POMONA, Calif. – The front-runner Sugar Spike is expected to start favored Thursday in the race-10 feature at Fairplex Park, a first-level allowance/optional $40,000 claimer for California-bred filly-mare sprinters in which Sugar Spike is the controlling speed.
The 6 1/2-furlong distance, however, presents a major challenge for Sugar Spike, whose lead diminished in both career wins at six furlongs. In two tries at 6 1/2, she finished out of the money.
Trainer Richard Mandella had some initial misgivings about sending Acaffella north to run in the Angel Island Stakes given the presence of undefeated Luckarack, a two-time stakes winner in the field.
Luckarack’s trainer, Steve Specht, experienced a similar feeling when he watched jockey Russell Baze gallop Acaffella in a prerace leg-stretcher Friday morning.
Specht’s misgivings were better placed than Mandella’s after Acaffella made an explosive move into the lane and pulled away to win the 1 1/16-mile Angel Island by six lengths.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Trainer Richard Dutrow Jr. has been down the Woodbine Mile road on three previous occasions, including second-place finishes with the late Kip Deville in 2007 and with Rebel Rebel in 2006.
On Sunday, Dutrow will have another solid shot at the top prize in the Grade 1, $1 million turf race for 3-year-olds and up when he sends out Court Vision for the IAEH Stable and Resolute Group Stable.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Neil Drysdale still is the king of the Woodbine Mile, with three victories from 10 entrants in nine runnings.
But Drysdale’s participation in Sunday’s renewal of the Grade 1, $1 million race for 3-year-olds and up is not cast in stone, even though his candidate, Riviera Cocktail, has been on the grounds since last Friday.
“He didn’t travel very well,” Drysdale said when reached by telephone at the Keeneland sales.
“That’s why we sent him ahead of time, because we were concerned about it. We’ll see how he picks up.”
ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Heart of a King brings the highest last-out Beyer Speed Figure to Thursday’s Woodbine headliner and should be an effective stalker in the second-level optional claiming sprint.
Heart of a King has a new trainer for this engagement, Amber Mayers, who is subbing for the suspended Michael Pino. Heart of a King captured 4 of 8 starts last year, including the $99,000 Tall Ships Stakes on the Tapeta surface at Presque Isle Downs.
ELMONT, N.Y. - Position Limit, the leader of the 2-year-old filly division, will miss the remainder of her juvenile campaign after developing chips in her right hind ankle, her connections said.
Position Limit will have the chips surgically removed from her ankle and will convalesce at Jake Pletcher’s farm in Ocala, Fla. Jake Pletcher is the father of Todd Pletcher, who trains Position Limit for the Starlight Partners of Jack and Laurie Wolf and Don and Barbara Lucarelli.
POMONA, Calif. – Jockey Martin Pedroza used 17 racing days during the 2004 Fairplex Park meet to establish the single-season record for wins at the Los Angeles County Fair. Pedroza won 51 races; 2004 was the last year the Fair meet was that long.
The following season, Fairplex reduced the meet to 16 days and in 2009 trimmed again to its current 15-day format. It appeared the meet record of 51 wins would never be topped.
ELMONT, N.Y. – If the connections of Rachel Alexandra were looking for a sign on what to do next, perhaps the reigning Horse of the Year supplied them one with a solid five-furlong workout Monday morning over Saratoga’s Oklahoma training track.
ELMONT, N.Y. – Winning Touch didn’t get to the races until midway through his 3-year-old season. But if his debut was any indication, he could prove well worth the wait.
After chasing a hot early pace and then repelling a stretch drive from another rival, Winning Touch won his debut by one-half length on July 24 at Saratoga. Winning Touch will make his first start since then on Wednesday in a first-level allowance race that serves as the featured event on Belmont Park’s nine-race card.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Eye of the Leopard, last year’s Queen’s Plate winner, returns to the local scene Wednesday night at Woodbine in the featured sixth race, a third-level allowance with an $80,000-claiming option.
Eye of the Leopard, a Sam-Son Farm homebred by A.P. Indy, blossomed in the spring of 2009, when he won the Plate Trial Stakes just three weeks after his maiden triumph. He subsequently captured the $1 million Plate in a three-way photo, over Mr. Foricos Two U and Woodbine Oaks winner Milwaukee Appeal.