ETOBICOKE, Ontario - Trainer Bob Tiller has a pair of shooters for next Sunday’s $125,000 Classy ’n Smart.
The 3-year-old fillies It’s Gail and Grace Phil will be facing older Ontario-sired fillies and mares in the 1 1/16-mile Classy ’n Smart. Both breezed five furlongs in company here Thursday with the former going in 1:01 and the latter in 1:01.40,
FORT ERIE, Ontario – Terry Husbands rode five winners last Tuesday at Fort Erie and made it a day to remember in his young career.
Currently atop the local riding colony with 64 wins, Husbands could do no wrong on the day as the five wins included scores in the two $50,000 stakes events, the George Frostad Memorial and the Ernie Samuel Memorial.
“I had a small prayer,” said Husbands, “wishing I could win one of the two stakes, but to win them both and three other races was a dream come true. It was awesome.”
VANCOUVER, British Columbia – What a Score looks like the one to catch in a $15,000 claiming race for 3-year-old fillies at Hastings on Sunday. She also looks like the one to beat in the 6 1/2-furlong sprint that drew seven horses and goes as race 7 on the eight-race card.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario – La Tia has been a new filly since being transferred to trainer Brian Williamson and discovering Polytrack at Arlington this year.
On Sunday, La Tia will be looking to run her Polytrack record to 4 for 4 when she faces just five rivals here in the 1 1/16-mile La Lorgnette, an open race for 3-year-old fillies that offers a purse of $150,000.
Unlike in 1874, when the two combatants who dead-heated for first in the Travers Stakes – Attila and Acrobat – staged a run-off the same day to decide the winner, there was no such exercise conducted this year.
Instead, Alpha and Golden Ticket – the two horses who dead-heated for first in last month’s 143rd edition of the Travers Stakes at Saratoga – will have a rematch in Saturday’s Grade 2, $1 million Pennsylvania Derby at Parx Racing. They will be joined in the starting gate by six other 3-year-olds, only one of whom has won a graded stakes.
AUBURN, Wash. – The $50,000 Barbara Shinpoch Stakes for 2-year-old fillies, originally scheduled for Aug. 26 but postponed when the race failed to attract enough horses, will go as the feature race Saturday at Emerald Downs. Blueberry Smoothie is likely to start as a short-priced favorite in a field of five.
Look At the Time has made just two starts on the grass, but both were notable efforts and suggest he will relish the return to turf Saturday at Louisiana Downs in the $150,000 A.L. “Red” Erwin. The race, for 3-year-olds bred in Louisiana, is part of the annual “Southern Showcase” card of six restricted stakes worth a cumulative $600,000.
It would have been far-fetched just a few months ago to think that the presence of Questing in a $1 million race would be largely responsible for that race drawing just a four-horse field.
But such is the case for Saturday’s Grade 1 Cotillion at Parx where Questing will look to continue to build her r è sum é for a 3-year-old filly championship when she takes on just three opponents in the 1 1/16-mile race.
ARLINGTON HEIGHTS, Ill. – The trainer Chris Block has personal reasons for wanting to win the inaugural edition of the $65,000 Addison Cammack Stakes on Saturday at Arlington Park.
Cammack, who died of lung cancer at 70 last December, operated an equine transport business and was a well liked fixture on Chicago backstretches. It was common for him to linger slightly longer than business required during his visits to the Block barn. He and Block simply seemed to enjoy one another’s company.
MIAMI – Angelica Zapata was the clear-cut leader of the local filly and mare handicap division around two turns when given a breather by trainer Ron Pellegrini after her one-sided victory in the Nancy’s Glitter Handicap in mid-July. And the multiple stakes winner will be expected to pick right up where she left off when returning to action as the starting highweight and solid favorite in Saturday’s $75,000 Stage Door Betty Handicap at Calder.
