Maggi Moss, the perennial leading owner at Prairie Meadows, will be inducted into the track's hall of fame on Aug. 6. She sits atop the local owner standings with 26 wins and $428,797 in earnings, and is 14 wins ahead of her nearest rival.
But, she hasn't gotten there alone. Moss has assembled a winning team with Chris Richard training and Eddie Razo riding. The three have combined for 23 victories this meet.
Mac Robertson is no cinch to win his sixth consecutive training title at Canterbury Park. After 26 days of this 62-day meet, Robertson is deadlocked with Michael Biehler at 18 wins. Bernell Rhone is just one back heading into July.
This is Robertson's first summer splitting his barn between Delaware and Minnesota. He has won with 6 of his 26 starters at Delaware Park, with stable earnings of $147,200. In 49 starts at Canterbury, Robertson has 18 victories and has earned $250,550.
Superior Storm and Star Guitar, the 2008 and 2009 Louisiana-bred horses of the year, will share top billing on Louisiana Showcase Night at Evangeline Downs on Saturday. The 10-stakes program restricted to Louisiana-breds is the biggest evening of the meet with close to $1 million in purse money on the line.
Superior Storm will be back to defend her title in the $100,000 Louisiana Showcase Distaff. Star Guitar returns to try for a second straight win in the $100,000 Louisiana Showcase Classic at 1 1/16 miles.
Saturday's $75,000 Cleveland Gold Cup, the premier race for Ohio-bred 3-year-olds at Thistledown, has drawn a very interesting field of 10, including last year's statebred juvenile champ That's a Heckofacat, a three-time stakes winner in 2009.
While hard to believe, a key player in this weekend's 1 1/8-mile Gold Cup emerged from a modest claiming event last winter in south Florida.
On March 14, the eighth race at Gulfstream Park was for $35,000 claimers going one mile on turf. Among the participants was a 3-year-old Ohio-bred gelding named Nehru.
AUBURN, Wash. - Don't give up on Assessment just yet. While the horse of the meeting at Emerald Downs last summer has yet to win this year, it could be just a matter of time.
Assessment has earned $1,250 at the meeting, a far cry from his magical season of a year ago, when he captured three stakes, including the Grade 3 Longacres Mile, and banked $257,000.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario - Lady Shakespeare, winner of the Grade 2 New York at Belmont Park in her last start at on June 19, is scheduled to undergo surgery this week and probably will be out of action until late fall.
"She's come up with a condylar fracture in her right hind," said Roger Attfield, who trains Lady Shakespeare for her owner and breeder, Charles Fipke
"It was after just an easy canter, her first day back to the track, that we knew there was a problem."
ETOBICOKE, Ontario - Woodbine is conducting an internal investigation into the death of Wake at Noon, a former Canadian horse of the year who sustained catastrophic injuries and was euthanized on the training track here Tuesday.
A 13-year-old, Wake At Noon had not started since Nov. 18, 2007, and had been pursuing an unproductive career at stud, which had been interrupted with a return to the races on at least one previous occasion.
"The horse certainly wasn't eligible to race here," said Jamie Martin, Woodbine's senior vice president of racing
A Little Warm pressured Miner's Reserve from the start of a $39,770 over 1 1/16 miles on Tuesday at Delaware Park, gradually wearing down his rival in the stretch and pulling clear by 2 1/4 lengths in his first start since a runner-up finish in the Grade 2 Louisiana Derby on March 27.
A Little Warm, owned by Edward Evans, returned $3.20 as the favorite. His next start could come at Saratoga.
Three groups submitted bids to operate a casino at Aqueduct racetrack in Queens by a late-afternoon deadline on Tuesday, according to the New York Lottery, which is overseeing the process to evaluate the bids.
The three groups - the casino and racetrack operator Penn National Gaming Inc., the Malaysia-based casino company Genting New York, and a partnership of SL Green, Hard Rock, and the Clairvest Group - will compete to win the rights to operate the casino over a span of 30 years. The casino is expected to be one of the highest-grossing gambling properties on the East Coast.
A feeling of accomplishment and relief swept over trainer Jim Cassidy when the multiple stakes winner The Usual Q.T. returned from a three-month break to win a $71,500 allowance race on Sunday.
"It's a little of both," he said. "You never know how they'll come back."