ETOBICOKE, Ontario — Safety Zone ran a rare clunker last time in his second try off the claim, but the classy 8-year-old is certainly eligible to rebound in Friday’s Woodbine headliner, a second-level optional $62,500 claiming race over a mile and a sixteenth on Polytrack.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Trainer Roger Attfield had been planning to ship Simmard to Saratoga for Saturday’s Grade 1 Sword Dancer Invitational. But, in a very unfortunate and sudden turn of events, Simmard’s racing days have come to an end.
“He’d worked very well Monday morning,” said Attfield, who watched Simmard breeze five furlongs in 1:01. “But later on in the day we discovered that he’d fractured his sesamoid. It’s very bad news.”
ARLINGTON HEIGHTS, Ill. – Years back, this kind of race might have been an exhibition. But for the third straight year, Arlington Park will host a parimutuel race pitting five retired riders against five younger and active ones, calling it the “Arlington Fab 5 vs. Legends.”
“The crowd really gets involved,” said Patti Cooksey, a pioneer among female jockeys who is back for a third year in the featured event of the Million eve program Friday. “They’ve got their money on it, and they really do seem to love it.”
OCEANPORT, N.J. - After 12 consecutive stakes appearances, J J’s Lucky Train gets class relief Friday in the $46,000 allowance feature at Monmouth Park.
He didn’t exactly land in a soft spot.
The third-level $60,000 optional claimer is one of the best dirt sprints of the meet aside from the stakes.
The feature is one of three allowances on the 10-race card that starts at 12:45 p.m. Eastern.
CHICAGO – When he lines up for the 30th Arlington Million on Saturday, 8-year-old Rahystrada will become the 10th horse to have made three starts in the vaunted turf race, joining the likes of John Henry and The Tin Man. You’d think The Fates might show a little respect for an old warrior, but no: For the second year in a row, Rahystrada will break from post 1, a potentially disadvantageous spot in the 1 1/4-mile race.
DEL MAR, Calif. – Acclamation, the champion older male of 2011, is expected to miss the $1 million Pacific Classic at Del Mar on Aug. 26 because of inflammation below an ankle, owner Bud Johnston said on Wednesday.
The injury was diagnosed earlier this week, Johnston said. Acclamation won the 2011 Pacific Classic as part of a campaign that led to his Eclipse Award.
“I think it’s a 90 percent chance we’re out of the Classic,” Johnston said on Wednesday. “I don’t want to take a chance on it.
DEL MAR, Calif. – Bodemeister, the runner-up in the Kentucky Derby and Preakness Stakes in the spring, has been sent to a veterinary hospital in Lexington, Ky., for a physical evaluation, trainer Bob Baffert said on Wednesday.
“We sent him for a complete examination,” Baffert said. “I’m not happy with the way he’s been training.”
Baffert said that Bodemeister was “on his way” to the Rood and Riddle Equine Hospital on Wednesday. Results of the tests are expected in coming days.
Inca Beauty will appreciate the class relief when she drops into a second-level optional claiming race for fillies and mares at Northlands Park Friday. The available claiming price for the one-mile race that drew a field of six is $30,000.
VANCOUVER, British Columbia – Evelyn’s Dancer figures to be a short price despite being asked to pack high weight of 125 pounds in the $50,000 Hong Kong Jockey Club for 3-year-old fillies at Hastings Friday. The 1 1/16-mile feature drew six horses and goes as the sixth race.
Also on the eight-race card, which begins at 7:15 p.m. Pacific, is the $50,000 Richmond Derby Trial for 3-year-olds, which drew seven horses. The 1 1/16-mile Derby Trial goes as the third race and appears to be a wide-open event.
AUBURN, Wash. – Jockey Paul Frey and trainer Wayne Branch – legendary collaborators during the heyday of Northwest Thoroughbred racing – will be honored posthumously Saturday at Emerald Downs with induction into the Washington Racing Hall of Fame.
Frey, who died in January at age 73, rode 2,479 winners in a 20-year career that began in the early 1950s. Some 500 of those winners were saddled by Branch.
