CINCINNATI, Ohio - Festive Girl will be making her turf debut when she faces seven other Ohio-accredited 3-year-old fillies in the $50,000 Cincinnatian at River Downs on Sunday. The Cincinnatian will be run at 1 1/16 miles over the turf.
Festive Girl won her 2010 debut April 17 over entry-level statebred allowance foes here. In her last out on May 21, she finished a well-beaten fourth in a statebred allowance. Trainer Doug Cowans thinks he knows what happened.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario - Early this week, trainer Nick Gonzalez passed the 1,000-win milestone.
And now the 58-year-old Gonzalez, who sent out his first winner in the spring of 1976, plans to shoot for the biggest prize of his career when Big Red Mike starts in next Sunday's $1 million Queen's Plate.
VANCOUVER, British Columbia - Only five horses are running in Sunday's feature race at Hastings, a money allowance race for 3-year-olds and up going 6 1/2 furlongs, but it ranks as one of the best races you will see here all year.
The horse to beat is Bank Emblem, who is returning from a lengthy layoff. That isn't a bad thing, however. Every time Bank Emblem has had a break in his career he has won his first start back.
INGLEWOOD, Calif. - Three months after a fourth-place finish in the $5 million Dubai Duty Free Stakes in the Middle East, The Usual Q.T. starts the second half of his 2010 campaign in a $55,000 allowance race over a mile on turf at Hollywood Park on Sunday.
The Usual Q.T. will be after his first win since the Grade 3 Sir Beaufort Stakes last December. Trainer Jim Cassidy hopes that Sunday's race will lead to a start in the Grade 1 Eddie Read Stakes at Del Mar on July 24.
FORT ERIE, Ontario - Francine Villeneuve returned to the racing game at Fort Erie this spring after a three-year break. She has 945 wins and is on her way to hitting 1,000.
"I'm glad to be back," said Villeneuve, who stopped riding in 2006 after a 51-win season at Fort Erie. "I just needed a break from racing, and now that is behind me my goal this year is to keep winning as I work towards the 1,000 mark.
It took Villanueve a while to get going on her comeback, but her four-win day on June 15 seemed to spark her.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. - Boredom, more than pain, was the toughest part of the six-plus weeks Julien Leparoux had to sit out. So when he returns to action Thursday at Churchill Downs, it will not be soon enough.
"I will be ready to come to work Thursday," said Leparoux, the 2009 Eclipse Award-winning jockey. "Definitely ready."
ELMONT, N.Y. − To call trainer James Bond frustrated would be an understatement. Winless with 24 starters at this meet, Bond has had to resort to shipping horses out of town to win races.
In June, Bond has won twice at Woodbine and once at Finger Lakes.
"I've never had a spring like this," Bond said Friday from Saratoga. "I had to go to Woodbine so I could find where the winner's circle is."
VANCOUVER, British Columbia - James Quinn's "The Handicapper's Condition Book" should be required reading for everyone who is serious about betting Thoroughbreds. Anyone who has read the book, knows that Burj Dubai is in the wrong race at Hastings on Sunday. He just might be good enough to win the race, however.
OCEANPORT, N.J. - Owner-trainer Dennis Manning is still on the fence with respect to running Roman Tiger in next Saturday's $750,000 United Nations Stakes.
The U.N. tops the Independence Day holiday weekend at Monmouth Park, one of the biggest and busiest periods of the meet with four cards Friday through Monday.
The U.N., at 1 3/8 miles on turf, and the $1 million Haskell Invitational are Monmouth's two Grade 1 stakes.
ARLINGTON HEIGHTS, Ill. - Shane Sellers, who hasn't ridden steadily at Arlington Park since 1993, will move his tack here next week and hopes to begin race-riding Thursday.
Sellers has been based at Delaware Park, where he had ridden 21 winners through Thursday, a total good for sixth in the standings there. He said the chance to partner with new agent Pat Cuccurullo and return to Arlington prompted his move to the Midwest.
"It was an opportunity to get with Pat and to go to Arlington, where I wanted to go in the first place," Sellers said.