Blood-Horse

Trainer Steve Asmussen couldn't recall a prize to match his gifts for winning the 115th running of the $150,000 Saratoga Special Presented by Miller Lite (G2) with J. Kirk Robison's Jackie Warrior.

Spielberg, a $1 million yearling who is slated to contest a six-furlong maiden special weight Aug. 8 at Del Mar will face Superman Shaq, a half brother to champion Monomoy Girl, and Waspirant, whose dam was a grade 1 winner.

Purses at Arlington International Racecourse will be raised 20% during the middle portion of its summer meet, according to levels listed in its recently released second condition book. That period covers racing there from Aug. 20-Sept. 12.

Santa Anita Park's autumn stakes schedule will be similar to those from past seasons. The track has planned 24 stakes, 15 graded, over 18 racing days from Sept. 19 through Oct. 25.

The Aug. 8 Yellow Ribbon Handicap (G2T) at Del Mar presents another sizable opportunity to Sir Prancealot, the European stallion who has become something of a surprise hit in the United States.

The memory of Sherwood Chillingworth, the longtime director and executive vice president of the Oak Tree Racing Association, will be honored with the Chillingworth Stakes to be run during Santa Anita's autumn season.

As she was in 2003, Robin Smullen remains Barclay Tagg's experienced and trusted assistant trainer, and more importantly in the grand scheme of life, she has bonded with him emotionally as a life partner.

Racing will go ahead at the Curragh Aug. 9 despite a partial lockdown in County Kildare starting at midnight Friday, which will see movements restricted once again. 

Top Racing, Global Thoroughbred, and GDS Racing Stable's Bodexpress will look to dominate the $85,000 Alydar, a 1 1/8-mile test for 4-year-olds and up that have not won a stake this year other than state-bred, at Saratoga Race Course.

The horse racing industry lost an avid horsewoman earlier this summer with the death of Dolly von Stade Bostwick Jr. on June 20 at age 66 at her home in Indiantown, Fla.

The champion 2-year-old male of 2019, Storm the Court is the leading money earner in the eight-horse La Jolla Stakes (G3T) at Del Mar Aug. 9, a grass race that also drew stakes winners Azul Coast, Indian Peak, Kanderel and Smooth Like Strait.

Wesley Ward has three entered in the $75,000 Tyro Stakes Aug. 8, a five-furlong turf sprint at Monmouth Park, including Fauci, a promising juvenile who broke his maiden in his second start.

Dave Litfin analyzes Saturday's graded stakes action from the Spa.

Bruce Lunsford's homebred Art Collector lands the favorite's role for the Aug. 9 Runhappy Ellis Park Derby. A field of 12 was drawn for the nine-furlong race, worth $200,000 and run four weeks prior to the Run for the Roses.

Trainer, co-owner, and co-breeder Larry Jones hopes a class break will help Street Band return to winning form Aug. 9 at Ellis Park when the 4-year-old daughter of Istan starts from an outside post in the $100,000 Runhappy Groupie Doll Stakes.

The Canadian Thoroughbred Horse Society announced Aug. 6 that the Direct Livestock Marketing Systems will be providing online bidding for all of the 2020 CTHS sales.

Most recently at Sequel Stallions New York, Teri and Buster Brown moved to Edition because they wanted to switch to running a smaller operation. The couple has managed their own and others' farms across the country for 35 years.

Lightning Moon, the winner of the group 3 John Guest Bengough Stakes at Ascot and first-season sire in Spain, has died from laminitis at the age of 9. 

Finding something positive to come out of the COVID-19 pandemic is surely as difficult as finding the proverbial needle in a haystack.

Trainer Michael McCarthy breezed two of his leading 3-year-olds, Speech and Rushie, Aug. 6 at Del Mar toward probable stakes starts in September.