Opening Day
It’s opening day at Del Mar (Union-Tribune), and Saratoga is just a week away. NYRA officials must be fretting a little about attendance and buzz now that two crowd pleasers either won’t or may not put in a Spa appearance. Saratoga favorite Funny Cide is on the shelf until the fall (New York Times). “We’ll give him a little time off and then put him back in training and racing when the weather gets cool, probably around the end of September,” said assistant trainer Robin Smullen. Funny Cide came out of his last race, the Suburban, phyisically just fine, indicating that his sixth place finish there could perhaps be traced to a more existential problem. “He had no desire to get the job done,” said jockey Jerry Bailey after the race. Sackatoga managing partner Jack Knowlton said Funny Cide may try lower-level stakes next.
Afleet Alex is scheduled for the Travers, but he’ll run in the Haskell first, and trainer Tim Ritchey is making no promises about what Alex will do after:
Wait and see? What kind of talk is that? I thought Alex was a superhorse, capable of leaping tall buildings and running more than one race a month.
The Times-Union also notes that Gary Stevens, Rafael Bejarano, and Ramon Dominguez are among the riders joining the Saratoga jockey colony this year.
