The easier option for Tom Amoss this weekend would have been to stay home at Churchill Downs with his Grade 1-winning filly So Many Ways and run in the Grade 3 Dogwood Stakes.
But after observing how well So Many Ways handled the tight turns at Churchill’s nearby training center, Amoss wasted no time shipping the 3-year-old daughter of Sightseeing to West Virginia for Saturday night’s $400,000 Charles Town Oaks.
The connections of nine horses entered in the $100,000 Laurel Turf Dash got socked in the stomach Friday when trainer and part owner King Leatherbury told Laurel Park officials that Ben’s Cat would pass the De Francis Dash in favor of the Turf Dash.
Her promising 3-year-old season derailed by a temperature that knocked her out of the division’s premier summer races, Close Hatches gets back to action Saturday in an intriguing renewal of the Grade 1, $1 million Cotillion Stakes for 3-year-old fillies at Parx Racing.
A hard-luck loser in his last three stakes tries, Clearly Now returns from a brief freshening in Saturday’s Grade 3, $300,000 Gallant Bob Stakes at Parx going six furlongs.
A field of 14 was carded for the Gallant Bob, but Distinctiv Passion was scratched by trainer Jeff Bonde and Purple Egg was expected to scratch to run in an overnight stakes at Belmont Park on Friday.
Alberta-breds take the spotlight at Northlands Park on Saturday, when seven stakes worth $50,000 apiece make up the bulk of the 11-race Alberta Fall Classic Day card. All seven stakes are restricted to horses bred in the province.
ELMONT, N.Y. - A year after winning a novice steeplechase stakes at Belmont Park, Gustavian returned here Thursday to win the Grade 1, $150,000 Lonesome Glory Stakes by a nose over tough-luck All Together.
Gustavian, who raced a close-up third under Paddy Young, trailed All Together at the midstretch marker, but took the final fence much better than All Together, who stumbled over the last jump. Gustavian then outsprinted All Together to the wire.
AUBURN, Wash. – While a $12,500 claimer for 3-year-old fillies will serve as the feature race Saturday at Emerald Downs, the day’s most anticipated race is the fourth, a six-furlong dash for maiden 2-year-old fillies. The eight-horse field includes five first-time starters and a pair of potential heavyweights for Jerre Paxton’s Northwest Farms. First post is 2 p.m. Pacific.
ARLINGTON HEIGHTS, Ill. – Nates Mineshaft is the big earner in the field, a multiple graded-stakes winner who comes out of the Arlington Million. But Nates Mineshaft might have a problem in the $65,000 Illinois Owners Stakes, the featured eighth race Saturday at Arlington: He is a confirmed front-runner in a grass route loaded with front-runners.
ELMONT, N.Y. - Casiguapo, runner-up to Strong Mandate in the Grade 1 Hopeful at Saratoga on closing day, worked a sharp five furlongs in 1:00.17 Thursday morning over Belmont Park’s main track as he prepares for the Grade 1 Champagne here on Oct. 5.
With jockey Luis Saez in the irons, Casiguapo went his first quarter in 24.61 seconds and his last quarter in 23.95 while galloping out six furlongs in 1:13.07, seven furlongs in 1:26.66, and a mile in 1:41.25.
Service for Ten began his career among the lowliest horses in Maryland, debuting in September 2011 in a $10,000 maiden claimer. Saturday, the 4-year-old gelding will line up for the richest sprint race in Maryland, the $350,000 Frank J. De Francis Memorial Dash.
