Short-priced favorites figure to dominate most of the seven stakes, worth a total of $350,000, on Fall Classic Day at Northlands Park Saturday. All seven races are restricted to Alberta-breds and make up the bulk of the 11-race card, which begins at 1 p.m.
Fall Classic Day is the second biggest day of the year at Northlands and also serves as an advertisement for the Canadian Thoroughbred Horse Society’s Alberta Thoroughbred sale in Red Deer this Thursday.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Among three horses he has been on in races earlier this summer, Jono Jones chose to ride Stormy Rush in Saturday’s $250,000 Summer Stakes, which makes the unbeaten Stormy Rush an imposing contender in the one-mile turf route for 2-year-olds at Woodbine. The winner gets an automatic berth into the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf on Nov. 6 at Churchill Downs, as part of the Win and You’re In program.
Marquis Downs will close out its 2010 meeting on Saturday with a 10-race card featuring the rescheduled Prairie Lily Stakes.
The $25,000 Prairie Lily, for 2-year-olds who passed through the local yearling sale, originally was scheduled for last Friday but that card was canceled after torrential rains left the racetrack submerged.
Striking Time, who if anything will benefit from the extra week’s rest, has towered over his opposition in Saskatoon this season, with three wins in as many starts by an aggregate total of 26 1/2 lengths.
Double Shuffle, undefeated since relocating to Assiniboia Downs this spring, will be looking for his fifth consecutive victory in the $72,500 Gold Cup on Saturday.
The Gold Cup, a 1 1/8-mile race for 3-year-olds and upward, is the feature on an eight-race card that also includes the $50,000 Winnipeg Futurity for 2-year-olds and the $50,000 J.W. Sifton for Manitoba-bred 3-year-olds.
VANCOUVER, British Columbia – A dramatically improved Rainbowsinthewood looks like the one to beat in Saturday’s feature race at Hastings. The $25,000 claiming race for fillies and mares going 1 1/16 miles drew seven horses and goes as race 7.
ELMONT, N.Y. - Grand Couturier came out of a Thursday morning training session at Belmont Park with inflammation in his left front ankle and was not entered for Sunday’s $750,000 Northern Dancer Stakes at Woodbine.
Trainer Robert Ribaudo said the ankle issue is something Grand Couturier has dealt with for a long time, but that the logistics of having to ship Thursday afternoon to Woodbine in order to be on the grounds by 10 a.m. Friday morning made it a prudent decision not to enter.
A fund to cover medical expenses has been established for the 24-year-old jockey Michael Martinez, who suffered a severed spinal cord in a spill at Golden Gate Fields on Sunday.
Martinez, who is paralyzed from the waist down, remained in critical but stable condition mid-week at Highland Hospital in Oakland.
Checks should be made out to Michael Martinez Fund and sent to Golden Gate Fields, 1100 Eastshore Highway, Berkeley, CA 94710.
George Berthold should be a familiar name to longtime Thistledown fans as well as students of local racing history.
Berthold, who saddled winners Saturday and Monday, trained the 1968 Ohio Derby winner Te Vega, the first Ohio-bred to win the state’s most prestigious race.
Both of Berthold’s recent winners, Frankly Scarlett on Saturday and Teakoa on Monday, are owned and were bred by his wife, Gayle.
Stone E Motion heads a field of six Quarter Horses going 870 yards in Saturday’s $25,000 Covered Bridges Stakes at Prairie Meadows.
The 5-year-old Stone E Motion has shown marked improvement since having his sciatic nerve treated in January, when he was running for a $5,000 claiming tag at Hialeah. Since returning in March, Stone E Motion reeled off four straight wins at Remington Park, including three Grade 3 stakes.