ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Woodbine has applied to the Ontario Racing Commission for permission to eliminate 11 of the 13 remaining Thursday racing dates scheduled for the 2012 meeting, which concludes Dec. 16.
Thursday racing, which has been on hiatus since July 12, was scheduled to resume on Sept. 13. But, the Woodbine Entertainment Group now would prefer to conduct Thursday racing only during the last two weeks of the meeting when the entry box traditionally has been extremely busy.
Friday is the deadline for trainers to register for the 2012 Claiming Crown, which will be run Dec. 1 at Gulfstream Park. The registration, which costs $100, makes trainers eligible to nominate horses to the Claiming Crown before the Nov. 9 deadline. Supplemental nominations and entries will be taken on Nov. 28.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - Trainer Dale Romans was still accepting congratulations for Dullahan's victory the previous evening in Del Mar's Pacific Classic when he sent out another of his stable stars, Shackleford, to work a half mile in 50.80 seconds over the main track shortly after 9 a.m. on Monday. Shackleford did appear to labor some through the final furlong and while galloping out into the turn.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - Trainer Bill Mott reported Monday that his Eclipse champion Royal Delta was doing well following her surprising second-place finish behind Love and Pride the previous afternoon in the Grade 1 Personal Ensign.
Mott offered few excuses for Royal Delta, whose belated rally fell a half-length short of catching the winner, conceding that while his horse didn’t run badly, the Personal Ensign probably wasn’t her best effort.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - Allen Jerkens doesn't win as many races as he used to, but the legendary Hall of Fame trainer sure knows how to get the most out of the ones he does, at least this summer at Saratoga.
Jerkens got his second win of the meet on Monday when Go Unbridled surprised even his mentor by rallying to an easy 6 1/2-length victory over 8-5 favorite Opus A in the $100,000 Saratoga Dew Stakes for New York-bred fillies and mares. His only other win of the Saratoga session came earlier this summer in the Grade 1 Prioress with Emma's Encore.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Saturday was a bittersweet afternoon at the races for trainer Nick Zito who came close to winning a pair of prestigious Grade 1 Stakes only to come out on the short end of a couple of photo finishes in the King’s Bishop and Travers with Fort Loudon and Fast Falcon respectively.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – There may be only one week remaining in the meet, but there are at least 10 stakes races to be run and trainer Todd Pletcher figures to be a factor in many of them. That’s why it was another busy Monday morning for Saratoga’s leading trainer as he put a plethora of horses – many of them 2-year-olds – on the track for workouts.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Big Band Sound had played second fiddle in his first four stakes appearances of the meeting, ending the runner-up on each occasion. But Big Band Sound took center stage in a big way here last Sunday with an emphatic 2 1/2-length victory in the Grade 2, $202,400 Play the King Stakes under his regular rider Tyler Pizarro.
Trainer Danny Vella said he had not been concerned with Big Band Sound’s runner-up finishes having become a habit.
Last Sunday’s Grade 3 Canadian Derby was one of the most exciting renewals of the premier race in Alberta. Toccetive, Dougs Buddy, and heavily favored Devil in Disguise hooked up at the top of the stretch, and it was still anyone’s race inside the sixteenth pole. Toccetive eventually wore down Dougs Buddy to win by a half-length with Devil in Disguise another half-length behind at the finish of 1 3/8-mile marathon.
Trainer Joan Petrowski wasn’t sure who to cheer for. She trains Toccetive and Dougs Buddy.
