Jockey Kerwin Clark won six races from seven mounts Monday night at Evangeline Downs in Lafayette, La., to cap an outstanding week. Overall, the 42-year-old Clark won 13 races at Evangeline in four days, including the Saturday night running of the $75,000 Evangeline Mile on Oak Hall.
Clark, who at one point had retired from the saddle, has had a colorful career. In addition to being a Louisiana fixture, he spent time riding in Saudi Arabia.
COLUMBUS, Neb. - Fans in Nebraska have reason to watch with interest as Awesome Humor continues her ascent in the 2-year-old filly ranks this year. The recent winner of the Grade 2 Adirondack Stakes at Saratoga, Awesome Humor is out of a multiple stakes winner in Nebraska, Horns Gray.
SHAKOPEE, Minn. - Trainer Sherri Shepherd and her husband, Dave - a jockey who was sidelined with a back injury in July - were both on hand for Thursday's fourth race and witnessed a new chapter in family history when their son Justin rode in his first recognized parimutuel event at Canterbury Park. Justin, 16, piloted the Shepherd trainee Where He Go to a fifth-place finish after briefly threatening along the rail nearing upper stretch.
A horse who ran second in a graded stakes earlier this year, a track record-holder, and a runner who was able to score after running the first six furlongs of a seven-furlong stakes in 1:08 and change are among the 71 horses pre-entered for next Saturday's Claiming Crown Championships at Philadelphia Park.
SASKATOON, Saskatchewan - Friday's $5,000 Graceful Klinchit Distaff Handicap for fillies and mares is named after Marquis Downs's all-time winningest mare, who ended her career with 28 victories. But at the rate Ms. Lady Rose is winning, that record could be in jeopardy. A 4-year-old, Ms. Lady Rose has won 10 of 16 career starts including eight of her last 11.
WINNIPEG, Manitoba - Miss Noire makes her local debut in Friday's feature, an allowance race for 3-year-old fillies at 1 1/16 miles, and will be the one to beat as she faces four rivals.
A winner of two stakes races last year at Woodbine, Miss Noire has one win from six starts this season, that success coming over allowance company at Fort Erie two starts ago.
Now trained by Tom Dodds, Miss Noire will be ridden by Jerry Pruitt and breaks from post 3.
The other entrants in Friday's feature all come out of the Aug. 5 Jack Hardy Stakes.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario - Sweetest Thing, who had been a candidate for Monday's Glens Falls Handicap at Saratoga, will not be making the trip there for that race.
Roger Attfield, who trains Sweetest Thing for the Lael Stable of Roy and Gretchen Jackson, already had ruled out the Saratoga race and was considering Saturday's Belle Geste at Woodbine but had to scrap that scenario as well.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario - Flaming Sky, a surprising second in the 2001 Breeders' Stakes, could win his maiden in Friday's finale at Woodbine.
The 1 1/16-mile turf race is a split of a maiden special weight race for 3- and 4-year-olds. Eight races were carded Friday, instead of the usual 10, mainly because of a virus that has hit Woodbine's horse population hard this month.
Three-time futurity winner Zip First, who was not entered in the trials to the $2 million All American Futurity at Ruidoso Downs on Aug. 15, will run in the trials to the Grade 1, $316,000 Sam Houston Futurity at 400 yards on Friday night at Sam Houston Race Park.
Zip First, owned by Gary Hartstack, won the Grade 1, $565,000 Ruidoso Futurity on June 9 and was second in the Grade 1, $640,225 Rainbow Futurity on July 21 at Ruidoso Downs. Earlier this year he won the Grade 2, $191,080 Manor Downs Futurity and the Grade 2, $119,200 Longhorn Futurity.
Missme, who has become a two-time stakes winner since changing his running style, has joined the lineup for the Grade 3, $250,000 Oklahoma Derby on Sunday, bringing the number of definite starters for the 1 1/8-mile race to six. There are also three horses considered possible for the race, which is the richest of the meet at Remington Park in Oklahoma City.