Cloudy's Knight again on the road for stakes

STICKNEY, Ill. - Cloudy's Knight is headed north again.

It's actually as much east as north, the 525-mile trip from Hawthorne to Woodbine, and Cloudy's Knight traveled with aplomb last month, winning the Grade 2 Sky Classic over a solid field. But while his journey is the same, Cloudy's Knight - Chicago's best long-distance grass horse - will find tougher competition awaiting him in Sunday's prestigious $2 million Canadian International.

Owned by Chicagoans Shirley and Jerrold Schwartz, Cloudy's Knight was expected to arrive at Woodbine around 10 o'clock Thursday evening, and after walking the shed row on Friday, he may get a jog out on the Woodbine course Saturday.

"We won't do much with him," said trainer Frank Kirby. "He's been there before."

Cloudy's Knight is coming up to Sunday's race as well as he did the Sky Classic, Kirby said. "He came back off that race really good," said Kirby, who will join his stable star in Canada on Saturday. Ramsey Zimmerman, aboard Cloudy's Knight for all his best races this year, is booked to ride again.

Jennie R. set for one last run

Jennie R. will indeed make one final appearance for her current connections before being taken to auction next month at Keeneland. Jennie R. was one of only five horses entered in Sunday's Summertime Promise, a $45,000 overnight turf stakes, and since Jennie R. set a course record scoring an easy victory here last month in the Indian Maid Stakes, it's easy to see why few were willing to take her on again.

"It's her last hurrah," said trainer Michele Boyce. "Really, I can't keep her on the ground until the sale."

Speed-packed feature

For an Illinois-bred entry-level allowance race, Saturday's featured race 8 has some teeth.

There were 12 horses entered in the six-furlong race, and one could make at least a decent case for as many as 10 of them. But with plenty of early speed apparently signed on, it may be worth focusing on the pair of Jaybird's Miracle and Bearific.

Claimed out of a $10,000 nonwinners-of-two race in June, Jaybird's Miracle won a $15,000 3-year-old claimer on July 26 at Arlington, earning a boost into Illinois-bred allowance company, where he has held his own. He was second of 11 in an Arlington Polytrack race at the class level on Sept. 6, and despite breaking 11th from the rail in a Sept. 29 race here at Hawthorne, he closed steadily to finish second by a half-length.

Bearific, another $10,000 claim over the summer, might have won a $17,500 nonwinners-of-three claimer Oct. 8 with a clean stretch run, but he had traffic trouble and wound up second. Trainer Roy Houghton gives a positive sign with a class hike into allowance company on Saturday.

Two spills, no injuries

There were two spills here during Wednesday's races, but no horses or riders were injured in either one of them. Bad Luck and jockey Lyndie Wade clipped heels with Dappled in race 8 and went down, but both were unhurt. Dappled was disqualified from his fourth-place finish, however, and jockey Carlos Montalvo is likely to face a suspension.

During the backstretch run of race 9, Awkward Moment appeared to shy from the rail while racing along the inside, and wound up going down with jockey Terry Houghton.