Imperial Hint drills a half ahead of Vosburgh Stakes

Trainer Luis Carvajal found a break in the rain at Parx Racing on Wednesday and worked Grade 1 winner Imperial Hint a half-mile over a muddy and sealed track. Carvajal had been considering the Grade 3 De Francis Memorial Dash at Laurel Park and the Grade 1 Vosburgh at Belmont Park for Imperial Hint, and on Monday confirmed his top sprinter would make his next start in New York.

The $350,000 Vosburgh will be run Sept. 29. The $250,000 De Francis was originally going to be run this Saturday, but was moved to Sept. 22 due to weather concerns. Both races are six furlongs.

“There isn’t much difference in the timing now between the De Francis and the Vosburgh,” Carvajal said. “He likes both tracks, so we are going to go to New York. He handled Belmont very good when he won the True North.

“It’s a very prestigious race, and Javier is there.”

Javier Castellano has been Imperial Hint’s regular rider for more than a year. On the day of the True North in June, he suggested to Carvajal that he take Imperial Hint off the pace and save some of his energy for the stretch. The result was a neck victory over Whitmore, who has since won the Grade 1 Forego at Saratoga.

In his most recent start, the Alfred G. Vanderbilt Handicap at Saratoga, Imperial Hint came from off the pace again to score his first Grade 1 victory by an easy 3 3/4 lengths.

Parx clocker Scott Bakos timed Imperial Hint in 47.24 seconds in his Wednesday work and caught the 5-yearold galloping out in 1:00.77. He termed the drill “handily,” meaning Imperial Hint did it easily, without need of urging.

“We were supposed to work Monday, but the track was not good,” Carvajal said. “It is still wet now, but he handled it fine. We gave him a real easy half and then let him gallop out. He did it flawlessly.

“We have one work left before the Vosburgh.”

Laurel reschedules stakes

To protect one of Laurel Park’s best racing programs of the year from Hurricane Florence, track management has moved its seven De Francis Dash Day stakes from this Saturday to Sept. 22.

Florence is forecast to come ashore Friday in the Carolinas and then work its way inland and north, bringing poor weather to Maryland.

While the Grade 3, $250,000 Frank J. De Francis Memorial Dash is a six-furlong race on the main track, the afternoon’s six other stakes are scheduled for turf. The seven stakes, worth a combined $900,000, include the final legs for three divisions of the Mid-Atlantic Championships, including the turf sprint and filly-and-mare turf sprint.

In another change, Laurel has moved the five $75,000 Virginiabred or -sired stakes scheduled for Sept. 22 to Sunday, Sept. 23.

Meadowlands opener canceled

Following a wet summer at Monmouth Park during which 80 of 231 scheduled grass races were moved to the main track, the beat has unfortunately continued into the Monmouthat-Meadowlands all-turf meet. The Friday opener was canceled Tuesday due to wet course conditions.

The hope is that the Meadowlands season, which will now be five days, can get under way Saturday. First post is 7 p.m. Eastern.

It rained Sunday and Monday in northern New Jersey, and more precipitation was possible Wednesday and Thursday. Hurricane Florence was scheduled to come ashore in the Carolinas early Friday and could send rain and windy conditions north.

John Heims, the director of racing at Monmouth and the Meadowlands, said the cancellation was necessary because the course would not have dried out before Friday, even though it had been rolled several times to push moisture from it.

Although the turf is wet, it “is in perfect condition,” according to Heims. This meet is the only time during the year the Meadowlands grass course is used.

The six-race cards provide North Jersey residents with their only annual live Thoroughbred racing. Cards are scheduled for Fridays and Saturdays through Sept. 29 at the Meadowlands, which operates as a harness track, simulcast center, and sportsbook the remainder of the year.

Daily purses will average approximately $120,000.

The Meadowlands schedule has varied over the years. In 2017, there were eight all-turf dates. Six-race cards were run Fridays and Saturdays over the final two weekends in September, and eight-race cards were offered on Saturdays in October, concluding Oct. 28.

The meet attracts a mixed bag of horsemen and riders from New Jersey, Pennsylvania, New York, and Delaware.

Hamilton to have back surgery

Steve “Cowboy” Hamilton has carved out a nice niche in the Maryland jockey ranks since he resumed riding in 2016 following a 10-year hiatus to raise his two sons in his native Oklahoma. But Hamilton has been sidelined with back pain since June and is scheduled to have surgery next week to remove several small tumors at the base of his spine.

His riding future depends on how well the surgery relieves his pain.

“My spirits are up, and I’m trying to stay positive,” Hamilton said. “We’ll just have to see how we come out of it before I can say anything else.”

Hamilton, 44, has won 1,374 Thoroughbred races in his career and led the Pimlico standings at meets in 2004 and 2005. In 2017, Hamilton was the fourth-leading rider in Maryland with 94 victories.

Hamilton is the father of successful Maryland apprentice rider Weston Hamilton, who finished second in the standings at the Laurel Park winter meet.

Congrats Gal drops in class

The status of the Friday races at Laurel Park depends on how much rain and wind Hurricane Florence flings north after coming ashore in the Carolinas early in the morning. The card is a good one if the weather cooperates and includes a firstlevel optional-claiming race for 2-year-old fillies and two firstlevel allowance races for 3-yearolds and up.

The filly to beat in race 8, the allowance for juvenile fillies, is Congrats Gal, a runaway debut winner for trainer Cal Lynch who has since placed in two stakes.

Following her maiden win, Congrats Gal rallied to finish third after dropping back on the far turn of the Grade 3 Schuylerville at Saratoga. She was sent off an odds-on favorite in the White Clay Creek at Delaware Park off that effort but was run down in the stretch after opening a clear lead and had to settle for second.

Congrats Gal has worked twice in preparation for Friday’s race.