BOSSIER CITY, La. – Twenty-five years ago, five furlongs was one of the rarest distances run on the Louisiana Downs turf course. Exactly one such race was carded per season, the appropriately named Catchmeifyoucan Stakes, traditionally held on the Super Derby undercard.
Now, due perhaps to the speed-influenced breeding of Thoroughbreds or horsemen’s eternal optimism that their charges will take to the infield better than they have to the main track, short turf dashes are common.
LOS ALAMITOS, Calif. – Jose Flores sat at a small desk adjacent to the Los Alamitos paddock between time trials for the Golden State Derby last Saturday evening, content to leave the saddling of his top 3-year-olds to an assistant.
“I just don’t have the strength,” he said.
Just a few days earlier, Flores had resumed overseeing his 40-horse stable of Quarter Horses after undergoing gastric bypass surgery in July.
“I was 470 pounds,” he said. “It was time. No diet was going to fix me.”
ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Trainer Roger Attfield will have plenty of stakes on his plate this weekend, with five starters at four different locations on Saturday plus another pair slated to compete here at Woodbine on Sunday.
Attfield himself plans to be at Arlington Park to saddle Ave for the Grade 1, $750,000 Beverly D. and Perfect Shower for the Grade 3, $150,000 Stars N Stripes. The Beverly D. is a 1 3/16-mile turf stakes for fillies and mares and the Stars N Stripes a 1 3/8-mile turf race for 3-year-olds and upward.
PHOENIX – The $75,000 Phoenix Gold Cup and $50,000 Cotton Fitzsimmons Mile headline a stakes roster of 38 events for the upcoming 2010-2011 Turf Paradise meet. The 156-day stand, runs from Oct. 1 through May 8, 2011. Live racing will be conducted five days a week, Friday through Tuesday, with first post of 1 p.m.
Any of the six horses entered in Friday’s feature race at Northlands Park are capable of winning the $22,000 claiming race for 3-year-olds and up. The six-furlong sprint will go as race 7.
The way the race unfolds will have a big impact on which horse will be successful. There is plenty of speed in the field and if a duel develops it could set up nicely for Plagiarist, who is as honest as they come.
VANCOUVER, British Columbia – Numaany and Moscato will renew acquaintances in the second leg of the endurance series, which will serve as Friday’s feature race at Hastings. The 1 3/8-mile starter handicap for 3-year-olds and up drew eight horses and goes as race 7 on the eight-race card, which begins at 7:15 p.m. Pacific.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Points of Grace, the reigning Canadian champion female on turf, will take center stage Friday at Woodbine in the $91,100 prep for the Grade 2 Canadian Stakes. The classified allowance is scheduled for a mile on the grass.
Points of Grace had a breakout 2009 season for trainer Malcolm Pierce, during which she won 5 of 9 starts and $404,030. She captured the Grade 2 Dance Smartly Stakes and the River Memories Stakes during that campaign, and was beaten only three lengths when a troubled fifth in the Grade 1 Beverly D. at Arlington.
AUBURN, Wash. – The Longacres Mile field lost one contender early this week, when an injury forced Rooster City to the sideline. But his exit provided a welcome opening for trainer Howard Belvoir and his 2008 Mile winner, Wasserman, who was all but guaranteed a spot in Sunday’s Grade 3, $250,000 race at Emerald Downs.
VANCOUVER, British Columbia – After Silly Fella won a $50,000 optional claimer by a widening 6 3/4 lengths in May, his connections were hoping he was good enough to be a contender in the Grade 3, $300,000 Canadian Derby at Northlands Park this Saturday. After a couple of rough trips in the Chris Loseth and B.C. Cup Stellar’s Jay, however, they opted to keep him at Hastings and run him in the $50,000 CTHS Sales Stakes next Wednesday instead.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario – A nine-hour Ontario Racing Commission hearing held Tuesday at the request of owner Bruno Schickedanz will resume here next Thursday morning.
The Woodbine Entertainment Group barred Schickedanz from entering or stabling horses at Woodbine following the death of 13-year-old Wake At Noon on Woodbine’s training track June 29, and Schickedanz is seeking to have the ban overturned.