POMONA, Calif. – It all started at Barretts for Clubhouse Ride. The question Sunday is whether his campaign will end at the same place.
Even his trainer is unsure. Purchased for $22,000 at Barretts and closing in on $1 million in earnings, Clubhouse Ride faces eight rivals in the $100,000 Ralph M. Hinds Handicap on closing day of the Los Angeles County Fair meet. His current form is dubious.
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FORT ERIE, Ontario – With less than a month to go in the season, it’s that time again at the Fort Erie Race Track when the worry begins.
It begins for the town, horsepeople, fans, and all those personnel and businesses related directly or indirectly to the operation of the track. Will there be a racing season in 2014?
Because of a major change in the overall funding for Ontario racetracks in 2012, it was not until April 2013 that Ontario premier Kathleen Wynne authorized $5.6 million and a 50-day (400-race) 2013 meeting for this border oval.
VANCOUVER, British Columbia – Courtroom Kiss showed a new dimension when she returned from a three-month layoff to win a $17,500 claiming race going 6 1/2 furlongs Aug. 30. Instead of using her good speed to contest the early pace, she settled early and made a strong late move to win going away.
Courtroom Kiss should have an honest pace to run at in an unrestricted allowance race that headlines Sunday’s eight-race card at Hastings, and if she can employ the same running style she could notch her third straight win.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Phil’s Dream will take another crack at Ontario-sired stakes company Sunday at Woodbine in the $125,000 Overskate Stakes, a seven-furlong sprint that lured seven other runners.
Phil’s Dream, a 5-year-old owned and trained by Paul Buttigieg, has missed the top two only once in six starts since returning from a 22-month absence in April.
“He tried to bow (a tendon) as a 3-year-old,” Buttigieg recalled. “I gave him a year off and it did the job. It healed completely.”
ELMONT, N.Y. - There were 83 winning tickets sold on Thursday’s pick six at Belmont Park, each returning $16,961.
The pick six had not been hit at Belmont since Sept. 13, creating a three-card carryover of $539,675 entering Thursday’s program. An additional $1,515,838 was wagered into the pool on Friday.
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.
