ARLINGTON HEIGHTS, Ill. – A full field of 14 horses, including defending champion Little Mike, was pre-entered Friday for the Aug. 17 Arlington Million.
The race is nicely balanced between North American- and overseas-based runners, with six horses shipping in from Europe, and eight U.S-based runners pre-entered.
OCEANPORT, N.J. – Trainer Eddie Plesa, Jr. enjoyed a one-two finish last weekend in the Tyro Stakes for 2-year-olds at Monmouth Park as Yes I’m Lucky bested Run for Logistics.
Plesa could do it again Sunday in the $60,000 Colleen Stakes, the companion event for fillies at five furlongs on the turf.
The Colleen is the prep for the meet’s top juvenile event for females, the $100,000 Sorority Stakes, a six-furlong dirt contest on Sept. 1.
AUBURN, Wash. – Mike Man’s Gold and Music of My Soul will take their budding rivalry to new lengths Sunday in the $65,000 Emerald Downs Derby when they headline a compact field of six horses, all attempting to navigate 1 1/8 miles for the first time. The 11-race card begins at 2 p.m. Pacific.
DEL MAR, Calif. − The goals with Tiz Flirtatious go well beyond Sunday’s $250,000 John Mabee Stakes for fillies and mares on turf at Del Mar.
VANCOUVER, British Columbia – It is hard to separate the six horses running in an $8,000 claiming race for 3-year-olds and up that serves as Sunday’s feature at Hastings. The 1 1/8-mile race goes as race 7 on an eight-race card that begins at 1:50 p.m. Pacific.
Super Steve rates a big chance. Trained by Melanie Walters, Super Steve is 2 for 2 at the distance and will appreciate the added ground following a fifth-place finish in a $10,000 claiming race going 6 1/2 furlongs July 1.
A knee injury diagnosed in January left the 3-year-old Quarter Horse The August Heat sidelined for the first half of 2013. Fortunately for owner and breeder Bobby Cox of Fort Worth, Texas, the majority of the top 3-year-old races at Los Alamitos are in the later months of the year.
Sunday, The August Heat returns after a break of more than six months in a division of the Golden State Derby trials at 400 yards. The final, worth a projected $250,000, will be run Aug. 25.
Older sprinters will run for higher stakes purses at the Barretts Race Meet at the Los Angeles County Fair at Fairplex in September.
The schedule was released Thursday for the 13-day meeting, which runs from Sept. 6-22. A majority of the 12 stakes, worth a collective $775,000, will be run for the same prize money as in 2012 and retain the same position on the track’s calendar.
SANTA ROSA, Calif. – Trainer Jerry Hollendorfer is seeking a repeat in Sunday’s $50,000 Cavonnier Juvenile Stakes at the Sonoma County Fair and will be using the same strategy as last year.
The Hollendorfer-trained Zeewat won his debut at the fair and then came back to win the six-furlong Cavonnier last year. This year, Hollendorfer has Hirschy, who scored an impressive win in his Aug. 1 debut and comes back 10 days later seeking a stakes win.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Alec Fehr, the owner and trainer of Ultimate Destiny, has appealed the decision by the stewards to declare his gelding a non-starter in last Saturday’s Grade 3, $159,300 Seagram Cup.
The stewards ruled that Ulitmate Destiny’s starting stall opened a fraction of a second before the others, giving him an unfair advantage.
Ultimate Destiny, in fact, did not benefit from the situation, as he broke fifth in the field of eight and went on to finish a strong second under jockey Todd Kabel.
