ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Anfield Park will be moving from the maiden ranks into Grade 3 stakes company for Saturday’s $200,000 Mazarine here at Woodbine.
But Steve Owens, who conditions Anfield Park for Empress Stable, knows that his filly will handle the 1 1/16-mile distance of the Mazarine, and the fact that she is Ontario-bred gives her a crack at shares of $50,000 in bonus money.
“She’s doing well,” said Owens. “She’s a big, good-looking, strapping filly and she’s really starting to mature.”
ARCADIA, Calif. - Jimmy Creed can earn a spot in the Breeders’ Cup Sprint on Nov. 3 with a win or close finish in Saturday’s $250,000 Santa Anita Sprint Championship.
The Grade 1 Sprint Championship will be the graded stakes debut for the 3-year-old Jimmy Creed, and a major test. The race is led by Amazombie, the winner of the 2011 BC Sprint and the 2011 champion sprinter.
LEXINGTON, Ky. – There was a crowd at the entry booth Tuesday morning, and it had nothing to do with the usual back-slapping reunions of horsemen, jockey agents, and backstretch types that invariably take place leading up to a Keeneland meet.
OKLAHOMA CITY – Remington Park Oaks winner Sticks Wondergirl keeps stepping up her game, and next month she will get the biggest test of her career. Trainer Greg Burchell said the Grade 2, $150,000 Chilukki at Churchill Downs on Nov. 3 is the target for Sticks Wondergirl, who on Tuesday left Oklahoma to return to her Keeneland base in Kentucky.
ARCADIA, Calif. – A first-level allowance sprint Thursday at Santa Anita has Breeders’ Cup implications for two of the fastest juvenile fillies in California.
Beholder and Mechaya, two-three finishers last month in the Grade 1 Del Mar Debutante, shorten to six furlongs Thursday in race 4. A good effort in the $50,000 allowance could lead to a shot next month at $500,000.
“I may end up thinking about the Breeders’ Cup Sprint for 2-year-olds,” Beholder’s trainer Richard Mandella said. “But there are some good fillies in there. She’s not the only one.”
Brigand, who was a punctual favorite in the Travers Day opener at minuscule odds, will be a clear favorite again when he takes on seven rival New York-breds in Thursday’s featured fifth race at Belmont, a one-mile optional claimer with second-level allowance conditions.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario – A three-member panel headed by Rod Seiling, chair of the Ontario Racing Commision, on Tuesday morning denied an appeal by trainer Carolyn Costigan regarding the result of the Sept. 15 Natalma Stakes.
The decision followed more than two hours of testimony at the nearby Ontario Racing Commision offices.
Costigan had contended that Nancy O, who is owned by her father, Bob Costigan, and Harry Dobson, had been interfered with shortly after the start of the Natalma, which Spring Venture won by 1 3/4 lengths.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario – The Woodbine Entertainment Group announced Tuesday that fractional betting on U.S. racing will be available on the Keeneland meeting which starts this Friday.
Local racing fans will now be able to bet, as a base, 20 cents on superfectas and 60 cents on trifectas and multi-race bets like the pick three and pick four. The previous minimum was $1.
The base amounts are more in tune with the offerings in the United States, but are still limited by current Canadian regulations and must be in 20 cent increments.
ARCADIA, Calif. – Some time in the next month or so, trainer John Sadler is expected to record the 2,000th win of his career. He can move closer to that milestone in several stakes at Santa Anita this weekend.
Through Sunday, Sadler had 1,991 career wins (including a victory in the Dubai Golden Shaheen with Our New Recruit in 2004). He added two victories on the opening three days of the Santa Anita autumn meeting.
“I think I can do it at this meeting,” he said last weekend. “I don’t like to look back, but it is something to reflect on. It means something.
The Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Sprint will be moved to the Saturday Breeders’ Cup card, and the Marathon is back as part of the Friday card, the Breeders’ Cup said on Tuesday when it announced the schedule for the 15 races of the 29th Breeders’ Cup Nov. 2-3 at Santa Anita.
The Saturday card, anchored by the Classic as the last of nine BC races, will also include the Juvenile Turf, Sprint, Turf Sprint, Dirt Mile, Turf, Juvenile, and Mile.
