FORT ERIE, Ontario – When apprentice jockey Brian Cheyne took trainer Lou Capi’s Found the Treasure into the Fort Erie winner’s circle Tuesday evening, it capped an eight-win weekend for him from Aug. 15 to Aug. 17. With four wins Sunday, three Monday, and one the final race of the weekend, Cheyne, 21, gave notice that he will be a force for the rest of the meet.
Cheyne was 20 of 137 at the meet through Thursday but has won 13 of his last 56, a 23 percent win rate.
AUBURN, Wash. – There has been an unusual turn of events in the filly-and-mare division at Emerald Downs: As the distances get longer, Clair Annette’s odds get shorter. Having recorded stakes victories at a mile and 1 1/16 miles in her past two starts, she figures to be a short-priced favorite Sunday going nine furlongs in the $75,000 Emerald Distaff on the Longacres Mile undercard.
EDMONTON, Alberta – Notoriously will try and keep her hot streak at Northlands Park alive when she runs in the $50,000 Sonoma Handicap on Sunday. The 1 1/16-mile feature for 3-year-old fillies winds up the Thoroughbred portion of a 10-race card. Following the Sonoma, there will be three stakes for Quarter Horses totaling $88,500 in purses.
EDMONTON, Alberta – Trainer Robertino Diodoro is on track to win his first training title at Northlands Park. He currently sits on top of the standings with 39 wins, eight more than Jim Meyaard and Greg Tracy.
Diodoro, 36, finished second to Meyaard last year and was also second behind Red Smith in 2008. It is unlikely Meyaard will catch Diodoro this year due to the number of horses in Diodoro’s stable.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Biofuel, arguably the best 3-year-old filly at Woodbine, will face older rivals for the first time in Sunday’s 1 1/16-mile Belle Mahone.
The Belle Mahone, an overnight stakes for fillies and mares, has attracted a field of seven that also includes Tasty Temptation, one of the top older mares on the circuit.
Biofuel, a co-champion in Canada’s 2-year-old filly division last year, began her current campaign with victories here in the six-furlong Star Shoot and the 1 1/16-mile La Lorgnette.
Oaklawn Park has repositioned the Apple Blossom and reduced the purse of the Oaklawn Handicap from $500,000 to $350,000 in the biggest changes to its 2011 stakes schedule that is again led by the $1 million Arkansas Derby. In all, the track will put on 32 stakes worth $4.6 million during its 56-date meet that opens Jan. 14.
Purses are projected to average $300,000 a day.
Although it’s basically a starter allowance race for $12,500 claimers, the Humboldt County Marathon, which is the final race on Sunday’s closing-day card at the Humboldt County Fair, is always a special event because of the race’s distance.
The 1 5/8-mile race sees horse cross the finish line four times before the race is over.
In recent years, San Francisco Bay Area-based trainers Jeff Bonde, Armando Lage, and John Martin have won the race.
Jls Mr Bigtime and jockey Jacky Martin were the biggest winners during Thursday’s marathon card of trials for the Grade 1, $2 million All American Quarter Horse Futurity at Ruidoso Downs. The two teamed up to set the fastest qualifying time for the Sept. 6 finale, which will go without the nation’s top-ranked 2-year-old, American Runaway, who was eliminated at the start of his trial and finished seventh.
The field for the All American is limited to the 10 fastest qualifiers, with 190 horses competing for those spots Thursday.
ARLINGTON HEIGHTS, Ill. – Rainbow View will be out of action indefinitely after injuring the tendon in her left foreleg, an injury that was diagnosed Thursday shortly before she was to be shipped from Presque Isle Downs to Arlington Park for a start in the Beverly D.
Rainbow View worked five furlongs Wednesday morning at Saratoga, after which she was sent on her way to Presque Isle. Jonathan Sheppard, who trains Rainbow View for George Strawbridge’s Augustin Stables, said Rainbow View “had a bit of inflammation” in her tendon Thursday morning.
AUBURN, Wash. – Most of the horses in Sunday’s $250,000 Longacres Mile have established form, and then there’s Burj Dubai. A million-dollar yearling with a fancy pedigree and undeniable talent – and only three career starts – he’s the X factor in Emerald Downs’s Grade 3 main event.