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.
ARLINGTON HEIGHTS, Ill. – A list of the winning trainers in Beverly D. history is not unlike a Who’s Who of racing. Names such as Whittingham, Mandella, Mott, Frankel, and Clement run rampant, serving to suggest that only big-timers apply when the Beverly D. is run every summer at Arlington Park.
The field for the world’s most famous Quarter Horse race will be set after 20 trials for the Grade 1, $2 million All American Futurity are run Thursday at Ruidoso Downs. The action starts at 11 a.m. Mountain time, with no trainer to be more active on the card than Paul Jones.
Jones will send out 20 horses, one in each race. American Runaway, the nation’s top ranked 2-year-old, goes in the 18th. He will break from post 2. Jones, a perennial national training champ, is looking forward to Thursday.
DEL MAR, Calif. – The Irish are coming! The Irish are coming! Two fillies from Ireland have arrived in Southern California for the Grade 1, $300,000 Del Mar Oaks on Saturday, and as luck would have it for trainer Paddy Gallagher, both are going to remain here with him after the race.
Chris Candies jumped back into racing after a near eight-year hiatus last month, when he won a Louisiana Downs optional claimer with Epiphanyfortiffany. He owns the filly and said this fall he plans to get back into training in a return that will coincide with the opening of Fair Grounds.
Candies operated a high-percentage stable between 1995 and 2003, when he raced in Louisiana, Texas, and Illinois. His best horses included T.B. Track Star, who won the $300,000 Lone Star Derby in 1999, and Caro’s Royalty, a multiple stakes winner of more than $500,000.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – It’s not easy winning a stakes race three straight years – just ask Zenyatta, who recently bagged her third Clement L. Hirsch by a neck, or Forever Together, whose bid for a Diana three-peat fell a head short.
So, Banrock has his work cut out when he attempts to win Thursday’s $100,000 West Point for the third consecutive year.
With more than $7 million in improvements awaiting patrons returning to Remington Park for Thursday night’s opener, it’s evident that the Oklahoma City track has ushered in a new era of ownership. Global Gaming, a subsidiary of Chickasaw Nation, has changed the look of Remington’s face, apron, and guts since completing an $80 million deal to buy the track and its 750-machine casino from Magna Entertainment in January.