DEL MAR, Calif. – In the last year, Comma to the Top has won six stakes at four distances on synthetic tracks and dirt tracks in California and New York. During that span, he has thrived over six furlongs, winning three stakes at the distance.
VANCOUVER, British Columbia – Stormin for Becka is finally developing into the horse trainer Craig MacPherson thought he could be when he won his 2-year-old debut in impressive style last August. He is coming off back-to-back wins in allowance sprints and will be stretching out to 1 1/16 miles for the first time when he runs in the $50,000 Stellar’s Jay Stakes for 3-year-olds on B.C. Cup Day.
When R.A. “Cowboy” Jones climbed aboard the favorite in the second race Tuesday at Fairmount Park in southern Illinois, he sent certain folks scurrying to see if he was on the threshold of becoming the oldest Thoroughbred jockey ever to win a race in the United States.
Funny Proposition will try to continue her ascension in the older filly and mare division, while Joyful Victory will try to regain her status as an early season division leader when the two meet in Sunday’s Grade 2, $200,000 Molly Pitcher Stakes at Monmouth Park.
The Molly Pitcher, run at 1 1/16 miles, drew a field of six, including the local hopeful Lady Samuri, who has gone from $10,000 claimer to listed stakes winner.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Bruno Schickedanz has never been one to think small.
As a land developer and homebuilder, under the company names B.G. Schickedanz Homes Inc. and BGS Homes Inc., Schickedanz has built thousands of homes in Ontario and in Houston, Texas, and his corporate holdings include shopping centers, apartment buildings, and the Royal Canadian Riding Academy.
And since his modest initiation into the racing game in the early 1980s, Schickedanz has gone on to breed more than 1,000 and own more than 3,000 horses.
OCEANPORT, N.J. – Take Charge Indy and Hymn Book, a pair of Grade 1 winners, try to recapture past glory on Sunday in the Grade 2, $200,000 Monmouth Cup, a 1 1/16-mile dirt race at Monmouth Park formerly known as the Meadowlands Cup.
Take Charge Indy earned his Grade 1 stripes in last year’s Florida Derby. A 4-year-old trained by Patrick Byrne, Take Charge Indy will try to rebound from an inexplicable 20 1/4-length loss last month in the Grade 1 Stephen Foster Handicap at Churchill Downs as the 19-10 favorite.
Alsvid ran a monster race earlier this month, and his connections are now pointing him for the major sprint stakes at the Remington Park meet that opens in August. Alsvid earned a career-high Beyer Speed Figure of 109 for his win in an optional $35,000 claiming race at Prairie Meadows. He romped by 16 lengths, while covering six furlongs in 1:09.71.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Sensible Lady has been with trainer Alan Goldberg for just the past month after making the first 16 starts of her career for Tim Salzman.
A turf sprint specialist now owned by Richard Santulli, Sensible Lady has shipped up from New Jersey and will be looking to become a Grade 3 stakes winner in Sunday’s Royal North Stakes, a six-furlong turf race for fillies and mares at Woodbine.
“We just wanted to try her three-quarters,” said Goldberg, who is based at Colts Neck Stables in New Jersey. “She seems to be doing all right.”
To paraphrase the classic pick-up line, some may wonder what a classy mare like Halo Dolly is doing in a race like Sunday’s $50,000-added Luther Burbank Handicap at the Sonoma County Fair in Santa Rosa, Calif.
From the looks of things, she is preparing for a late-summer and fall campaign and is likely to get a win in the process.
A multiple graded stakes winner, Halo Dolly took a while to get going this spring. She ran second against males in a Golden Gate allowance race in March and then third with a very wide trip as the favorite in the Golden Poppy there in April.
Calder Race Course and the Florida Horsemen’s Benevolent and Protective Association reached a purse agreement on Thursday, putting an end to a threat by horsemen to withdraw consent for the export of Calder’s signal if the dispute wasn’t resolved by Friday.
Officials for Calder and the FHBPA said the agreement runs through Dec. 31, 2013. Calder had been running without a purse agreement with horsemen since opening in mid-April.
