OCEANPORT, N.J. – Terri Pompay trains Currency Swap, who emerged as one of the nation’s leading 2-year-olds following a victory in the Grade 1 Hopeful Stakes earlier this month.
There is more than one 2-year-old colt in her barn. Pompay sends out two members of her supporting cast – Managed Account and Dangerous Trick – in the National Association of Two-Year-Old Consignors Futurity on Saturday at Monmouth Park.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Moonshine Mullin, who ran hot and cold at Saratoga, will shed blinkers for Saturday’s $150,000 Ontario Derby, a nine-furlong stakes that drew nine 3-year-olds.
Moonshine Mullin served notice that he was among the elite 3-year-olds at Woodbine when he took the nine-furlong Victoria Park Stakes on the Polytrack here June 12.
Following a seven-week break, Moonshine Mullin was a surprising second to Stay Thirsty in the Grade 2 Jim Dandy at Saratoga, earning a 99 Beyer Figure in the nine-furlong route while making his first dirt start.
MIAMI – Saturday will be ladies’ day at Calder with a pair of stakes on tap for fillies and mares, the $75,000 Stage Door Betty Handicap at 1 1/16 miles and the $55,000 Dolly Jo carded at six furlongs. Both races will be run over the main track.
VANCOUVER, British Columbia – Hard work, talent, and a little bit of luck are some of the ingredients required for success. Apprentice jockey Alex Marti appears to have the first two prerequisites, and being at the right place at the right time could help propel the 19-year-old to a successful riding career.
Trainer Janet Van Bebber will attack Saturday’s closing-day stakes at Fair Grounds with seven starters among the four races, chief among them Little Bit Trashy in the $276,833 Louisiana Quarter Horse Breeders’ Association Sale Futurity.
The futurity is a restricted Grade 1, and the richest of the stakes that together are worth $385,685.
Mother Nature could very well dictate whether Saturday’s Grade 3 Kent Stakes for 3-year-olds remains on Delaware Park’s grass course or gets moved to the main track.
Showers throughout the week and a forecast calling for the possibility of heavy rain on race day almost assuredly mean the $250,000, 1 1/8-mile Kent will either be contested on soft turf or mud.
Fleet Attack, fifth in the Grade 3, $300,000 Canadian Derby in his last start, is going to appreciate the much easier company he will be facing in a first-level allowance race for 3-year-olds that headlines a 10-race card at Northlands Park Saturday. The one-mile race drew six horses and it will be interesting to see how Fleet Attack bounces back from the grueling 1 3/8-mile Canadian Derby Aug. 20.
VANCOUVER, British Columbia – Trip handicappers will be taking a close look at Late Affair in a $35,000 optional claiming race that will serve as Saturday’s feature at Hastings. The 6 1/2-furlong sprint for fillies and mares drew eight horses and goes as race 7 on the eight-race card, which begins at 1:50 p.m.
With the Breeders’ Cup having been expanded this year to 15 races, six of the races will run Friday and nine – including the Classic – on Saturday, when the event is run for the 28th time Nov. 4-5 at Churchill Downs, the Breeders’ Cup announced Thursday.
In addition, the Breeders’ Cup announced an expanded menu of wagers, most notably a new pick five with a 50-cent minimum both days, 10-cent superfectas, and a pick six for both days that can carry over to Saturday is no one hits it Friday.
Jockey Jesse Jimenez Garcia won the 2,000th Thoroughbred race of his career Wednesday at the Downs at Albuquerque, when he guided Joyssweetjoy to a half-length win in the fifth race. The horse rallied from last in the $4,000 claiming sprint, and paid $4.
Garcia’s first win as a jockey came on Aug. 2, 1982, at Del Mar. He has had 16,637 Thoroughbred mounts, and they have earned more than $18 million. In all, Garcia, who is riding on a New Mexico circuit that includes races for Quarter Horses, has won has won 2,048 races from 16,955 starts, for mount earnings of $19 million.
