ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Big Band Sound, who is coming off a close fourth-place finish in the Grade 1 Nearctic Stakes here Oct. 14, is dropping in class and returning to the main track for Saturday’s $100,000 Mt. Sassafras.
The Mt. Sassafras, a seven-furlong overnight stakes that formerly was restricted to Ontario-breds, was not run last year and has resurfaced as an open race that attracted a field of six.
It’s conceivable that Miss Empire could have run next week in a Breeders’ Cup race instead of Saturday’s $100,000 Pike Place Dancer at Golden Gate Fields.
Miss Empire has the credentials to compete in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies or perhaps the Juvenile Fillies Turf, having won a stakes at Betfair Hollywood Park over the summer and finished third and fourth in Grade 1 stakes at Del Mar and Santa Anita. Instead, she will make her turf debut Saturday in the Pike Place Dancer, a one-mile race for 2-year-old fillies that is new to the Golden Gate stakes schedule.
PHOENIX – Things look tough enough to assess among the 10 slated to run in Saturday’s $35,000 Walter R. Cluer Memorial at Turf Paradise. Adding to the confusion in the mile grass event named for the Phoenix track’s founder is a paucity of proven turf form. It’s that lack of grass power that may play into the hands of trainer Mike Chambers’s two entrants, Gleam of Hope, Grade 3-placed on turf last fall, and Saratoga Boot, winner of the Cotton Fitzsimmons here Jan. 14 at this same distance.
Disco Barbie, who improved dramatically with the addition of Lasix, and Coastal Sunrise, perfect in two starts on dirt in Indiana, appear difficult to separate in Saturday’s $50,000 Xtra Heat Stakes, a six-furlong sprint for 2-year-old fillies at Delaware Park.
Disco Barbie, based at Parx Racing with trainer Tony Dutrow, saw her Beyer Speed Figure soar from 47 to 74 when she shipped to Delaware on Sept. 24 to win her maiden by a length. It was her second start, and first attempt racing with Lasix.
The runner-up from that race, Pow Wow Wow, returned to defeat maidens Oct. 15.
ELMONT, N.Y. - Lunar Victory, who won the $250,000 Empire Classic on Saturday at Belmont Park, could make his next start in the Grade 1 Clark Handicap at Churchill Downs on Nov. 23, trainer Bill Mott said.
Mott said earlier this week that the plan was to definitely keep Lunar Victory in training next year but that he would recommend to Juddmonte Farms, the owner of Lunar Victory, to possibly try the Clark.
“My recommendation is let’s see how he is doing, and if he is doing really well let’s have a look at the Clark,” Mott said.
ELMONT, N.Y. - Caixa Eletronica, runner-up to The Lumber Guy in the Grade 1 Vosburgh, tops a field of 10 entered for Saturday's Grade 3, $150,000 Bold Ruler at Belmont Park.
Caixa Eletronica finished third in last year’s Bold Ruler, won by his stablemate Calibrachoa.
This year, Caixa Eletronica won the Grade 2 Charles Town Classic at 1 1/8 miles and came from last with a wild late run to win the Grade 2 True North here on Belmont Stakes Day.
ARCADIA, Calif. - Charm the Maker will start for Hall of Fame trainer Ron McAnally in Saturday’s $100,000 Autumn Miss Stakes, but his mind was far from that race on Wednesday morning.
McAnally was anxiously awaiting word whether Suggestive Boy would be assured a spot in the $2 million BC Mile on Nov. 3. He feared the race would oversubscribe and that Suggestive Boy would be stuck on an also-eligible list. When the pre-entries were announced with a list of 13, Suggestive Boy was assured of a spot in the race.
ARCADIA, Calif. – Champ Pegasus, the runner-up in the 2010 Breeders’ Cup Turf at Churchill Downs, has been taken out of training because of a recent injury and may be retired to stud, trainer Richard Mandella said on Wednesday.
Unraced since a second-place finish in the Grade 2 Clement Hirsch Turf Championship at Santa Anita in October 2011, Champ Pegasus was an intended starter for the Grade 1 Citation Handicap at Betfair Hollywood Park on Nov. 25 when an injury surfaced.
“It’s a reoccurrence of an old problem,” Mandella said, declining to be more specific.
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.
