Multiple graded stakes winner Hooh Why tops a field of 11 older fillies and mares in Saturday’s H.B.P.A., one of three $100,000 stakes at Presque Isle Downs.
Run at a mile and 70 yards, the H.B.P.A. is the featured ninth race on the card, the last of the track’s 100-day meet.
Hooh Why comes into the H.B.P.A. off a 1 3/4-length win in the Grade 3 Seaway at seven furlongs at Woodbine on Sept. 4 and will have a bit of a home-field advantage Saturday, according to her trainer, Maria Bowersock.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Big Red Mike and Hotep, the top two finishers in this year’s Queen’s Plate, will meet Saturday at Woodbine in the $150,000 Ontario Derby. The nine-furlong route has lured seven other 3-year-olds, including Grade 1 Blue Grass winner Stately Victor.
Big Red Mike is trained by Nick Gonzalez, who won the 2007 Ontario Derby with longshot Artie Hot.
OCEANPORT, N.J. – Monmouth Park will once again host a charity benefit card Saturday that blends steeplechase and flat racing. Five of the 12 races are sponsored by the National Steeplechase Association, including the day’s main event: the Grade 1, $100,000 Helen Haskell Sampson Stakes at 2 1/2 miles over National Fences.
VANCOUVER, British Columbia – Overvalued figures to be a short price in the $50,000 Fantasy for 2-year-old fillies at Hastings on Saturday. The 1 1/16-mile Fantasy joins the $25,000 Delta Colleen for fillies and mares and the six-furlong Derby Bar and Grill Ladies Express in supporting the $75,000 British Columbia Oaks.
Many of the six horses entered in the Fantasy have good speed, and they will all be stretching out to 1 1/16 miles for the first time.
The Grade 1 Hollywood Turf Cup and two $100,000 stakes for 2-year-olds are among four stakes restored to the stakes schedule for the Hollywood Park fall meeting from Nov. 4 to Dec. 19 after being dropped from the 2009 schedule because of financial pressure.
Power Button will try and make it three wins in a row when she tackles a closely matched group of fillies and mares running in the seventh race at Northlands Park on Saturday. The six-furlong sprint that will serve as the feature attracted seven horses running for a $7,500 claiming price and it appears to be a wide-open race.
ALTOONA, Iowa – Prairie Meadows closes its inaugural Quarter Horse meet with Iowa Champions Night on Saturday. The night features five stakes races for Iowa-bred horses.
The $68,200 Jim Bader Futurity at 350 yards showcases nine of the state’s 2-year-olds. Hadleybestoned has been perfect so far in his young career, winning his first two races.
“I aim my horses towards the Iowa meet,” trainer Tony Jones said. “I knew when he came up here that I had him where I wanted him to be physically and mentally.”
BOSSIER CITY, La. – Aces N Kings, unbeaten in five starts including his last two in turf stakes, will put his perfect record on the line in Saturday’s $100,000 Sunday Silence Stakes at Louisiana Downs. The 1 1/16-mile turf affair for 2-year-olds is one of seven stakes that will support the 31st running of the Super Derby.
AUBURN, Wash. – The grand experiment – Quarter Horse racing at Emerald Downs – will get its first lab test Saturday in the 350-yard Muckleshoot Tribal Dash/John Deere Bonus Challenge, the 11th and final race on the meeting’s penultimate day. First post is 2 p.m. Pacific.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Trainer Barbara Minshall did not have unrealistic expectations heading into last Sunday’s Woodbine Mile, which had attracted a field of 13, including four Grade 1 stakes winners. But, Minshall admitted to some disappointment after watching Auteur finish 11th while beaten ninth lengths at odds of 60-1.
“I know it was a tough spot, but I think my horse needed to be more forwardly placed,” said Minshall, who trains the Kentucky-bred 4-year-old Auteur for Bruce Lunsford. “I was disappointed that he didn’t get to run his race.”