MIAMI – There used to be a time when northern invaders would ship down in droves and dominate the rich Summit of Speed, leaving town year in and year out with most of the big bucks up for grabs during Calder Race Course’s marquee event.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario —The Canada Day long weekend is over, but the action continues Wednesday night at Woodbine with an eight-race card that includes two turf events.
Well Played has a realistic chance to win his first turf start in the third race of the evening, a six-furlong maiden special.
Well Played finished up the track when he debuted in a difficult five-furlong dash April 7. Three weeks later, with the addition of Lasix, he was a prominent third in a 6 1/2-furlong maiden special, while registering a 61 Beyer Speed Figure.
Guam Typhoon and Hugo, the morning-line favorites, both look solid on Wednesday in the $50,000 stakes that headline the 10-race holiday card starting at 5 p.m. Eastern at Colonial Downs.
Daniel Centeno could be sitting in a sweet spot with mounts on both.
Guam Typhoon, a 6-year-old gelding, is in the best form of his life heading into the Chesapeake at six furlongs on the main track.
He has won five in a row in dominant fashion dating back to Tampa Bay Downs in January, and he seems to improve with every race.
It is tough to separate the five older horses running in a $30,000 claiming race that will serve as Wednesday’s feature at Northlands Park. The six-furlong sprint goes as the fourth of nine races and headlines a card that begins at 6 p.m. Mountain.
Robo Willie and Gatwick figure to be winging it early, and if they get carried away up front, deep closer Swiss Sky is capable of getting up in time. Locksley Hall and Reggie Dunlop are also fast, but can stalk.
Defending champ Excessive Passion will be looking for his first 2012 victory in Wednesday’s $75,000 Sam J. Whiting Handicap at the Alameda County Fair in Pleasanton, Calif.
The Jeff Bonde-trained Excessive Passion has run locally twice, winning the Everett Nevin Alameda County Futurity in 2009 and the Whiting last year.
One member of the Englehart family should be posing for a picture in the Finger Lakes winner’s circle following the Wednesday’s Niagara Stakes for 3-year-old fillies. But will it be Chris Englehart, the track’s leading trainer each of the past nine years, or his son, Jeremiah, who will saddle two contenders compared with dad’s one in the six-furlong feature?
LINCOLN, Neb. – Reach One More enters Wednesday’s HBPA Stakes for older horses still seeking his first win of the year, but should rule a strong favorite as he heads a compact field of five going a mile and 70 yards in the Independence Day feature at Lincoln Race Course. The track offers a rare Wednesday card leading into its closing weekend.
Danny Pish, who had a three-win lead in the Lone Star Park trainer standings heading into the final week of the meet Tuesday, has several horses pointing to the track’s Stars of Texas Day program on Saturday. The card features four restricted stakes worth a total of $300,000, including a pair of $75,000 Texas Stallion Stakes races for 2-year-olds, the Staunch Avenger and the Pan Zareta.
OCEANPORT, N.J. – The summer of 2010 at Monmouth Park was magical for Get Serious, as he won a trio of Grade 3 stakes during the meet.
Two years removed from that terrific season, Get Serious tries to turn back the clock on Wednesday in the Grade 3, $100,000 Red Bank Stakes on the turf, the feature on an 11-race holiday card that starts at 12:45 p.m. Eastern.
Get Serious bids for his first victory since the 2010 Red Bank.
Star Guitar’s streak is getting so serious, it’s starting to make trainer Al Stall Jr. sweat. After racking up his 10th straight win Saturday night at Evangeline Downs in Opelousas, La, the horse has not lost a race for more than a year and a half.
“It’s turned into a situation where it becomes such an event when he runs, for us at least,” said Stall, who trains Star Guitar for breeder Brittlyn Stable. “The expectations get so high I find myself getting little more nervous than I used to. But he always delivers.”
