LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Santiva resumed training at Churchill Downs several days after another disappointing effort in the Belmont Stakes and will be pointed to “one of the appropriate spots” in the coming weeks, according to trainer Eddie Kenneally.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Trainer Mark Casse has had a total of seven starters in five runnings of the Queen’s Plate, with his best finish a fourth-place finish with Tasty Temptation in 2009.
Next Sunday, Casse plans to take a triple-barreled shot at the $1 million Queen’s Plate with Strike Oil, Hippolytus, and Enduring Star all being pointed for the 1 1/4-mile race for Canadian-bred 3-year-olds.
“It’s all systems go, at this point in time,” said Casse, after watching his Queen’s Plate candidates work on the main track here at Woodbine on Friday morning.
SHAKOPEE, Minn. – For the second summer in a row, jockey Scott Stevens has been injured in an accident at Canterbury Park. Stevens, 50, broke his right shoulder blade and chipped a bone in his left shoulder Thursday morning when a horse he was schooling at the gate reared, tossed him into the gate, then flipped over onto him.
“The nurse at St. Francis had never seen a broken scapula before,” Stevens said of his shoulder blade on Friday. “But I don’t feel that bad. If my arm wasn’t in a sling, I could ride.”
Lou Lou Larue and Nayborhood Affair, the one-two finishers in the Bluegrass Stakes earlier this month, meet at a mile this time around in the $20,000 Matchmaker Stakes for older Nebraska-bred fillies and mares, the Saturday feature at Lincoln Race Course.
Also on the card will be a pair of exhibition camel and ostrich races in what has become an annual spectacle during the Lincoln season.
The Colorado-bred sprint division will begin to take shape on Saturday, when a field of nine older horses meet at six furlongs in the $40,615 Aspen at Arapahoe Park.
The race is one of two statebred stakes on the program. Quarter Horses will be featured in the $75,000 Cherry Creek Futurity.
The two best Ohio-bred older females, Pay the Man and Slides Choice, hook up again in the $50,000 J. William Petro Memorial Handicap at Thistledown on Saturday.
Both are carrying the highest weights in their careers in the 1 1/16-mile Petro, with Slides Choice being the top weight at 124 pounds, one more than Pay the Man.
The latest round of Graham Motion versus Dale Romans comes on a much smaller stage.
The Motion-Romans match-up was front-page news when Derby winner Animal Kingdom faced Preakness hero Shackleford in the Belmont Stakes last weekend, but on Saturday it is Smart Bid, trained by Motion, lining up against the Romans-trained Guys Reward and six others in the $500,000 Colonial Turf Cup at Colonial Downs in Virginia.
INGLEWOOD, Calif. – Pedaltothemedal makes her turf stakes debut in Saturday’s $70,000 Manhattan Beach Stakes at Hollywood Park, after two starts earlier at this meeting that have left trainer Art Sherman perplexed.
Pedaltothemedal won her 3-year-old debut in brilliant fashion in an allowance race over 6 1/2 furlongs April 24, but was only third, beaten 5 1/2 lengths, in the Grade 3 Railbird Stakes as the 11-10 favorite over seven furlongs May 21.
AUBURN, Wash. – Emerald Downs will present a 10-race card Saturday, a weekend warm-up for the main event on Sunday, when Noosa Beach put his five-race winning streak on the line in the Budweiser Handicap. Saturday’s main event is less momentous – a $12,500 claimer for fillies and mares who have never won three times. Racing begins at 2 p.m. Pacific and the feature is the ninth race.
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INGLEWOOD, Calif. – The list of hopefuls includes a champion, a multiple Grade 1 winner, and a mare who adores the track. Blind Luck, Switch, and St Trinians are the three leading contenders in Saturday’s $250,000 Vanity Handicap at Hollywood Park, a race that should help clarify the West Coast older female division.
