BOSSIER CITY, La. - The fireworks will begin a little early this weekend at Louisiana Downs with the meeting's first stakes action for 2-year-olds on Saturday. Set for five furlongs on turf, the $50,000 Minstrel and $50,000 Princess Stakes will join two other turf stakes, the $50,000 Top Courage and the $50,000 Barksdale Stakes, on a program that is being billed as the second of four "Super Saturdays" this meet.
De Gannes, Fredericks, and Ramsammy also will be teaming up here Saturday with Naval Attack, who is entered in the $150,000 Clarendon Stakes.
Naval Attack, purchased for $40,000 at the select local yearling sale, will be making his first start in the Clarendon, a 5 1/2-furlong race for Ontario-foaled 2-year-olds.
"I think he's a pretty nice 2-year-old," said De Gannes. "I wouldn't be going in a stake with him in his first start, otherwise."
ETOBICOKE, Ontario - Greg De Gannes was involved in several Queen's Plates during his days as a racetrack veterinarian.
De Gannes was with trainer Barbara Minshall's stable when that outfit finished third and fourth in the 1995 Queen's Plate with Mt. Sassafras and Kiridashi, and second the following year with Stephanotis. Later, De Gannes was an assistant to trainer Mark Casse when Long Pond and Kent Ridge prepared for the 2004 Queen's Plate, in which they failed to threaten.
GRAND PRAIRIE, Texas - Wasted Tears, one of the top turf mares in the country, could be headed to Saratoga. Her trainer, Bart Evans, said he is leaning toward running Wasted Tears at Saratoga later this month in the Grade 1, $500,000 Diana. He also is debating whether to start her in a stakes at either Arlington Park or Del Mar.
"I'd like to run her in a Grade 1," Evans said Wednesday. "If I can make the right kind of connections, Saratoga will probably be where we go."
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."