ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Somewhat lost amid the stakes excitement here last weekend were solid performances by the 2-year-olds Courtville and Prince Raphael.
Courtville, a gelding owned and trained by Laurie Silvera, was a two-length winner of an Ontario-sired maiden race at 5 1/2 furlongs on Sunday.
Prince Raphael, a colt owned by Oslen and Cristina Belle and trained by Debbie England, made his exit from the maiden ranks with a 6 3/4-length score over seven furlongs on Saturday.
CHICAGO – Arlington Park’s bid to halt winter-spring racing at Hawthorne failed to gain traction with the Illinois Racing Board, with the IRB approving a 2012 Illinois racing schedule much like the one in place this year at a meeting Tuesday in downtown Chicago.
Blind Luck, in her final prep for the Grade 1 Lady's Secret Stakes on Saturday, worked a sharp half-mile in 47.60 seconds on Tuesday morning at Hollywood Park under her regular exercise rider, Marco Ramirez.
Blind Luck came out just after the mid-morning renovation break. She finished well, and, as is her custom, galloped out for an extended length following the drill.
"Super. Super," Ramirez said to Jerry Hollendorfer, her trainer and co-owner, after the work. "She was barely warming up."
MIAMI – Mambo Meister, who finished seventh after getting hung wide throughout in the Grade 1 Woodward earlier this month, is back home and will make his next start in the Grade 3 Spend a Buck Handicap here on the Oct. 15 Festival of the Sun card.
Mambo Meister breezed an easy three furlongs in 36.88 seconds and galloped out a strong half-mile in 49.22 on Saturday in his first work since returning from Saratoga. Mambo Meister was hung very wide around the opening turn of the Woodward and was never a serious factor, finishing nearly 17 lengths behind winner Havre de Grace.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Casa Loma made quite a splash when she graduated second time out at 76-1. She should be favored in her third start in Thursday’s Woodbine headliner, a seven-furlong allowance for 2-year-old fillies that will kick off the eight-race card.
Casa Loma, who’s named after a well-known Toronto castle, was never in contention before ending up a distant ninth in her debut in an Aug. 6 maiden special.
Delaware Park in Wilmington, Del., has canceled its Wednesday race card, citing "insufficient entries," the track said on Tuesday.
The cancelation is the fourth for Delaware Park since its meet began on April 30, including two days lost to Hurricane Irene in late August. Delaware also canceled a card in May when it could not attract enough horses to fill nine races.
Tizway returned to the work tab Tuesday morning at Saratoga, but he is not returning to the Jockey Club Gold Cup field.
After missing a workout last week due to a temperature, Tizway breezed five furlongs in 1:01.44 over the Oklahoma training track Tuesday morning. Saratoga clockers caught Tizway in fractions of 13.20 seconds, 25.20, and 37.20. He galloped out six furlongs in 1:15.40.
ARCADIA, Calif. - Coil, the winner of the Grade 1 Haskell at Monmouth in July, will make his stakes debut against older horses in Saturday’s Grade 1, $250,000 Goodwood Stakes at Santa Anita, trainer Bob Baffert said Tuesday.
Baffert had also considered the Indiana Derby at Hoosier Park on Saturday for Coil, but decided to keep the colt at his base in California.
A winner of 4 of 7 starts and $752,560, Coil was last of 10 in the Travers Stakes at Saratoga on Aug. 27, the 3-year-old’s most recent start.
ELMONT, N.Y. – Peter Walder would have been content to wait until the Breeders’ Cup Sprint to find out just how good a horse he had in Force Freeze. But when a stakes failed to fill at Monmouth Park on Labor Day, Walder needed a race to prepare Force Freeze for the Sprint.
With limited options, he chose Saturday’s Vosburgh, which could come up the best race on the card with as many as 11 horses pointing to it, including defending sprint champion Big Drama.
