ELMONT, N.Y. - Trainer Chad Brown was very confident that Expansion was going to run a big race in last month's Grade 1 Manhattan Handicap. His suspicions were proven correct when Expansion ran a bang-up third behind Winchester and Gio Ponti, beaten a total of 1 1/2 lengths.
Signature Red became a stakes winner in the Highlander under jockey Chantal Sutherland, registering his second straight win over six furlongs of turf after taking the prep at the same distance.
"I always loved this horse," said Sid Attard, who trains Signature Red.
Signature Red had placed in a pair of Grade 3 stakes sprints on Polytrack and had raced only once on turf prior to this season, finishing ninth under second-level allowance terms at one mile.
"That race was too far," said Attard. "I don't think it matters what he runs on, up to seven-eighths."
VANCOUVER, British Columbia - Apprentice jockey Ryan Pacheco is hoping that moving his tack to Hastings will help land him a lot more live mounts than he was getting at Woodbine. Pacheco was one of 15 apprentices at Woodbine. At Hastings, Taletha Wyatt and Geovanni Franco are the only bug riders currently plying their trade, and unless Franco gets an extension, he will lose his apprentice status soon. At Woodbine this year, Pacheco won three races from 76 mounts.
Pacheco, 27, was born and raised in Toronto, but he had never been to the track until he was 18.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario - Queen's Plate Day was not a particularly memorable one for trainer Roger Attfield.
Decked out in his finest here last Sunday, Attfield had watched Mobilizer finish ninth as the lukewarm favorite in the Queen's Plate after Not Bourbon had run fifth as fourth choice at 9-2 in the Highlander.
All was not lost, however, as Spice Route intervened with an impressive 3 3/4-length score in the Grade 3, $163,600 Singspiel at 1 1/2 miles on the turf.
"If it wasn't for Spice Route, I would have got killed," said Attfield.
OCEANPORT, N.J. - Trappe Shot tops a field of six for the $175,000 Long Branch Stakes for 3-year-olds on Saturday at Monmouth Park.
The Long Branch offers berths in the biggest race of the meet as the first two finishers are traditionally extended invitations to the $1 million Haskell on Aug. 1.
Trappe Shot, an impressive allowance winner on the Belmont Stakes undercard, figures to be favored in his stakes debut, following three straight dominant wins.
In an ominous move, officials at Turfway Park on Wednesday announced that the Kentucky Cup series is being dropped for the 2010 season because of continuing financial duress at the Florence, Ky., track.
The track also will eliminate Wednesday racing from its fall meet, leaving 16 dates instead of 20 when the meet is run Sept. 9 to Oct. 3. Only one stakes, the $100,000 Turfway Fall Championship, a Breeders' Cup Challenge race, remains on the schedule.
Suffolk Downs is positioning itself to handle the prospect of expanded gambling coming to Massachusetts after unveiling preliminary development plans for the track's 163-acre property just outside Boston.
The track's owners are touting the job creation the new casino complex would generate as well as the track's location as a potential huge money machine for the cash-strapped state as gambling bills make their way through the legislature.
Offlee Swift came from just off the pace to win the $70,000 Indiana First Lady at Indiana Downs Tuesday evening for trainer Richard Kohnhorst.
Jockey Leandro Gonclalves kept the 3-year-old Indiana-bred filly within a few lengths of the lead until mid-stretch and the real running began. Goncalves asked for more and Offlee Swift responded and was drawing clear late. The final margin of victory for the mile on the Indiana Downs turf course was a half-length.
Trainer Mike Natale received a $500 fine and a 15-day suspension after one of his horses tested positive for an antihistamine known as tripelennamine at Prairie Meadows. The horse, Frozen Angel, was disqualified from his second-place finish in the eighth race on May 3, and the purse ordered forfeited.
Tripelennamine is classified as a Class 3 substance, one that may have generally accepted medical use, but that has potential to affect performance.
Natale denied using the substance on the horse.
Trainer Bob Schultz hopes to be doing some significant business over the Louisiana Downs turf course in the next few months. Lee's Spirit, who won the track's $50,000 Barksdale with a late burst Saturday, has two more local stakes objectives on his calendar, while quality 2-year-old filly Dixieland Bull is set to try two turns for the first time in an upcoming turf stakes at Louisiana Downs.
