Lava Man will skip Gold Cup
Lava Man will not attempt to win the $750,000 Hollywood Gold Cup for a record fourth time Saturday at Hollywood Park.
Trainer Doug O’Neill made it official Sunday, saying the 7-year-old gelding will bypass the Grade I and wait for the $400,000 Eddie Read Handicap, a Grade I at 1 1/8 miles on the turf, on July 20 at Del Mar.
“I wanted to make sure he’s 110%,” said O’Neill of the multiple stakes winner he trains for owners Steve, Tracy and Dave Kenly’s STD Racing Stable and Jason Wood, adding that his last race, a close third-place finish in the Charles Whittingham Memorial on June 7, “knocked him out a little bit.”
The highweight and certain favorite in the Gold Cup is Heatseeker.
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Not Bourbon, the 9-2 third choice, gave trainer Roger Attfield a milestone victory in the $987,737 Queen’s Plate on Sunday at Woodbine in Toronto.
The win was the eighth for Attfield in the first leg of the Canadian Triple Crown, tying him with Harry Giddings Jr., who won the Plate eight times from 1911 to 1942.
Jono Jones rode Not Bourbon to a head victory over 19-10 favorite Ginger Brew in 2:03.59 for the 1 1/4 miles.
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Trainer Paul Jones made it two Grade I victories in as many nights when 7-5 favorite Foose easily won the $1,155,000 Ed Burke Million Futurity late Saturday at Los Alamitos.
About 24 hours after Frankie Shoots had captured the Vessels Maturity, Jones saw Foose, a 2-year-old Stel Corona colt he bred and owns in partnership with Ed Allred, win the Burke by one length in near record time.
In giving jockey Ramon Sanchez his first win in the Burke, Foose ran the 350 yards in 17.22 seconds; the track and stakes record of 17.17 was set by Carters Cartel a year ago.
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