Queen Greeley has raced more recently than Hayley’s Halo, and that might give her the edge she needs in Sunday’s $60,000 Chaves County at Zia Park to turn the tables on the filly she has chased home four times this year.
“It’s got to be a benefit, but I haven’t beat her yet,” said Todd Fincher, who trains Queen Greely. “We’ll try again.”
Rapid Redux’s quest to catch co-record holders Zenyatta and Peppers Pride has been temporarily put on hold.
Concerned about track conditions at Mountaineer Racetrack, trainer David Wells did not ship Rapid Redux to West Virginia and will scratch the 5-year-old gelding from Friday night’s one-mile starter allowance, where the horse was listed as the 3-5 morning-line favorite in a field of eight.
The 17-day fall meet at Keeneland Race Course will get away to its usual action-packed start Friday when the first two of nine Breeders’ Cup preps begin FallStars Weekend, the three-day run that always defines a front-loaded meet.
ARCADIA, Calif. – Dollars and dreams are at stake Sunday at Santa Anita, where 10 2-year-old fillies with Breeders’ Cup ambitions race 1 1/16 miles in the Grade 1 Oak Leaf Stakes.
Weemissfrankie is the likely favorite, and her trainer, Pete Eurton, will not look beyond this weekend. Dream, yes. Plan ahead, not yet.
“I’m looking at Sunday, and hoping for November,” Eurton said. “Sunday is like a stopover.”
VANCOUVER, British Columbia – With full fields, three stakes races including the $100,000 Premier’s and the Grade 3, $100,000 Ballerina, Russell Baze making an appearance, and a strong contingent of horses and humans from Emerald Downs, Sunday’s final card of the 2011 Hastings meet should be memorable.
The 1 3/8-mile Premier’s, which drew 12-horses, may have lost its Grade 3 designation this year, but it is the gem on the 11-race card.
FORT ERIE, Ontario – Apprentice jockey Janine Smith, 23, has come a long way from her home on tiny Denman Island in the Pacific Ocean to the border oval at Fort Erie.
The island, not far from Vancouver Island, was where Smith had her first lessons in riding. She was 4 years old and sitting on her pony.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Reconnect came from the clouds at odds of 70-1 under rider Omar Moreno to give trainer Ashlee Brnjas her first stakes victory here in the Sept. 10 La Prevoyante.
On Sunday, Brnjas will be hoping that lightning can strike twice when she sends out Reconnect, who is a daughter of Niigon, for the $150,000 Carotene Stakes.
The Carotene is scheduled for 1 1/8 miles on the grass and is restricted to Ontario foals, a step up from the Ontario-sired conditions of the La Prevoyante, which was run over one mile on the same surface.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Don Cavallo and Stately Victor, who both competed in the Grade 1 Pacific Classic, head a tiny five-horse field in Sunday’s Grade 3, $150,000 Durham Cup Stakes at Woodbine.
Don Cavallo ran the race of his life here two starts ago in the Grade 3 Dominion Day Stakes. He pressed the early pace in the 1 1/4-mile fixture, and then opened up a big lead on the far turn before coasting home on top by nearly four lengths, earning a Beyer Speed Figure of 98.
Only six challengers are willing to face defending champion Ben’s Cat in the $100,000 Turf Sprint at 5 1/2 furlongs (race 2, part of the 11-race Maryland Million program Saturday at Laurel Park. The 5-year-old Ben’s Cat is 3 for 3 on Laurel’s turf course and 4 for 5 lifetime sprinting on grass, but must spot his rivals nine to 12 pounds as the 123-pound highweight.
