A Wednesday card at the Big A is spiced up by two stakes and a two-day carryover in the pick six of $89,489.
Odds-on favorites loom large in both divisions of the New York Stallion Series at seven furlongs. Sunny Desert looks every bit of 3-5 in the Staten Island for fillies and mares, and Sportswriter may be even shorter than that in the Thunder Rumble for colts and geldings.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Trainers Malcolm Pierce and Josie Carroll will be shipping out their first loads Thursday for the Fair Grounds, as is their customary practice when the Woodbine meeting begins to wind down into the off-season.
Last weekend, both trainers picked up some traveling money, as Up With the Birds captured Saturday’s $250,000 Coronation Futurity for Pierce and James Street won the $154,200 Autumn for Carroll, who came right back on Sunday with Leinan in the $155,500 Glorious Song.
MIAMI – Trainer Bill Kaplan left south Florida for Santa Anita two weeks ago with an Eclipse Award winner in his barn. He returned the following week to a $1.6 million empty stall, the price his 2011 Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Sprint winner Musical Romance brought at the Fasig-Tipton November sale.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – It took a well-bred filly named Debase the Dollar five races to get through her maiden condition. Now that she has the hang of winning, the 3-year-old filly might well make it a habit.
“She sure has trained well since coming down here since that last win” at Keeneland, noted Kenny McCarthy, the Churchill Downs-based assistant to trainer Bill Mott. “Hopefully that will be reflected when we run her back Wednesday afternoon.”
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Whether they know it or not, the thousands of novice racing fans who will attend the ever-popular Downs After Dark program Saturday evening at Churchill Downs will be treated to some high-quality racing.
The $175,000 Mrs. Revere Stakes once again promises to live up to its Grade 2 ranking with at least five graded stakes winners expected for the 1 1/16-mile turf race. The Mrs. Revere will anchor a Saturday card that also will include its male counterpart, the Grade 3, $100,000 Commonwealth Turf.
INGLEWOOD, Calif. – The Breeders’ Cup Juvenile did not work out quite the way trainer Bob Baffert had hoped, but he’s reloading and setting his sights on the Grade 1, $750,000 CashCall Futurity at Betfair Hollywood Park on Dec. 15, in which he vows to “run as many as I can.”
“I’ll try to load the gate up,” Baffert said.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Trainer Sam DiPasquale has fared okay in recent Woodbine stakes. He lost the Grade 3 Ontario Fashion by a whisker with longshot Youcan’tcatchme, and had another longshot, Pure Blue Sky, finish fifth in the Maple Leaf.
DiPasquale sent out the runner-up in the Oct. 13 Fanfreluche, Rootham Triple E’s, who heads the featured second race on Wednesday, a six-furlong allowance for Ontario-sired 2-year-old fillies.
INGLEWOOD, Calif. – Extra distance, a deceptively softer spot, and a new jockey proved to be the winning formula on Sunday at Betfair Hollywood Park for Midnight Ballet, who successfully stretched out to capture the $100,000 Sharp Cat Stakes for 2-year-old fillies.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario - Leinan collared favorites Goldstryke Glory and Mechaya in the stretch en route to notching her first stakes win in the $155,500 Glorious Song at Woodbine Sunday.
Mechaya, the 3-5 choice from California, outbroke the others and set fast splits in the seven-furlong sprint for 2-year-old fillies. Goldstryke Glory tracked Mechaya before passing her exiting the turn, but she failed to hold off Leinan, who rallied strongly from fourth to prevail by a length in 1:23.73. Mechaya held on for third in the six-horse field.
In divisions of the New York Stallion Series for 2-year-olds, Meeker Avenue ($3.20) and Kelli Got Frosty ($10.60) prevailed in close decisions at Aqueduct on Sunday. Each division was worth $125,000 and run at six furlongs.
