ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Last October, it seemed more than likely that Bear It’s Time’s racing career was over.

“She pulled a ligament galloping on the main track,” said trainer Reade Baker, who had been preparing Bear It’s Time for the Ruling Angel, an overnight stakes that had been delayed by one week and ultimately was discarded. “The initial prognosis was not good. But so far, she’s escaped the bullet.”

On Sunday, Bear It’s Time will make her seasonal bow in the Ontario Matron, a 1 1/16-mile race for fillies and mares that offers Grade 3 status and a purse of $150,000.

The story of Japanese jockey Yuichi Fukunaga is a simple one – if by simple the reader’s frame of reference is a melodramatic Russian classic or John Irving novel in full psychological bloom. The plot twists like this:

You are the son of a sports legend whose career is cut tragically short by a crippling accident. As a result, you come of age knowing only a father who is disabled and can barely communicate, totally disconnected from the accomplishments that made him a national hero.

DEL MAR, Calif. – Opening day at Del Mar has become the event of the summer in San Diego County. Not the sporting event of the summer. The event, period.

Despite premium prices for admission to the turf club, a stiff $40 charge for valet parking, $9 for a can of beer, double digits for a margarita, long lines to bet, eat, drink, and for the bathroom, and a lagging economy, fans just keep coming because opening day at Del Mar has taken on the aura as the place to be. Del Mar’s slogan is “Cool as ever.” Boy, was it ever on Wednesday.

ETOBICOKE, Ontario - Essence Hit Man was the champ, but favored Eternal Rule had never lost. The two gifted sprinters dueled through the stretch Wednesday night at Woodbine in $174,900 Bold Venture Stakes, with Essence Hit Man coming out on top in the Grade 3 test.

DEL MAR, Calif. - Staying focused has made a stakes winner of My Best Brother.

Since the colt was fitted with sheepskin cheek pieces in late May, he is unbeaten in three starts, including the second division of Wednesday’s $109,900 Oceanside Stakes at Del Mar.

Ridden by Martin Garcia, My Best Brother ($14) led throughout the one-mile Oceanside Stakes for 3-year-olds on turf, holding off a challenge from Tones. Old Time Hockey was third in the field of eight.

DEL MAR, Calif. - A stable loaded with 3-year-olds now has a runner for major turf stakes.

Midnight Crooner, trained by Bob Baffert, won his first stakes in the $109,300 first division of the Oceanside Stakes on Wednesday, the opening day of the Del Mar meeting.

DEL MAR, Calif. – Chivalry is not dead. It was ladies first at Del Mar on Wednesday, when jockey Chantal Sutherland and trainer Kristin Mulhall joined forces to win the first race of the meet with Miss California as this seaside track’s 75th anniversary season got under way to a rip-roaring start.

The grandstand and apron were jammed from one end to the other long before the day’s first race, and Sutherland said the noise from the crowd could be heard as the first-race field went around the far turn.

CINCINNATI - River Downs canceled live racing after six races Wednesday because of a severe thunderstorm that came through the Cincinnati area.

Following an hour delay for the storm, it was decided that the track was unsafe because of the nearly three inches of rain that fell in less than an hour along with golf-ball-sized hail. The final four races on the card, including the Queen City Dash for Quarter Horses, were called off.

Racing is scheduled to resume Thursday at 1:30 pm.

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - Despite the defections of Bodemeister and Union Rags from the $1 million Haskell at Monmouth Park on July 29, Alpha will make his next start in the $600,000 Jim Dandy here at Saratoga on July 28, trainer Kiaran McLaughlin confirmed on Wednesday.

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McLaughlin said the fact Alpha has shown an affinity for Saratoga’s main track and that he doesn’t have to ship were the primary reasons for staying home.

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - Last summer, owner Fred Brei sent Jackson Bend to trainer Nick Zito before the Saratoga meet and wound up winning both the James Marvin and Grade 1 Forego stakes. Now Brei is hoping lightning can strike twice after shipping another of his talented homebreds, Fort Loudon, from south Florida to Zito for the upcoming meet.

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