AUBURN, Wash. – Class Included and Rainier Ice are the horses to beat Sunday as Emerald Downs presents a stakes-race doubleheader for 3-year-olds. Class Included tops the Kent Handicap for fillies, while Rainier Ice headlines the Seattle Slew Handicap for colts and geldings. Both races are 1 1/16 miles and carry a $50,000 purse.
INGLEWOOD, Calif. – Now that unbeaten Majestic City has risen to top of the 2-year-old division in Southern California, his challenge is to stay there.
On Sunday at Hollywood Park, the unbeaten colt is favored to win the Grade 3 Hollywood Juvenile, a six-furlong race with predictable recent history – favorites have won 16 of the past 20 Juveniles. Yet the $100,000 race is not a walkover for Majestic City.
“It’s definitely a tougher field, but I think he’s up to it,” trainer Peter Miller said.
INGLEWOOD, Calif. − Santa Anita has removed more than 17,000 tons of material from its main track in an effort to reduce the clay content and add sand, a project that may not be finished for another week.
Track president George Haines said the top six inches of the track have been removed and will be diluted with a “clean sand, with very little clay content.” The project began after training last Monday and was expected to take 10 days. Haines said Thursday that the project may take longer than that and may be done by next weekend.
INGLEWOOD, Calif. – Hollywood Park will pay a retroactive purse increase of approximately 7 percent to owners whose horses earned prize money from April 23 to June 26 as a result of better-than-expected business during the spring-summer meeting, track president Jack Leibau said Friday.
Liebau projects that Hollywood Park will end the meeting Sunday with an average all-sources handle down approximately 3 percent over the corresponding meeting in 2010. From Southern California sources, Liebau said ontrack and inter-track wagering was down only 1 percent.
SHAKOPEE, Minn. – The starting gates are getting ready to spring open again at Canterbury Park. Minnesota Gov. Mark Dayton, along with leaders of the state House and Senate, announced on Thursday evening the framework of a budget deal that would end the 15-day shutdown of state government, which includes the Minnesota Racing Commission.
OCEANPORT, N.J. – Love That Dance is the one to beat in the $65,000 Spruce Fir Handicap, and she was assigned the weight to prove it.
Love That Dance will carry 125 pounds, the highest assignment of her career, on Sunday in the one-mile, 70 yards stakes for New Jersey-bred fillies and mares at Monmouth Park. Love That Dance spots each of her seven rivals between eight and 14 pounds, making this a true handicap.
Hippolytus was sent off at odds of 61-1 in Woodbine’s Queen’s Plate, but finished second after stalking the pace and briefly looking like a winner when moving to the lead in midstretch.
In the absence of Inglorious, the filly who ran him down in the Queen’s Plate, Hippolytus is the morning-line favorite for Sunday’s $500,000 Prince of Wales Stakes at Fort Erie.
The Prince of Wales, run over 1 3/16 miles on Fort Erie’s dirt surface, is the second leg of the Triple Crown for Canadian-bred 3-year-olds.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Dene Court, who had a fast first-out victory, should be strongly backed Sunday at Woodbine in the $150,000 Shady Well Stakes, a 5 1/2-furlong dash for Ontario-bred 2-year-old fillies.
The Mark Casse-trained Dene Court was all business in a June 25 maiden special. She went right to the lead and was pressed through a quick pace before drawing clear in 57.54, which translated into a 79 Beyer Figure.
Dene Court was a $90,000 yearling purchase from a local sale by owner Eugene Melnyk.
VANCOUVER, British Columbia – St Liams Halo will be a heavy favorite to win his fifth race in a row when he runs in the $50,000 S. W. Randall Plate at Hastings Sunday. The 1 1/16-mile feature for 3-year-olds and up drew five horses and goes as race 3 on the eight-race card which begins at 1:50 p.m. Pacific.
