ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Trainer Bob Tiller will be holding a strong hand in the $125,000 Vice Regent Stakes at Woodbine on Sunday, when he runs Langstaff, Jade Dragon, and Power Phil in the one-mile turf route for 3-year-olds.
Langstaff should be favored off his 3-for-5 record, which includes a fast-closing grass score in the six-furlong Bold Ruckus, another Ontario-sired stakes.
FORT ERIE, Ontario – One of the most memorable events at this 115-year-old racetrack came in 1961 when a gelding named Puss n Boots decided to go for a swim, veered off the turf course in a 1 1/16-mile race, and ended up in the infield lake.
A race named after Puss n Boots was subsequently started, and tradition calls for the winning connections to take a plunge in the infield lake to mark the event.
Wicked Courage has the highest earnings among Quarter Horses this year, at $825,404. The season will not be complete for owner Andrew Smith of Ardmore, Okla., unless Wicked Courage wins an historic running of the All American Derby at Ruidoso Downs on Sunday.
With a purse of $2,809,784, the All American Derby is the richest race in Quarter Horse history, surpassing the All American Futurity at Ruidoso Downs, which will be worth $2.6 million on Monday.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Trainer Ken McPeek will try to strike while the iron is hot when he wheels the Grade 1-placed Frac Daddy back on just one week’s rest in Sunday’s $150,000 Saranac at Saratoga.
Centre Court, winner of the Grade 1 Jenny Wiley Stakes at Keeneland in April, will not race again this year but plans call for her to be put back in training for a potential 2014 campaign, according to trainer Rusty Arnold.
After finishing last in the Grade 2 Ballston Spa here on Aug. 24, Centre Court was sent to the Rood and Riddle Equine Hospital in Lexington, Ky. for an examination.
Caviar N Champagne goes for her third consecutive win when she returns from a two-month layoff in the $50,000 Rose Debartolo Memorial for fillies and mares at Thistledown on Sunday afternoon.
DEL MAR, Calif. – There is a pick-six carryover of $81,441 for Friday’s seven-race program at Del Mar.
The bet covers the second through seventh races on a program that starts at 4 p.m. Friday’s card launches the four-day holiday weekend, with racing continuing through Monday. The closing-day program is Wednesday, Sept. 4.
For Friday, there are large fields in the pick-six races.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - When 34-1 shot Hunter Forward ran by 4-5 favorite Brandys Secret in deep stretch of Thursday’s 11th race, it created two happy bettors, who each collected $424,936 in Saratoga’s pick six.
There was a two-day carryover of $273,760 entering the card, and an additional $1,010,762 was wagered into the pool on Thursday.
The sequence of 8-4-7-6-1-2 included Nuffsaid ($16.40), Kingston Bay ($4.10), Coal and Ice ($10.80), Lady’s Lunar Luck ($11.40), Bashart ($7.70), and Hunter Forward ($71).
Both winning tickets were sold offtrack.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - A few days after Bashart won a maiden race at Saratoga on Aug. 18, owner Jeff Weiss got an e-mail from trainer Todd Pletcher’s assistant notifying him the colt was being pointed for the Grade 2 With Anticipation Stakes.
Weiss, knowing that race was run just 11 days later, shot back an e-mail that read “What are you talking about? You must have the wrong horse.”
Nope, it was the right horse.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - Once upon a time, Saturday's Grade 1, $750,000 Woodward Stakes at Saratoga was going to be a spectacular race with eight horses, plenty of speed, and some quality closers.
What remains - after the defections of Cross Traffic on Wednesday and Fort Larned on Thursday - is a good race with six starters, and a whole new pace dynamic, one that could compromise the closers.
