POMONA, Calif. – It sounded like exaggerated hype when the Los Angeles County Fair dubbed the second weekend of its race meet the “Barretts Weekend of Stars.”
The promotion was intended to highlight former Barretts graduates and showcase current Barretts graduates racing at Fairplex Park in the $91,872 Barretts Debutante for 2-year-old fillies on Saturday, and the $100,495 Barretts Juvenile on Sunday.
ELMONT, N.Y. – Better later than never, the multiple graded stakes winner Sara Louise is poised to make her 4-year-old debut in Saturday’s Grade 2, $150,000 Gallant Bloom Handicap at Belmont Park.
Referred to for most of her 3-year-old season as the last horse to beat Rachel Alexandra – she did so in the Pocahontas at 2 at Churchill Downs – Sara Louise has not run since winning the Grade 2 Top Flight Handicap at Aqueduct on Nov. 27.
Has an extended vacation on a farm revitalized the millionaire turf runner Presious Passion? Or is he simply too old to continue competing at racing’s highest levels?
The answers to those questions could become more clear when the 7-year-old Presious Passion returns from the first long break of his 46-race career Wednesday at Delaware Park.
POMONA, Calif. – It has been 15 years since trainer Bob Baffert and jockey Martin Pedroza last won the Governor’s Cup Handicap at Fairplex Park – Gundaghia won the 6 1/2-furlong sprint for the third time in 1995.
Wednesday at Fairplex, Baffert and Pedroza team with El Martillo in the $50,000 Governor’s Cup, arguably the strongest stakes of the 2010 Los Angeles County Fair meet. While a case can be made for every entrant, El Martillo has the hottest pilot.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario – There were questions surrounding Court Vision, who was making his first trip north of the border for trainer Richard Dutrow Jr. in last Sunday’s Woodbine Mile.
“The one-turn mile here had us thinking maybe he should go to Keeneland for his next race,” said Dutrow.
There were also questions surrounding his rider, Robby Albarado, who had suffered a separated collarbone in a spill at Saratoga on Aug. 11 and had returned to ride just one race on Saturday at Turfway Park.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Hollywood Hit and Essence Hit Man, probably the two fastest sprinters at Woodbine in terms of raw speed, will clash over six furlongs in the $100,000 King Corrie Stakes on Wednesday night.
Hollywood Hit won last year’s King Corrie Sept. 30, while bettering the six-furlong track record, but he was subsequently disqualified from purse money because of a positive drug test for the tranquilizer acepromazine. That track record was quashed, and Hollywood Hit was barred from racing at Woodbine for three months.
Marquis Downs handled a total of $852,128 for its 28-day meeting this year, for a daily average of $30,434. The corresponding figures last year were $868,657 and $29,994 for a 30-day meeting.
Marquis Downs, located in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, does not export its signal except to several teletheatres.
The average field size, according to Equibase statistics, was 8.31, up from 8.26 in 2009.
Naim Samaroo won 50 races to top the jockey standings. Tim Moccasin ranked second with 37 and Neville Stephenson third with 30.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario – While shippers from south of the border and across the ocean won the two Grade 1 turf stakes here at Woodbine on Sunday, a pair of unheralded local entrants came up with the races of their lives in the Woodbine Mile and Northern Dancer.
Woodbourne, who was claimed by Bob Tiller for $50,000 two starts back for The Very Dry Stable, was prominent throughout the $1 million Woodbine Mile and picked up $110,000 after winning a show photo as a 52-1 outsider.