ARCADIA, Calif. – Although the Grade 1 Zenyatta Stakes is merely a prep race for the Breeders’ Cup Distaff, this year the prep offers almost as much appeal as the main event.
A deep field of fillies and mares race 1 1/16 miles Saturday at Santa Anita in the $250,000 Zenyatta. The race is expected to produce the BC Distaff second betting choice, assuming Royal Delta wins the Beldame Saturday and runs in the Distaff and not the BC Classic.
AUBURN, Wash. – On the penultimate day of the meeting at Emerald Downs, a pair of the Northwest’s most venerable stakes performers, Jebrica and Winning Machine, will renew their rivalry Saturday in a $22,575 no-conditions allowance race at one mile. First post for the 11-race card is 2 p.m. Pacific.
ELMONT, N.Y. – On paper, it appears to be a sexy matchup. The 5-year-old mare Royal Delta, a two-time Eclipse Award winner, versus Princess of Sylmar, the leader of the 3-year-old filly division, in Saturday’s Grade 1, $400,000 Beldame Invitational at Belmont Park.
ELMONT, N.Y. – A return to the Breeders’ Cup Sprint with Justin Phillip has been on Steve Asmussen’s mind since he left Santa Anita last year following a fifth-place finish in that race.
“His race last year in the Breeders’ Cup was deceptively good,” said Asmussen, who trains Justin Phillip for Zayat Stables. “He got squeezed at the start, he ran his last quarter [fast], and was one of the few horses closing anything at all.”
VANCOUVER, British Columbia – The 7-year-old mare Cry Cry Cry started out the year running in a $25,000 claiming race where she finished third. Since then, she has reeled off four straight wins, and her trainer, Rosann Anderson, is going to give her a shot in the Grade 3, $100,000 Ballerina on closing day, Oct. 14.
ARCADIA, Calif. – She’s a Tiger will break from the outside in a field of eight 2-year-old fillies while making her first start around two turns in Saturday’s $250,000 Chandelier Stakes at Santa Anita. For some trainers, an outside post and a new distance would be a concern, but Jeff Bonde said he is not too worried.
“That’s why you ride Gary Stevens,” he said of the 50-year-old Hall of Famer.
ELMONT, N.Y. – The stakes are too high and the field too deep to call Saturday’s Grade 1, $1 million Jockey Club Gold Cup at Belmont Park merely a prep race.
Feature Mr Bojangles once won seven races in a row, including the Grade 1 Rainbow Futurity for Quarter Horses. But the champion has been unable to get back in the win column in more than a year, a situation that can reverse itself Saturday night at Lone Star Park.
Feature Mr Bojangles looks like a solid favorite in the Grade 1, $75,000 Refrigerator Handicap, a 440-yard race for 3-year-olds and up. The eight-horse field also includes Loves Brown Sugar, a filly who is seeking her sixth consecutive win.
Longboat Key will be a solid favorite to win the last leg of the marathon series Saturday at Northlands Park. The eight-horses entered will start at the top of the stretch and then make three complete laps while going around six turns in the two-mile race for 3-year-olds and up. The race is run under starter handicap conditions and is restricted to horses that have started for a claiming price of $8,000 or less in 2013 and have not won for a claiming price of $12,500 or more since last starting for $8,000.
Father Frank Niehaus, who ministered at River Downs and Turfway Park, passed away early Thursday morning at a hospice in Anderson, Ohio.
The 84-year-old retired Catholic priest succumbed to complications of internal bleeding two days following surgery.
Father Frank, as everyone knew him, oversaw the Backstretch Works of Mercy, the ministry he took up after retiring 18 years ago from the Archdiocese of Cincinnati.
