ELMONT, N.Y. - Eltawaasul may offer the best value among several runners with a chance in Friday's $58,000 classified allowance race at 1 3/8 miles over Belmont Park's Widener Turf Course.
The seven-horse field includes four horses who were within 1 1/2 lengths of each other in an Aug. 21 allowance race at Saratoga, as well as the Bill Mott-trained Megantic.
ELMONT, N.Y. - In an era when so many talented horses are retired prematurely, Raging Fever and Gold Mover - two of the precocious juvenile fillies from the crop of 2000 - keep on performing at the highest level.
Now 4, an age when owner-breeder Edward Evans could have turned them into broodmares, Raging Fever and Gold Mover are still accomplishing great things on the track.
ELMONT, N.Y. - Mandy's Gold can run fast. Saturday, she will have to prove she can run far.
Mandy's Gold, a multiple sprint stakes winner, will try to stretch out beyond a mile for the first time in her career when she runs in the Grade 1, $300,000 Ruffian Handicap at Belmont Park.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. - Gulfstream Park has named Joanne Jones as its new television racing analyst for the 2003 meet, which opens on Jan. 3.
Jones, a former foreman for Hall of Fame trainer Jack Van Berg, will offer detailed commentary, handicapping advice, and analysis to be broadcast live in-house and across Gulfstream's extensive simulcast network.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. - It's back to basics Saturday for Sky Terrace. He was tested at a distance in July but faltered, so eight weeks later, trainer Vickie Foley turns Sky Terrace back to six furlongs in the $150,000 Kentucky Cup Sprint.
"I've freshened him up and got him feeling good again," Foley said Wednesday at her Churchill Downs base. "I thought this race at Turfway was as good a spot as any for him to come back in."
DEL MAR, Calif. - In attempting to strike a balance between presenting its closing-day card and paying tribute to the first anniversary of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, Del Mar played host on Wednesday to a nationwide tribute that was broadcast to tracks that were open for business.
AUBURN, Wash. - Apprentice Kevin Mangold appears well positioned to snap a frustrating drought Friday when he rides Los Pinos in the Emerald Downs feature, a one-mile race for $20,000 claiming 3-year-olds that has drawn a field of six.
Mangold entered this week's racing winless in 41 mounts since arriving here at mid-season from Southern California, and he is 0-for-141 for the year. It should be noted, however, that the hard-trying Mangold has had very few live mounts.
EDMONTON, Alberta - With the Northlands meet winding down and slim pickings on the stakes schedule, stakes-caliber horses are forced to seek other options.
That's the case in the eighth race Friday. Little Lolitta, Slewability, and Viva Ruckus will battle in the $32,000 optional claiming race that includes an allowance condition for nonwinners of two other than maiden or claiming this season.
Enjoying the best year of her career with $82,286 in earnings, Viva Ruckus is the morning-line favorite and will race for the $32,000 tag.
POMONA, Calif. - Against all odds, the bullring is back.
The $50,000 Foothill Stakes launches the Los Angeles County Fair race meet Friday at Fairplex Park, and the 10 runners in the six-furlong stakes must negotiate a second turn to which they are unaccustomed. Unusual? Not really. Fairplex, host to the L.A. County Fair since 1933, is a five-eighths-mile oval, unique on the Southern California circuit.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario - Southern Chance, who ran against an apparent track bias in his last start, has a realistic chance of landing the first allowance condition in Thursday's $63,500 Woodbine feature.
Southern Chance was claimed for $40,000 from a loss in conditioned company in June by owner-trainer Audre Cappuccitti, who didn't hesitate to run him back at the first allowance level on July 24.
He raced prominently throughout that six-furlong dash to be third, ending up 1 1/2 lengths behind next-out winner Classic Manner.