AUBURN, Wash. – The speedy Include the Baby, looking for her first victory of 2011, headlines the feature race Sunday at Emerald Downs. A $17,500 claimer at 6 1/2 furlongs for fillies and mares who have never won three times, The race is the ninth race on a 10-race card that begins at 2 p.m. Pacific.
Native Ruler will spot his rivals between five and nine pounds each on Sunday in the $100,000 Premiere Cup Handicap at Zia Park in Hobbs, N.M. The six-furlong race is the first of $4.5 million in stakes to be run during the 50-date mixed meet for Thoroughbreds and Quarter Horses that opened on Saturday.
ELMONT, N.Y. – It has been a quiet year in North America for Sheikh Mohammed’s Godolphin Stable. One horse who could make a little bit of noise this fall is Buffum, who heads a field of seven entered in a second-level allowance race carded at one mile at Belmont Park on Sunday.
Buffum, a 3-year-old son of Bernardini, was a debut winner at Belmont last fall and was immediately elevated into graded stakes company and finished last of five, beaten 20 lengths by To Honor and Serve in the Grade 2 Remsen.
A very hot Salsa Express looks like the one to beat in a $30,000 claiming race that will serve as Sunday’s feature at Northlands Park. The 6 1/2-furlong sprint for fillies and mares drew five horses and goes as race 4 on the eight-race card that begins at 1 p.m. Mountain.
BOSSIER CITY, La. – Daphne Angela, who in her first start in a year dominated stakes competition last month at Louisiana Downs, returns to the overnight ranks in the featured seventh race Sunday.
The 5 1/2-furlong allowance is for Louisiana-bred fillies and mares who have not won two races since March 11, 2010. It drew a field of seven horses, including the last two winners of the $60,000 Louisiana Cup Filly and Mare Sprint, Daphne Angela and Warrior Maid.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario – The Northern Dancer Stakes, which will be run here at Woodbine next Sunday, tends to play second fiddle to the same day’s Woodbine Mile.
But the Northern Dancer, a 1 1/2-mile turf race which offers Grade 1 status and a purse of $500,000, is a prize well worth pursuing in its own right and also is the key local prep for the Grade 1, $1.5 million Canadian International at the same distance four weeks hence.
Charles Town plans to reduce the takeout on trifecta, superfecta, pick three, and pick four wagers from 25 percent to 22 percent, effective Sept. 17.
Approval for the change was granted by the Charles Town Horsemen’s Benevolent and Protective Association and the West Virginia Racing Commission at the commission’s meeting Friday morning.
According to the track, the reductions are the first in the 78-year history of Charles Town. The 3-percent cut represents a 12 percent decrease in the cost of the exotic wagers.
FORT ERIE, Ontario – The photograph in last Tuesday’s Niagara Falls Review newspaper was a keeper. Pictured in the frame was a leaping Francine Villeneuve, airborne the day before on her way towards a swim in the Fort Erie infield lake.
That was not the first time Villeneuve had followed the time-honoured tradition of the Puss n Boots Cup race. In 1996, she came from dead last to win with the longshot Dancing for Beans, and then took the required plunge in the lake.
POMONA, Calif. – Half Dome Dude beat the odds twice already. Sunday at Fairplex Park, trainer Caesar Dominguez hopes he does it again on a card filled with short prices.
The pick-six sequence (races 6-11) Sunday at Fairplex includes four favorites at even money or less on the preliminary line, including C J Russell, an apparent standout in the $50,000 Jim Kostoff Stakes for 3-year-old sprinters.
