ELMONT, N.Y. – When Arena Elvira won last year’s Turnback the Alarm Handicap at Aqueduct, it was the third straight victory in what would ultimately become a five-race winning streak.
Saturday, when she seeks a repeat in the Grade 3, $150,000 Turnback the Alarm – this time at Belmont Park – Arena Elvira will hoping to start a new winning streak in what will be her first start in six months.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – It’s been a little more than a year since Newsdad pulled off one of the more notable feats of his career. Now 4, the colt set the Polytrack record at Keeneland for 1 1/4 miles when he knocked out his first allowance condition on Oct. 11, 2011. He finished in 2:00.61 and drew off by daylight, leading his connections to believe the colt would go on to greater things.
ELMONT, N.Y. – Given how well she performed at double-digit odds in Saratoga, Arsenal appeared a viable longshot when she ran in an optional claiming race at Belmont on Sept. 23.
Then the starting gates opened. Horses on either side of Arsenal banged into her, leaving the 5-year-old mare much farther back than she prefers to run. She finished eighth, beaten 16 3/4 lengths.
Handicappers who draw a line through that last race could again find Arsenal a value play when she runs in the $75,000 co-feature scheduled for 1 1/8 miles on Friday’s 10-race card at Belmont Park.
Pacific Ocean, a Grade 3 winner each of the past two seasons, and Sean Avery, who has raced just twice since winning the Grade 1 Alfred Vanderbilt in August 2011, head a group of 11 sprinters entered Wednesday for Saturday’s Frank De Francis Memorial Dash at Laurel Park.
ARCADIA, Calif. – The recent string of second-place finishes by Planet Sunshine is getting old to trainer Art Sherman.
“He needs to win one,” Sherman said. “He’s run too well to get beat. I feel sorry for him.”
Planet Sunshine can end a three-race losing streak in an optional claimer over 1 1/16 miles at Santa Anita on Friday. Owned by breeder Tom Shapiro, Planet Sunshine may be favored in a field of eight.
LEXINGTON, Ky. – For the second time in nearly three weeks, state veterinarians made an error regarding the administration of furosemide to a horse entered at Keeneland. The horse, a heavy favorite in Wednesday's fourth race, was scheduled to run on the anti-bleeding medication, but was forced to race without it.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario – They will run four stakes here at Woodbine this weekend, and Malcolm Pierce, trainer for Sam-Son Farm, has a shot at taking home the top prize in three of them.
For Saturday, Pierce has entered both Magic Broomstick and Forest Uproar in the $100,000 River Memories, a one-mile overnight turf stakes for fillies and mares.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario – The late-bloomer Pure Blue Sky moves up to second-level allowance company Friday at Woodbine in the featured optional claimer, which will be contested over nine furlongs on the Polytrack.
A 3-year-old by Purim, Pure Blue Sky graduated in a sprint following a winter layoff in her June 13 season opener. She wasn’t an impact player in two subsequent allowances before finishing second while going from turf to Polytrack on Aug. 5.
Playing out the string? Hardly. The 17-day Keeneland fall meet may be coming to a close, but with four consecutive allowances worth a total of more than $200,000 on the Friday card, the aura of big-time racing that has permeated the Lexington, Ky., track since its Oct. 5 opening will continue right until the not-so-bitter end.
The 10-race Friday card marks the penultimate program of the meet, with the Grade 2 Fayette Stakes on Saturday helping to bring down the curtain.
Here is a look at those Friday allowances:
ARCADIA, Calif. - Nates Mineshaft, who recently was transferred to California and to trainer Richard Mandella, will miss the Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile and will be off indefinitely, Mandella said Tuesday.
“We found a problem and he needs time off, so we sent him home,” said Mandella, who declined to elaborate on the nature of the injury. “We’ll give him a little rest and try to get him back late next year.”
