ARLINGTON HEIGHTS, Ill. – Closing day of Arlington Park’s 2011 meeting is Sunday. The season is not completely going out with a whimper, but with no stakes closing weekend and a modest second-level allowance race headlining the Sunday card, there’s no real bang, either.
MIAMI – Friday was decision day for owner Shivananda Parboo and his father, trainer Bisnath Parboo, regarding the upcoming itineraries of stable stars Giant Ryan and Trinniberg. They finally made plans after both horses had finished cooling out about two hours after each worked a half-mile over a fast Calder strip.
“Trinniberg will ship to New York on Sunday and likely run in the Champagne,” the younger Parboo confirmed. “Giant Ryan will stay here and skip the Vosburgh, which was our original intention although he’s still on target to run in the Breeders’ Cup Sprint.”
ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Happy Clapper, a long-winded 4-year-old filly trained by Michael Doyle, could notch her first stakes victory here Sunday in the $100,000 Flaming Page, a 1 1/2-mile overnight turf stakes for fillies and mares.
But to do so Happy Clapper will have to get past a triple threat from the barn of trainer Roger Attfield, who has Honimiere, Oregon Lady, and Thislilsoulofmine in the five-horse field.
ARCADIA, Calif. – Television images of the upcoming Santa Anita Autumn meeting will have a wider distribution through the Internet, satisfying a demand issued by the California Horse Racing Board last month, the government body announced on Thursday.
In August, racing board officials approved Santa Anita’s application for an autumn meeting, from Friday through Nov. 6, contingent on wider exposure of the track’s television pictures from the HRTV network.
VANCOUVER, British Columbia – Divisional honors will be on the line in the two major stakes races that close out the 2011 Hastings meet next Sunday. Crew Leader would likely get the nod over St. Liams Halo as the top older horse with a win in the $100,000 Premiers. Emerald Downs-based Class Included would certainly be named the top 3-year-old filly if she beats older fillies and mares in the Grade 3, $100,000 Ballerina.
FORT ERIE, Ontario – Fort Erie-based Lynn Simon grew up the daughter of a trainer and has been training Thoroughbreds for 20 years, and says she still loves what she does.
“I grew up at the racetrack with my mother watching over me,” said Simon, 49. “She didn’t approve of the backstretch environment for a young girl, but gave in since I loved it so much and because my father, who has trained horses since his teenage years, was always nearby.”
In her early teens, Simon was at the barn every weekend and during school vacations.
VANCOUVER, British Columbia – Trainer Tracy McCarthy probably won’t be upset if the weather forecast calling for rain in Vancouver Sunday is correct. After all, Lasting Spice, the horse she has entered in a $12,500 claiming race that will serve as the feature race at Hastings, loves a wet track.
Lasting Spice will likely be favored in the 6 1/2-furlong sprint, which drew nine fillies and mares. Throw a little water in the mix and she looks formidable.
Acclamation is back in the Breeders’ Cup picture following a change in plans that call for California’s top older horse to make his next start Oct. 2 at Santa Anita rather than travel to Woodbine.
Trainer Don Warren said Friday that Acclamation will stay home and run in the Grade 2, $150,000 Clement L. Hirsch at Santa Anita next Sunday. A previously planned ship to Woodbine for the Grade 1, $1.5 million Canadian International on Oct. 16 was scrapped because of complicated shipping arrangements.
ELMONT, N.Y. – Though Tizway will miss next Saturday’s $750,000 Jockey Club Gold Cup at Belmont Park, trainer James Bond still plans to point the Horse of the Year contender to the Breeders’ Cup Classic at 1 1/4 miles on Nov. 5 at Churchill Downs.
Bond said the Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile – for which Tizway has already earned an automatic berth by virtue of his Metropolitan Handicap victory in May – is not a race he is considering.