OCEANPORT, N.J. – A virus wiped out a promising summer for Southern Ridge.
Looking to make up lost time while also taking advantage of the dwindling number of stakes for 3-year-olds left this season, Southern Ridge faces six rivals Saturday in the $70,000 Big Brown Stakes at 1 1/16 miles at Monmouth Park.
This will be only fifth start for Southern Ridge, the most lightly raced colt in field. At the other end of the spectrum, Calvello has already been to the post 21 times.
INGLEWOOD, Calif. – U R All That I Am spent the early months of 2010 running successfully in sprints and the last few months padding her r é sum é in two-turn races.
For Saturday’s $100,000 California Cup Distaff at Hollywood Park, she will revert to sprinting in the six-furlong turf race, her first appearance in such a race since a game second to Unzip Me in the Irish O’Brien Stakes on the hillside turf course at Santa Anita last March.
Unzip Me has been pre-entered for the Breeders’ Cup Turf Sprint at Churchill Downs on Nov. 6.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Maidens are prevalent in Saturday’s $250,000 Princess Elizabeth Stakes, and Lisvernane has as good a chance as any in the 1 1/16-mile route for Canadian-bred 2-year-old fillies.
Lisvernane is trained by Carolyn Costigan, who won last year’s Princess Elizabeth with Roan Inish, a gifted maiden from Ireland. Roan Inish evolved into one of Woodbine’s leading 3-year-old fillies this year, during which she won the Woodbine Oaks and ran third in the Queen’s Plate.
In the Juice easily handled the challenge of racing twice within 13 days. But can he run just as well while making his third start in four weeks?
That’s the key handicapping question involving the 4-year-old In the Juice, one of several logical contenders in Saturday’s $125,000 Brandywine Stakes at Delaware Park.
Ben’s Cat, who has been strictly a sprinter while reeling off six consecutive victories to begin his career, will attempt to stretch out to 1 1/8 miles for Saturday’s $50,000 Find Handicap at Laurel Park.
A 4-year-old gelding trained by King Leatherbury, Ben’s Cat’s longest race has been seven furlongs. His two starts on turf produced daylight stakes victories in the six-furlong Mister Diz and the 5 1/2-furlong Maryland Million Turf Sprint.
Jockey Elaine Castillo, who earlier this season became the first female rider at Finger Lakes to win 500 races, has retired at age 29 to pursue a career in culinary arts.
Castillo, a native of Mexico City, Mexico, rode for the final time in last Friday’s eighth race, when she finished seventh aboard Momsboy. Coincidentally, Momsboy provided Castillo with the lone stakes victory of her seven-year career in the 2008 Finger Lakes Juvenile.
Prince Will I Am, an improving 3-year-old, and Awesome Gem, a 7-year-old veteran who won the Hollywood Gold Cup in July, are the only Grade 1 winners in an eclectic field of 13 horses pre-entered for the Grade 3 Breeders' Cup Marathon to be run Friday, Nov. 5.
If she gets into the race, the speedy Nina Fever will bring a four-race win streak into the Grade 2 Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf. Nina Fever, trained by Wesley Ward, has started seven times. She won her debut in a romp at Keeneland in April, before finishing fifth in two consecutive graded dirt stakes, and then crushed a field of $40,000 claimers at Monmouth.
Nina Fever is last of the 18 pre-entered on the preference list for the race, but with two listing the Juvenile Fillies Turf as a second preference she has a shot to get into the 14-horse field.
Midday will be a strong favorite in an attempt to defend her title in the $2 million Breeders' Cup Filly and Mare Turf on Nov. 5, a race that drew just 11 pre-entrants from Europe, Japan, and North America.
Midday won the 2009 BC Filly and Mare Turf at Santa Anita and is arguably in better form this year, having won 3 of 4 starts, with Group 1 wins in England and France in her last three races.