ELMONT, N.Y. – Three Alarm Fire, a good-looking first-level allowance winner at Belmont on Wednesday, will be pointed to the Grade 3, $200,000 Discovery Handicap at Aqueduct on Nov. 1, his connections said Friday.
A 3-year-old gelding by Pyro, Three Alarm Fire scored a 3 1/2-length victory in an allowance race, his second win in three career starts. Ridden by Joel Rosario, he ran 1 1/16 miles in 1:41.95 and earned a 103 Beyer Speed Figure.
ELMONT, N.Y. – Bakken, who returned from a four-month layoff with a sharp allowance victory at Belmont Park on Thursday, could be a candidate for the Breeders’ Cup Sprint, trainer Chad Brown said Friday.
Bakken may not get into the field of 14 should the race oversubscribe. He has raced only twice this year, with his other start resulting in a second-place finish to Palace in the Grade 2 True North at Belmont on June 6. Palace has come back to win two Grade 1 races and finished third in the Grade 1 Vosburgh last weekend at Belmont.
LEXINGTON, Ky. – Don Combs, undoubtedly the most obscure surviving Kentucky Derby-winning trainer, will have just his third starter of the year when sending out longshot Colt Weston in the third race Sunday. Based at the nearby Thoroughbred Center training venue, the 75-year-old Combs has won 14 races since 2006 with his small stable.
VANCOUVER, British Columbia – Trainer Frank Barroby was pleased with Locket’s five-furlong work in 1:00.20 over a wet-fast track last Tuesday at Hastings. Locket is coming off a win in the $50,000 Delta Colleen on Sept. 14 and will be one of the favorites in the Grade 3, $100,000 Ballerina on Oct. 13. The 1 1/8-mile Ballerina is one of four stakes races on the Canadian Thanksgiving Day card.
“She worked super,” said Barroby. “She loves that kind of track, and she just seems to get better in the fall. She could be tough in the Ballerina it if comes up wet.”
LEXINGTON, Ky. – Euro Charline is the top name among 10 3-year-old fillies with invitations to the $500,000 Queen Elizabeth II Challenge Cup, which will be run here Oct. 11 as the sixth and last Grade 1 race of the fall meet.
Euro Charline defeated older fillies and mares Aug. 16 in her American debut, the Grade 1 Beverly D., and was turned over afterward to trainer Todd Pletcher. The British-bred filly shows three September workouts, all on the Belmont Park turf, and is “doing just terrific,” said Barry Irwin, who manages the Team Valor International partnership that owns her.
VANCOUVER, British Columbia – It isn’t official yet, but according to Michael Brown, the director of racing for the Gaming Policy and Enforcement Branch of British Columbia, the 2015 Thoroughbred season will begin at Hastings on April 25 and tentatively end Oct. 12.
Ashley’s Sassy will start in the $200,000 Golden State Juvenile Fillies on Oct. 31 after winning her second consecutive start in an optional claimer for California-bred 2-year-old fillies in Thursday’s fourth race.
Ridden by Alonso Quinonez, Ashley’s Sassy rallied wide through the stretch to win the six-furlong race by 1 1/4 lengths over Easter Fever in 1:09.98.
“That was an impressive win,” trainer Peter Eurton said. “She got taken back when the dirt hit her in the face.”
ARCADIA, Calif. – Dan Ward, trainer Jerry Hollendorfer’s assistant trainer at Santa Anita, walked around Clocker’s Corner on Thursday morning, seeking jockey agents to fill assignments aboard the stable’s two runners in Sunday’s $100,000 Zuma Beach Stakes for 2-year-old fillies.
“I’ve got one that pulled up and one whose saddle slipped,” Ward told the agents. “Which one do you want?”
Representatives of the New England Horsemen’s Benevolent and Protective Association hand-delivered on Wednesday a live racing dates application for 2015 to the Massachusetts Gaming Commission, and they are engaged in discussions with Suffolk Downs management concerning the lease of the racetrack.
The application deadline was 5 p.m. on Wednesday.
Anthony Spadea, president of the New England HBPA, said the application was for one day of racing, but that the horsemen will ask for more.
LEXINGTON, Ky. – Close Hatches, unbeaten in four starts this year and a standout in the 2014 filly and mare handicap division, will be a huge favorite when the Grade 1 Spinster Stakes is run Sunday with a small field – but at least one person is hoping the Juddmonte Farms filly stubs her toe a little: Phil Sims, trainer and co-owner of Don’t Tell Sophia.
“Close Hatches is a hell of a horse,” said Sims, who has been based at Keeneland since 1980. “She beat us in the Azeri in Arkansas this winter, but we had a bar shoe on that day.”
