Trainer Brian Stivers will be seeking his third stakes win from as many starters at the Arapahoe Park meet Sunday, when he sends out Ize in Trouble in the $40,000 Columbine. The 1 1/16-mile race for fillies and mares goes with a full field of 12.
Stivers is 2 for 2 with his Arapahoe starters this season courtesy of Oneotwo, who upset the $40,000 Inaugural at 20-1 in May and then came back and captured the $40,000 George Wafer Memorial on July 7.
With four of the 10 entries in the two races, Stormy Business’s progeny lead the way in the $35,000 MTA Stallion Auction Lassie and Laddie stakes at Canterbury Park on Sunday.
The races are each at 6 1/2 furlongs over the main track and are open to 3-year-old males and females, respectively, who are progeny of stallions whose services were sold in the 2008 Minnesota Thoroughbred Association stallion auction.
DEL MAR, Calif. – In 2012, Reneesgotzip won three stakes and was second or third in four other stakes, including a third in the Breeders’ Cup Turf Sprint against males at Santa Anita last November.
She may be on her way to another impressive campaign this year.
AUBURN, Wash. – Glen Todd has had an eventful 11 months since his big horse, Taylor Said, won the 2012 Longacres Mile with an impressive display of speed and determination. Taylor Said is no longer in Todd’s hands, having been sold to one of the ruling sheikhs in Dubai for a princely sum, but Todd, the leading owner at Hastings in Vancouver, British Columbia, could have as many as two starters in this year’s running of the Longacres Mile on Aug. 18.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – It was hot enough to make Hall of Fame trainer D. Wayne Lukas sweat Friday, but it wasn’t hot enough to adversely affect the opening of Saratoga’s 144th meeting in its 150th year of existence.
Temperatures were in the low 90s, with a heat index nearing 100, at post time for the first race, but with tolerable humidity and a steady breeze, the first half of the card went off without a hitch.
More changes will greet Oregon racing fans and horsemen Sunday when Portland Meadows launches its new meeting with an eight-race card at 1:45 p.m. Pacific.
There will be fewer race dates – 49, down from 60 a year ago – and larger purses at Oregon’s flagship track, which for decades was the center for Northwest winter racing before it was re-branded as a summer/fall venue in 2012.
AUBURN, Wash. – Stryker Phd, a fast-closing second at long odds in each of his past two starts, will take another run at trying to notch his first career stakes victory when he starts Sunday in the $50,000 Mt. Rainier Handicap at Emerald Downs.
The final local stakes for older horses before the Grade 3 Longacres Mile on Aug. 18, the 1 1/16-mile Mt. Rainier attracted six entrants and will be run as the ninth race on a 10-race program that begins at 2 p.m. Pacific.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Going from a Grade 3 stakes worth $200,000 to a listed stakes worth half that amount would seem to be a significant drop in class. Not for Tightend Touchdown. Not at Saratoga.
DEL MAR, Calif. – There may be too much speed in Sunday’s $150,000 California Dreamin’ Handicap at Del Mar to suit Compari, Lucky Primo, and Summer Hit.
All three are at their best when racing on or near the lead. When they meet for the first time in the California Dreamin’ for California-breds going 1 1/16 miles on turf, their similar styles could lead to a speed battle.
VANCOUVER, British Columbia – B.C. Cup Day is just around the corner on Aug. 5, and it is hard to find anybody more enthusiastic about the yearly showcase for British Columbia-breds at Hastings than trainer Steve Henson.
“B.C.-breds, it’s what it we are all here for,” Henson said. “I look forward to it every year.”
