned the horse out as fast as he could; even Patrick Biancone could have done that! Without his speedy stablemate, Better Talk Now finished 4th in the Arlington Million.

- Florida has an unbeaten 2 yo colt in In Summation, who won his 5th race in 5 starts, 3 of them stakes, for trainer Frank Gomez when he took the Affirmed Stakes on Calder’s all 2 year old card on Saturday, earning a Beyer of 97 on a wet track. He’s not headed for the Breeders Cup, and instead will head for the two turn In Reality stakes in Calder, after which he will get a break. In Summation is by first year Florida sire Put It Back (Honour and Glory), who was winless at 2, but 5 for 5 at 3 at distances up to 7 furlongs, at which he took the Grade 2 Riva Ridge. He stands for a fee of $3500. He’s out of a Dayjur mare, so the breeding would certainly appear to be for speed. But his second dam is Fiesta Gal, who won the Mother Goose and CCA Oaks in 1987.

Another 2 year old who recently made a big splash is Discreet Cat, who broke his maiden on the Travers day card at Saratoga in 1:09.76, wiring a promising field of juveniles including Superfly, Zito’s full brother to Andromeda’s Hero, who was 11 lengths ahead of the rest of them. He got the half mile in 45.85, which means that he came home in less than 24 seconds, with a final eighth in 12.24. He earned an incredible Beyer of 106! I haven’t seen the Beyer for First Samurai’s Hopeful that day, but he got his 6 furlongs in 1:09.25 and took 14 seconds to get the 7th one. And Discreet Cat was 5-1 for the good 2 yo trainer Stanley Hough. We won’t be seeing that price on him again any time soon, I’m sure.

Discreet Cat is by Forestry (Storm Cat) out of G1 Alabama winner Pretty Discreet (Private Account), and he’s a half-brother to Pretty Wild; his second dam is a half to Kentucky Oaks winner Buryyourbelief.

- On the same day that Laurel Park is debuting a brand new turf course (that was supposed to open last year), part of a larger $24 million racing surface reconstruction project [Washington Post], Maryland Governor Ehrlich told a radio audience that "Magna is pulling back from Maryland.”

“They are letting legislators and the general public know it today..”

"They are going from 200 racing days to 112 racing days….We have 20,000 jobs at risk. This does not mean the Preakness (gr. I) is gone. This does not mean horse racing is gone.”
……
“I’ve been told they don't want to leave. I've been told they most likely will be here next year. I have no guarantee they will be here in two years, three years," [Bloodhorse]