LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Kent Desormeaux was 18 and barely two years into his Hall of Fame riding career when he ventured outside his Maryland base to win the 1988 Clark Handicap aboard a former claimer named Balthazar B., trained by a 26-year-old Paul McGee.
Twenty-two years later, Desormeaux and McGee are set to team again with Demarcation in the $500,000 Clark, a Grade 1 race to be run Friday for the 136th time at Churchill Downs.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. – A pair of $60,000 overnight stakes for 3-year-olds, one on dirt, one scheduled for turf, highlight Sunday’s program at Aqueduct.
The seven-furlong Groovy drew a field of seven, all but one of whom recorded a Beyer Figure of 90 or better in one of his last two starts.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Indian Apple Is will try to nail down the Sovereign Award for this year’s Canadian champion female sprinter at Woodbine Racetrack on Sunday in the $150,000 Bessarabian Stakes. The seven-furlong sprint has lured 12 others, including the U.S. shippers Waccamaw, Hooh Why, Ariana D, Sweet Lorena, and Meriwether Jessica.
Indian Apple Is has won 3 of 6 starts and slightly more than $300,000 this year. She captured the seven-furlong Sweet Briar Too Stakes on July 1, and was idle for two months before ending up second in the Grade 3 Seaway Stakes.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario – The Terry Jordan stable will be looking to wind up its 2010 meeting at Woodbine Racetrack with a bang on Sunday, with horses entered in three of the 11 races on the program.
Bijoux Bon, in the first race, and Shining for Us, in the eighth, both are morning-line favorites in maiden events.
But the piece de resistance would be a victory by La Rocca, who has been tabbed as a 20-1 chance in the $150,000 Bessarabian Stakes for fillies and mares at seven furlongs.
Stage Trick, who has run much better out of town than she has at Monmouth Park, will attempt to transfer her good recent form to the Jersey Shore when she meets eight other fillies and mares in Sunday’s closing-day feature, the $70,000 Honey Bee Stakes.
The 2011 Claiming Crown is unlikely to be held in the summer at its customary site, Canterbury Park in suburban Minneapolis, but instead could move to late fall at Fair Grounds in New Orleans.
Fair Grounds vice president and general manager Eric Halstrom said Friday that the Churchill Downs Inc.-owned track and the Louisiana division of the Horsemen’s Benevolent and Protective Association “essentially have agreed that we’d like to host the Claiming Crown next year, barring something unforeseen occurring. We hope to be making that announcement in early December.”
Zenyatta had a quiet day at trainer John Shirreffs’s stable on Thursday, a day after it was announced that she has been retired and will be relocated to Lane’s End Farm near Versailles, Ky., in December.
Zenyatta was walked twice Thursday morning and was scheduled to have another walking session in the afternoon.
A two-time champion, she retires with 19 wins in 20 starts, with her only loss a second to Blame in the BC Classic on Nov. 6.
Promise Me a Cat figures to get an ideal trip Saturday in the Grade 3, $500,000 Delta Downs Princess. She is one of the speediest fillies in the one-mile race, and she figures to fall into a stalking position on the move from a six-furlong stakes win at Belmont Park to the six-furlong oval in Vinton, La.
“She’s pretty adaptable as far as rating tactics, and she’s got tactical speed, which I think you need at Delta,” said Carlos Martin, who trains Promise Me a Cat for Mark Holiday.
Sweeping changes have been made to Saturday’s Grade 3, $1 million Delta Downs Jackpot in an effort to increase its visibility, and the race that will be put on Saturday in the small Louisiana town of Vinton should catch the attention of handicappers nationwide. Eight stakes winners are in the 10-horse field, with 2-year-olds shipping in from California, Delaware, Florida, Kentucky, New Jersey, New York, and Texas.
INGLEWOOD, Calif. − Special Duty, the winner of the English 1000 Guineas and French 1000 Guineas in May, will make her U.S. debut in the $250,000 Matriarch Stakes at Hollywood Park next Friday.
Trained by Criquette Head-Maarek for Juddmonte Farms, Special Duty has won 4 of 9 starts and $1,070,938. The Matriarch Stakes, over a mile on turf for fillies and mares, will be Special Duty’s first start since she finished sixth behind Goldikova in the Group 1 Prix de la Foret over seven furlongs on turf at Longchamp in Paris on Oct. 4.
