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.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - After competing in the Grade 1 United Nations in his last start, Straight Story found a return to New York-bred company to his liking, taking over at the three-eighths pole under Javier Castellano and persevering on to a one-length victory in Thursday’s $100,000 West Point Handicap Stakes at Saratoga.
Pocket Cowboys, who raced in third position most of the trip, rallied for second, 1 1/4 lengths in front of a late-running Icabad Crane. It was a neck back to Banrock, who was thwarted in his bid for a third straight West Point victory.
ARLINGTON HEIGHTS, Ill. - Nick Canani, second-leading trainer at Arlington Park with 45 wins this meet, and a private trainer for leading Chicago owner Frank Calabrese, has been hit with five more positive tests for the non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug etodolac.
DEL MAR, Calif. – The California Horse Racing Board denied a request Thursday from the Oak Tree Racing Association to conduct an autumn meeting at Santa Anita after representatives of the Thoroughbred Owners of California and California Thoroughbred Trainers told the racing board that their organizations wanted the meeting moved to Hollywood Park because of concerns about the safety of the Santa Anita Pro-Ride synthetic track.
DEL MAR, Calif. – Turns out, there is more to the millionaire California Flag than a speed-crazy turf sprinter. He can come from off the pace, too, even though that style of racing left trainer Brian Koriner spooked as Wednesday’s $102,175 Green Flash Handicap unfolded.
Instead of leading throughout, as he did in the 2009 Green Flash and the 2009 Breeders’ Cup Turf Sprint, California Flag was fourth early and closed 3 1/2 lengths in the final three furlongs to win the five-furlong Green Flash by a nose over Quick Enough and My Summer Slew, who finished in a dead heat.
Trainer Tim Hamm holds a very strong hand when he will saddle six of the nine Ohio-bred 2-year-old fillies in the $50,000, six-furlong Miss Ohio Stakes at Thistledown. Four of the Hamm-trained fillies will be coupled in the wagering.
Hamm saddles the lone winner in the race, Startin Something, who won the Tah Dah Stakes at River Downs on July 24. Prior to that, she was fourth against males in the Hoover Stakes there on July 10.
The millionaire Heros Reward, a multple graded stakes winner, makes a rare appearance against restricted company in the $50,000 Mister Diz Stakes at Laurel Park.
Now 8, Heros Reward has won three stakes at the Grade 3 and Grade 2 level during a career in which he has won 11 of 30 starts on turf and $1.1 million overall. As recently as July 4, Heros Reward missed by a neck in the Grade 2 Highlander at Woodbine. Last time out, in the $200,000 Pennsylvania Governor's Cup at Penn National, Heros Reward failed to show his customary early speed and finished 10th of 11.