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.

AUBURN, Wash. – If the weather cooperates, Starbird Road will make what could be his final start Saturday at Emerald Downs, capping a brilliant but star-crossed career for one of the fastest sprinters in Northwest racing history.

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.

Lone Star Park near Dallas begins what might be its final meet under the ownership of MI Developments on Friday night, when it puts on a 10-race card for Quarter Horses highlighted by the $25,000 Classic Chevrolet Heartbeat of America Handicap.

The track will race 26 nights through Nov. 13.

Global Gaming has purchased the operating assets of Lone Star from MI Developments for $47 million, and is now awaiting license approvals from the Texas Racing Commission.

After a successful summer at Saratoga, trainer Tom Proctor hope to continue his momentum at Belmont Park on Saturday when he runs two horses in the Grade 1, $250,000 Garden City Breeders’ Cup for 3-year-old fillies.

Proctor entered both the front-running Queen of the Creek and the late-running Snow Top Mountain in the 1 1/8-mile turf race, which drew a field of eight Both fillies will be stretching out to nine furlongs after competing in one-mile races at Saratoga.