INGLEWOOD, Calif. – Mother Ruth is unlikely to get the same soft trip she got last month when she returns Sunday in the $55,000 Playa del Rey Stakes at Hollywood Park.
According to trainer Bob Baffert, it does not matter.
“I expect her to run like she did last time,” he said, referring to a 4 1/2-length victory in a slow-pace sprint stakes.
Table Talking is surprisingly well traveled for a 2-year-old. Foaled in Kentucky, she has managed to qualify for restricted stakes with residency requirements in Delaware and South Carolina. She is currently based in Maryland.
The winner of last month’s Small Wonder for Delaware-certified horses, Table Talking will try to make it two in a row in Sunday’s $75,000 Donna Freyer Stakes for South Carolina resident 2-year-olds at Parx Racing.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Uncle T Seven and Mother Russia, respective winners of the New York Stallion’s Thunder Rumble and Staten Island divisions last year, defend their titles in those $75,000, seven-furlong races Sunday at Aqueduct.
Both break from the rail in short fields. Mother Russia, a five-time stakes winner for Linda Rice, takes on five rivals, including stablemates Healthy Debate and We Need V L T’s.
INGLEWOOD, Calif. -- Although Zenyatta ran 1 1/4 miles in the Breeders’ Cup Classic six days earlier and then flew home the next day, she looked remarkably fresh on Friday morning, walking briskly under the shed row of her trainer, John Shirreffs.
“I still have to walk her two hours every morning,” Shirreffs said. “She hasn’t gone back to the track yet. I usually give them about a week off to let them clear their heads.”
ETOBICOKE, Ontario—The speedy Kentucky shipper Nina Fever brings a four-race win streak into Sunday’s $150,000 Glorious Song Stakes, a seven-furlong race for 2-year-old fillies at Woodbine Racetrack.
Nina Fever was an also eligible for the Grade 2 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf on Nov. 5, but she failed to draw in, and was also scratched from a Churchill Downs allowance two days later.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Trainers Josie Carroll and Malcolm Pierce have been neighbors here at Woodbine Racetrack for several years, sharing one entire barn and a portion of another.
Carroll and Pierce may not be in quite such proximity at Fair Grounds, which both have established as their winter headquarters, but both are well into planning their moves south as the racing here heads into its final three weeks.
Both trainers are awaiting this week’s release of the final condition book, which covers the last 10 days of the meeting, which concludes Dec. 5.
Havre de Grace, who was third in the $2 million Breeders’ Cup Ladies' Classic, and Joyful Victory, the fifth-place finisher in the BC Juvenile Fillies, are among five horses that Rick Porter plans to transfer from trainer Tony Dutrow to Larry Jones for the Oaklawn Park meet that opens in January.
Trainer Billy Morey saddled his 1,000th winner Thursday at Golden Gate Fields when Sports Edition ($5.40) won the seventh race, rallying from fifth for her 10th career victory.
The 36-year-old Morey took out his training license in 2001after working as an assistant for his father, Bill Morey Jr., for eight years. He has averaged 131 wins the past three years and has 128 this year.
Morey snapped Jerry Hollendorfer’s run of 32 straight Golden Gate Fields training championship in 2008.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. – The Aqueduct pick six was not hit Thursday for the fourth consecutive racing day, resulting in a carryover of $415,271 into Friday.
Bettors chasing a three-day pot of $168,769 bet an additional $444,180 into the pick six, but most were knocked out early after Con the Cat ($38.40) and Poppy Day ($14.20) won the first two legs.
The sequence was completed by Song of Broadway ($8.70), Glory in Motion ($14.60), One Turn Eddie ($5.60), and Lemon Tiger ($7.70).
The five-of-six consolation paid $4,118.
MIAMI − Trying to decide which is the best race on Saturday’s Florida Million undercard at Calder is not an easy proposition. That’s because the card is filled with so many good races and exciting matchups.
The richest of the seven undercard races on Florida Million Day is the $150,000 Elmer Heubeck Handicap for fillies and mares, which pits Trip for A.J., the 3-year-old division leader, against Amazing, the top mare.
