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.
The Big Fresno Fair opens a nine-day run Thursday to mark the end of the Northern California fair racing season.
For years, Fresno was a stand-alone meet, running a couple of months after the other fair meets and giving a brief respite to racing at Golden Gate Fields. But this year, the San Joaquin Fair in Stockton ran for two weeks heading into the Fresno meeting, and some horses that in the past would have raced at Fresno may have run at Stockton instead.
ARCADIA, Calif. –The drive from Del Mar to Hollywood Park covers about 110 miles and takes less than two hours – if a person leaves early and beats the notorious Los Angeles area traffic.
Jockey Brice Blanc knew the road well in August. He made the drive three times to work the turf miler Mr. Commons for trainer John Shirreffs.
Blanc would rise early, travel to Hollywood Park and return to Del Mar in time for afternoon races. All of that for about a minute’s worth of work.
“It was a good minute,” Blanc said last weekend.
LEXINGTON, Ky. – Trainer Charlie Lopresti said Tuesday that he will enter Wise Dan with the intent of running the star gelding Saturday in the richest race of the Keeneland fall meet, the Grade 1, $750,000 Shadwell Turf Mile.
Lopresti said the $2 million Breeders’ Cup Mile on Nov. 3 at Santa Anita remains the primary goal for Wise Dan, whose last six races have resulted in five victories, several of them jaw-droppers.
