INGLEWOOD, Calif. - The highlight of Hollywood Park's fall meeting unquestionably is next weekend's turf festival, featuring five graded stakes races over three days, three of which are Grade 1 races. For many horses, including the brilliant Ventura, it will be their last chance to shine before going to the breeding shed.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. - Rajiv Maragh has been named by trainer Helen Pitts to ride Einstein in the Grade 2 Clark Handicap on Friday at Churchill Downs.
Maragh, a rising star based in New York, replaces Julien Leparoux, who has ridden Einstein in each of the horse's last eight races. Leparoux was unavailable because of commitments to ride in Japan this coming weekend.
Evangeline Downs in Opelousas, La., was forced to cancel its 10-race card for Quarter Horses on Friday night because of technical issues with its tote system. The track also was unable to take wagers on incoming simulcasts earlier in the day Friday.
"A line got cut to our hub, and we had no tote system all day," said Tracey Coonce, simulcast manager at Evangeline. "We couldn't even wager on import tracks."
Greeley's Conquest has closed out another solid season sprinting in stakes around the Midwest and is expected to return to action in the later stages of the Oaklawn Park meet that opens Jan. 15.
The 5-year-old is closing in on $500,000 in career earnings after a 2009 that included a win in the $200,000 Remington Park Sprint Championship and a runner-up finish in the Grade 3, $150,000 Count Fleet Sprint Handicap at Oaklawn.
EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. - Lady Alexander pulled off a front-running upset Friday night in the $60,000 Honey Bee Handicap for 3-year-old fillies at the Meadowlands.
In her first start around two turns, Lady Alexander ($17.80) shot right to the front from the outside post in the 10-horse field. With Chuckie Lopez aboard, Lady Alexander rolled along on a solid pace through fractions of 23.34, 46.42 and 1:10.36.
"I knew she was faster than all of them, it was just a matter of whether she could actually go this far," Lopez said.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. - Bullsbay is 3 for 4 over the Churchill Downs main track, and his lone defeat resulted in a respectable fourth-place finish in the Grade 1 Stephen Foster Handicap in June. On top of that, he won the Grade 1 Whitney Handicap at Saratoga this summer.
So even though Bullsbay ran poorly in the Breeders' Cup Dirt Mile, finishing ninth of 10 on the Pro-Ride surface at Santa Anita, trainer Graham Motion feels good about shipping the 5-year-old horse to Churchill for the Grade 2 Clark Handicap on Friday.
INGLEWOOD, Calif. - Julio Canani often talks nonsensically, mutters to himself, and stall-walks. Thursday, he washed out big time.
Canani was anxious about running Loup Breton, a top-class European import, in the day's featured seventh race at Hollywood Park. It was the first North American start for Loup Breton, and the first runner Canani has ever trained for the Wildenstein family.
MIAMI - One of the more surprising sights during training hours here Friday was the red and white saddle towel of trainer Greg Sacco out on the track shortly after 8:30 a.m. It was even more surprising to learn the horse wearing the towel was Piscitelli, who less than two weeks earlier had finished fourth after setting the pace in the Breeders' Cup Juvenile.
Piscitelli shipped into the Calder barn area last week, but his local stay will be short lived, according to Sacco.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. - Quality Road's status for the Grade 1 Cigar Mile on Nov. 28 at Aqueduct has not been decided, trainer Todd Pletcher said Friday morning.
"Don't know yet," Pletcher said at his Belmont Park office. "He will go to Aqueduct Saturday to school in the paddock around 11 a.m., and he'll go in the starting gate around 11:15. He'll probably breeze on Sunday, and we'll see how that goes."
Owned by Edward Evans, Quality Road threw a fit before the $5 million Breeders' Cup Classic, balking at loading into the gate and cutting himself, necessitating a scratch.
Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies winner She Be Wild was among 12 horses pre-entered Friday in the Grade 3, $500,000 Delta Princess. If she starts in the Dec. 4 race at Delta Downs she will be running for a purse of $750,000 because of a new bonus for 2009.
Trainer Wayne Catalano said on Friday that owners Nancy and Mike Mazzoni are considering running her in the Princess, which would be her first start on dirt. Final entries for the race are Dec. 1.
