AUBURN, Wash. – While it’s a given Noosa Beach will be named horse of the meeting when Emerald Downs wraps its season Sept. 25, there’s a fascinating battle being waged a little farther down the food chain, where Buddy Dave and Touch of Elegance are sparring for claimer-of-the-meeting honors.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – With the defection of Overdriven from Monday’s Grade 1 Hopeful, favoritism for the seven-furlong race for 2-year-olds figures to be between J.C.’s Pride and Power World. On Wednesday, Power World did his best to stamp himself as the one to beat with a visually-impressive workout over Saratoga’s main track.
ARLINGTON HEIGHTS, Ill. – It was a Polytrack race at Keeneland, the Grade 1 Blue Grass Stakes, that really put General Quarters’s name out to the racing public for the first time. And, for the first time since the Blue Grass in April 2009, General Quarters is set to return to a synthetic racing surface. The likeable Kentucky-based 5-year-old horse is scheduled to ship here Friday and start Saturday at Arlington in the Grade 3, $100,000 Washington Park Handicap.
DEL MAR, Calif. – The closing day of the Del Mar meeting next Wednesday is fast approaching, and the looming date keeps jockey Joe Talamo from peeking at the jockey standings.
Through Aug. 21, Talamo had a two-race lead on Joel Rosario, an advantage that had evaporated as of Wednesday when they began the race week tied for first with 35 wins.
“I try not to look too much,” he said. “Win, lose, or draw, it’s been a wonderful meet. If there is a meeting in Southern California where you want to do well, it’s at Del Mar.”
Charlie Fletcher and trainer Cody Autrey have won stakes with a handful of private purchases in recent years, and on Friday night will attempt to add to their record with Beachcombing. He is one of eight horses making up the field for the $100,000 DeBartolo Memorial Handicap, a 1 1/8-mile turf race for 3-year-olds and up that highlights the program at Remington Park.
The stakes schedule for Hawthorne Race Course’s fall-winter 2011 meeting was approved at a meeting of the Illinois Racing Board on Tuesday in Chicago. Hawthorne delayed finalizing its fall 2011 stakes to more precisely determine about how much purse money it would have for its upcoming meet, and the release on Aug. 8 of almost $142 million to the racing industry in impact fees collected from four Illinois casinos is good news for the program.
CINCINNATI – Perry Ouzts pulls on the white pants and fastens them slowly. Either he hasn’t done this much before, or he’s in no hurry, seeing as it’s still well before first post on a Saturday morning at River Downs.
With more than 43,000 career mounts – fourth-most in North American racing history – it’s obvious Ouzts is just piddling around. “Same old, same old,” he said, as he climbed a flight of stairs to an empty jockeys’ room kitchen at this 86-year-old track.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – At mid-afternoon Wednesday, trainer Larry Jones was attempting to weave his way through traffic on the New Jersey Turnpike as he hauled his top older mare Havre de Grace to Saratoga for Saturday’s Grade 1, $750,000 Woodward Stakes.
“I’m ducking and diving and trying to show her what’s she’s going to have to do,” Jones said. “Hopefully, she’ll have a better trip Saturday than we’re having right now.”
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Chad Brown’s gun has been loaded all summer long at Saratoga, but he hasn’t fired every bullet in the chamber. Friday, Brown will be locked and loaded with Divalarious, who seeks her third consecutive victory in Friday’s $75,000 Riskaverse Stakes.
DEL MAR, Calif. – Last winter, the dream was to get Pride of Silver into the Kentucky Derby. This fall, the dream is to get Pride of Silver into a lucrative stakes for 3-year-olds.
Friday at Del Mar, Pride of Silver starts in the $100,000 El Cajon Stakes for 3-year-olds over 1 1/16 miles, his second start after a seven-month layoff caused by injury.
Trained by Bob Hess Jr., Pride of Silver approaches the race with promising form; he was second under jockey Victor Espinoza in an optional claimer over 1 1/16 miles in his comeback Aug. 13.
