COLUMBUS, Neb. – The Nebraska racing season concludes with the $15,000-added Columbus Futurity on Sunday. A field of eight Nebraska-bred juveniles will go six furlongs on the closing-day card at Columbus’s Agricultural Park.
Go Gold won his career debut in the Lincoln Futurity on June 24 going 4 1/2 furlongs for trainer Ron Westermann. His only other start came here Aug. 19, when he finished a non-threatening fourth in the Club House Special.
POMONA, Calif. – Wagering value might be hard to find Sunday in $50,000 Jim Kostoff Stakes at Fairplex Park, home of the Los Angeles County Fair race meet.
Mile High Magic towers over four rivals in the 6 1/2-furlong stakes race for 3-year-olds, and he would be a tempting proposition at even-money. But the program odds are expected to drop.
Mile High Magic could start at odds-on.
AUBURN, Wash. – Only four horses will compete Sunday in Emerald Downs’s championship event for horses bred in Washington, the $40,000 Muckleshoot Tribal Classic at 1 1/16 miles. The centerpiece of Washington Cup Day – six stakes races for statebreds worth a total of $215,000 in purses – the Muckleshoot will go as the third race on a nine-race card that begins at 2 p.m. Pacific.
ELMONT, N.Y. – Trainer David Donk is hopeful he has found the one thing that may give his filly Hessonite an edge over Gitchee Goomie in their ongoing rivalry: distance.
Sunday, when the two New York-bred fillies meet for the fifth time this year – and sixth time in 11 months – in the $150,000 John Hettinger Stakes at Belmont Park, it will be the first time at 1 1/8 miles. Though Hessonite has yet to race beyond 1 1/16 miles, Donk has been looking forward to stretching the daughter of Freud out in distance for a long time.
ELMONT, N.Y. – Street Game’s fifth-place finish in the West Point Stakes was one of the few blemishes on what was an otherwise terrific Saratoga meet for trainer Phil Serpe. Though Serpe, who went 7 for 31 at the Spa, may not have wanted to leave upstate New York, he is viewing the change of venue to Belmont Park as a positive for Street Game when he runs in Sunday’s $150,000 Ashley T. Cole Stakes.
Here's my race-by-race rundown of Sunday's pick four at Hastings on Sept. 9, 2012. I'm building my wager with TicketMaker, found exclusively on DRF.com. The bets are in $0.50 increments and my budget is $100.
VANCOUVER, British Columbia – Six stakes totaling $600,000 will be offered Sunday on the richest card ever held at Hastings, which includes the jewel of the meet, the Grade 3, $200,000 British Columbia Derby.
Trainer Tim McCanna, who is shipping Italian Boy from Emerald Downs to run in the 1 1/8-mile feature, summed up how the B.C. Derby looks on paper.
“That is one of the toughest derby fields I’ve seen up there in a long time,” said McCanna.
Thirteen horses were entered but only 12 will be permitted to start. They will all carry 126 pounds.
ELMONT, N.Y. − Trainer Dale Romans said he is leaning toward starting Pacific Classic winner Dullahan in the Grade 1, $600,000 Joe Hirsch Turf Classic Invitational here on Sept. 29.
Romans said the Joe Hirsch makes sense because “we’d probably be leaning toward running in the Turf at the Breeders’ Cup,” he said. The Grade 1 Jamaica, restricted to 3-year-olds at 1 1/8 miles, is also possible.
ELMONT, N.Y. − Allen Iwinski has entered Sean Avery so many times in the last three weeks that the 6-year-old gelding’s return to the races in Saturday’s $80,000 Affiliate Stakes is almost anti-climactic to the trainer.
After several aborted attempts, Sean Avery will return from a 13-month layoff against five opponents in the six-furlong Affiliate at Belmont Park.
