The Breeders' Cup is wonderful, yes. So, too, are Arlington Million weekend and other holiday weekends. But this weekend is one we give thanks for, and I'm not talking about the gustatory delights.
I'm talking about the major racing in New York, Kentucky, and California, which in many ways gives a cymbal crash to the year, a symbolic ending of the campaign as the next "season" gets under way with the advent of Santa Anita and Gulfstream.
WHO'S HOT
At age 19, jockey Joe Talamo is supposed to be paying his dues while slowly establishing himself as a fixture in Southern California. Scratch that. The sociable and enthusiastic Talamo is arriving way ahead of time, and his five-win day Nov. 22 shot him to second in the standings and reaffirmed his reputation as one of the circuit's top riders.
WHO'S HOT
Eibar Coa
The veteran jockey makes the list again after posting back-to-back hat tricks last Saturday and Sunday to retake the lead in the jockey standings at the Tropical at Calder session. Coa had begun the weekend behind Manoel Cruz and apprentice Luis Saez. Barring injuries to the big three, this one will go down to the wire Jan. 2.
Kathleen O'Connell
The purse for the prestigious Santa Anita Handicap has been cut from $1 million to $750,000 for the 2010 running on March 6. Santa Anita has announced the stakes schedule for the upcoming winter-spring meeting, which runs from Dec. 26 to April 18. Overall, the calendar has been cut from 75 stakes to 54 events.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. - Quality Road's status for Saturday's $300,000 Cigar Mile remained unresolved Wednesday morning and a new factor - Mother Nature - could play a role in whether the star-crossed 3-year-old runs in the Grade 1 race at Aqueduct.
EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. - Breeders' Cup Turf runner-up Presious Passion will make his next start on Dec. 26 at Calder in the Grade 2, $150,000 W.L. McKnight Handicap, a race he won the last two years, trainer Mary Hartmann confirmed on Wednesday.
Hartmann and owners Patricia and Frank Generazio weighed an offer to run in Hong Kong on Dec. 13 but elected to give Presious Passion an easier assignment after a demanding but highly successful campaign.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. - While a decision on Quality Road's status for Saturday's $300,000 Hill 'n' Dale Cigar Mile at Aqueduct was not going to be made until at least Wednesday, his stablemate Munnings will most likely miss the Grade 1 race due to a foot problem.
INGLEWOOD, Calif. - After winning the Moccasin Stakes with Bickersons on Sunday at Hollywood Park, trainer Kelly Breen faced a question the Clash pondered all these years ago: Should Bickersons stay, or should she go?
She's staying. On Tuesday, Breen announced that Bickersons would stick around just a little while longer in California to compete in the Grade 1, $300,000 Hollywood Starlet Stakes for 2-year-old fillies on Dec. 20, closing day of this track's fall meeting.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario - The Jockey Club of Canada introduced a filly and mare sprinter division to its list of Sovereign Award categories this year. That addition seems to have come at a propitious time for Tribal Belle, who recorded her third sprint stakes win of the meeting in the $156,500 Bessarabian at seven furlongs here last Sunday.
"I think she'd be a deserving winner," said Terry Jordan, who trains Tribal Belle for the Canvasback Farm of Mike Wiltshire. "Probably six to 6 1/2 furlongs is her best distance. She struggles at seven furlongs, but how can you knock her?"
LOUISVILLE, Ky. - Blame is one of those improving 3-year-olds who appeared destined for more meaningful outings this fall when meeting up with his elders.
So far, so good. Blame won the Oct. 31 Fayette Stakes at Keeneland in his first race versus older stakes runners, and now he will try the likes of Einstein and Macho Again when one of 14 starters Friday in a rugged 135th edition of the Grade 2, $400,000 Clark Handicap at Churchill Downs.
