WHO'S HOT

Christophe Clement

It was a frustrating meet for the Paris-born trainer until July 8, when Balcazio ($8.70) kicked off a run of five consecutive winners to close out the next-to-last week of the stand, highlighted by Gio Ponti ($2.80) taking the Man o' War for the second straight year and thus ending a run of five losses since taking the 2009 Arlington Million.

A total of 64 horses have been pre-entered for the 12th annual Claiming Crown, the six-race, $500,000 series that will be run next Saturday, July 24, at Canterbury Park in Shakopee, Minn.

Trainer Jamie Ness and his main client, Midwest Thoroughbreds, have the most pre-entries, with five and six, respectively.

Purses for the races, which are run under starter-allowance conditions, range from $50,000 to $150,000 for the main event, the Claiming Crown Jewel. Eight horses are pre-entered in the 1 1/8-mile Jewel.

Fortunia and Lady Giacamo, who both have developed into fillies of note during the course of the Lone Star Park meet that ends on Sunday, are headed to Del Mar. Each is targeting separate stakes at the Southern California track, with Fortunia to be part of a small division of horses her trainer, former champion jockey Cash Asmussen, plans to have at Del Mar.

“I’m going to take four or five out there,” he said.

ARLINGTON HEIGHTS, Ill. – Yes, Tuscan Evening has turned into the dominant turf female in California, with wins in all five of her 2010 starts, and California being California, we all know about this development. But to take the regional clichés a step farther, the quiet unassuming Midwesterner, Hot Cha Cha, may give Tuscan Evening all she wants in what is shaping up as an excellent edition of the Modesty Handicap on Saturday at Arlington Park.

INGLEWOOD, Calif.– Golden Itiz, the winner of the Grade 3 Affirmed Handicap in June, is unlikely to start in Saturday’s $200,000 Swaps Stakes at Hollywood Park after trainer Ron Ellis said on Tuesday that he was unsatisfied with the colt’s recent training.

Golden Itiz worked five furlongs in 1:02.40 on Sunday, but the exercise left Ellis disappointed.

“He didn’t work that well and that’s not like him,” Ellis said. “I don’t think he’ll run. We’re doing a blood test.”

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Macho Again, a Grade 1 winner who fell a head short of defeating Rachel Alexandra in an epic running of the Woodward Stakes last September, is in the process of being sold and retired from racing.

Terry Finley, president of the horse’s ownership group, West Point Thoroughbreds, said Wednesday morning that a deal with “a large stud farm in Venezuela” had nearly been consummated, with only minor details still to be worked out.

“We have an agreement in principle, and unless something unforeseen happens, the horse will be sold,” said Finley.

BOSSIER CITY, La. – One of the more eagerly anticipated rematches of the Louisiana Downs season remains on course for the $50,000 Laurel Lane Stakes later this month.

Do Dat Blues and Take Me Home Too, first and second, respectively, here in a 2-year-old maiden race in June, and each an impressive winner since, are set to meet again in the six-furlong Laurel Lane for Louisiana-bred fillies July 31.

OCEANPORT, N.J. – Nacho Friend earned an invitation to the $1 million Haskell with his second-place finish last weekend in the Long Branch Stakes.

After studying the likely lineup for the Grade 1 Haskell for 3-year-olds on Aug. 1 at Monmouth Park, trainer Kelly Breen might respectfully decline the offer.

Expected runners in the biggest race of the meet include Kentucky Derby winner Super Saver, Preakness winner Lookin At Lucky, and Trappe Shot, who beat Nacho Friend by 2 1/2 lengths in the Long Branch.

ETOBICOKE, Ontario − It’s always news when a Queen’s Plate runner-up makes his first start the following season, as Mr. Foricos Two U will Friday in a seven-furlong allowance at Woodbine.

Beaten a neck by Eye of the Leopard in the 2009 Queen’s Plate, Mr. Foricos Two U will be coming off a layoff of more than seven months.

AUBURN, Wash. – Vann Belvoir tops the Emerald Downs trainer standings heading into the final 41 days of the 89-day meeting. He would like to win the title, but there are bigger things on his mind these days, like trying to establish a training toehold in the Midwest. So for the time being, Belvoir, 36, is splitting time between his home base at Emerald and Prairie Meadows in Altoona, Iowa.