ARCADIA, Calif. – If California Flag wins the Breeders’ Cup Turf Sprint for the second time in a long career at age 8, he will have to turn in a spectacular performance after drawing the rail in a 14-horse field.
ARCADIA, Calif. – Shackleford was assigned post 6 in a field of nine 3-year-olds and upward entered to run Saturday at Santa Anita in the $1 million Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile, a starting slot that might have the $2.8-million earner in a tenuous early position between the other likely speed horses, Delegation (post 2) and Emcee (post 7).
Does trainer Dale Romans care?
“Not really,” he said. “He’s been there in the heat of battle plenty of times before. He knows what he’s supposed to do.”
LOS ALAMITOS, Calif. – Chivalry Sr is bound for the $750,000 Champion of Champions at Los Alamitos on Dec. 15 after scoring an upset win against a top field of older Quarter Horses in the $150,000 Los Alamitos Championship on Sunday night.
Making his second start of 2012, Chivalry Sr ($15.60) broke well under jockey Cruz Mendez and held off a late surge from El Aguila Real to win the 440-yard race by a head in 21.51 seconds.
ARCADIA, Calif. - Already billed as an East versus West showdown between Dreaming of Julia and Executiveprivilege, the $2 million Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies picked up two major players from both coasts Monday morning.
Kauai Katie, undefeated in three starts, and Beholder, she of the 108 Beyer Speed Figure earned in a six-furlong allowance race at Santa Anita on Oct. 4, entered the eight-horse Juvenile Fillies field Monday afternoon. Both horses had also been pre-entered in the Juvenile Sprint and at least Beholder was believed to be pointing that way until Monday.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Miss Scarlett Road was a beaten favorite in her four starts at the Ontario-sired nonwinners-of-three allowance class, but managed to hit the board on each occasion. She will take another crack at it Wednesday at Woodbine in the third race, which will be run over seven furlongs for a purse of $56,000.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – During the spring-summer meet, Churchill Downs might have been lucky to fill a second-level allowance race on dirt with eight horses. In the fall, with the horse population greatly increased because of fewer tracks in seasonal operation, Churchill doesn’t even have space for all the entries in a $54,000, second-level allowance.
The race, which has a $62,500 claiming condition and is run at seven furlongs on dirt, highlights Wednesday’s 10-race card. Fifteen horses were entered, but only 12 can run, leaving three horses on the also-eligible list.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Trainer Rachel Halden is no stranger to a good horse, having spent 10 years as an assistant to Roger Attfield, managing a satellite division here for Bill Mott, and working with Ian Black in recent winters at Payson Park.
But Halden was saddling her first stakes winner in her own right here Sunday when she sent out Nipissing, a homebred daughter of Niigon who races for Chiefswood Stable, to capture the $250,800 Princess Elizabeth for Canadian-bred 2-year-old fillies.
A horse at Hawthorne Race Course outside of Chicago that was presumed to have the equine herpesvirus has tested positive for the disease after being isolated from the rest of the backstretch population at the track, according to the track’s state veterinarian.
The horse is the sixth to have tested positive for the highly contagious, sometimes fatal disease since Oct. 14. The horse began showing acute signs of neurological distress on Friday and was immediately quarantined with other horses that have tested positive or displayed symptoms of the disease.
ARCADIA, Calif. – Dullahan and Little Mike will start in Saturday’s $3 million Breeders’ Cup Turf at Santa Anita, a change that trainer Dale Romans announced Monday after discussing options with the owners of both horses Sunday.
Little Mike, best known for winning the Arlington Million in August, will make his second start over 1 1/2 miles on turf in the BC Turf. He was fifth in the Joe Hirsch Turf Classic on a yielding turf course at Belmont Park on Sept. 29 in his first start at the distance.
