There’s a stakes rush Sunday at Arapahoe Park.
Shippers from California, Illinois, Iowa, Nebraska, and New Mexico have descended on the Aurora, Colo., track for its season-ending Gold Rush Futurity. The purse for the six-furlong race for 2-year-olds was boosted from $40,000 to $100,000 last month, helping it draw a diverse field of 12.
The Gold Rush is the lone Thoroughbred stakes on a five-stakes program that also includes the Grade 2, $150,000 Mile High Futurity for Quarter Horses.
DEL MAR, Calif. – Sunday is redemption day for Free Flying Soul, who must win the Grade 3 Rancho Bernardo Handicap at Del Mar to reclaim her ranking as top female sprinter in California.
Five entered the 6 1/2-furlong race, including Sweet August Moon, who upset Free Flying Soul at Hollywood Park, Alpha Kitten, who missed the A Gleam with a fever but worked well recently, and outsiders Silver Swallow and Taste’s Sis.
Free Flying Soul finished second July 17 in the A Gleam at Hollywood, but she ran a winning race.
MIAMI – A year ago, trainer Marty Wolfson sent Icon Project up from her Calder base to dominate Saratoga’s Grade 1 Personal Ensign by 13 lengths. Wolfson will try to do it again next Sunday with Miss Singhsix, who ships up from Calder to face two of the queens of the division, Rachel Alexandra and Life At Ten, in defense of Wolfson’s Personal Ensign title.
A plan to consolidate the Texas racing calendar in 2011 took another step forward this week when the state’s tracks submitted their dates requests to the Texas Racing Commission. Their proposals are expected to be considered at a meeting Sept. 14.
OCEANPORT, N.J. – A pair of $100,000 sprints headline the Sunday card at Monmouth Park: the Colts Neck Handicap for New Jersey-breds and the Trenton Stakes for fillies and mares.
Unbeaten in two starts in 2010, Evenings End tries to stretch that streak in the Colt’s Neck from the rail against six rivals.
There have been ups and downs for Evenings End along the way, from a foot injury at 2 to an ongoing problem with failing to sweat properly.
ARLINGTON HEIGHTS, Ill. – It’s Dashel vs. Dee’s Rose, round 2, in the featured seventh race at Arlington Park on Sunday, with Dee’s Rose trying to catch a break after two unlucky experiences. The two are rematched in a third-level optional $62,500 claimer scheduled for 5 1/2 furlongs on turf.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Reached by telephone an hour before saddling first-time starter My Southern Star in the second race at Saratoga on Friday, trainer Eddie Kenneally had a right to be focused entirely on racing at the Spa, not at Ellis Park.
Yet he didn’t have any trouble recalling his record at Ellis, though he seemed reluctant to say it aloud, as if doing so might jinx his luck there.
“We’ve run eight horses,” he said. “Seven have won and one ran out of the money.”
AUBURN, Wash. – Not too long ago, Noosa Beach was regarded as a one-trick pony, a sprinter who couldn’t win an important race around two turns. Now, a couple of dominating route victories later, he’ll start as one of the favorites in the Grade 3, $250,000 Longacres Mile on Sunday at Emerald Downs.
DEL MAR, Calif. – This has been trainer Jerry Hollendorfer’s year to dominate stakes for statebred females.
U R All That I Am won two such races at Hollywood Park in the spring, while You Lift Me Up won the Work the Crowd Stakes at Golden Gate Fields in March. There is a good chance one of them will win Sunday’s $100,000 Solana Beach Handicap over a mile on turf for California-bred females.