OZONE PARK, N.Y. - Even as a strong, chilled wind whipped in his face while standing along the rail on a steel-gray Friday morning at Aqueduct, there was no place else trainer Richard Dutrow Jr. wanted to be. Unfortunately for Dutrow, starting Sunday, he will not be permitted at Aqueduct or any other track in North America for the next month.
Benefiting from a shift in the live racing schedule, average all-sources handle for the 101-day Suffolk Downs meet in East Boston, Mass., increased 7.6 percent compared with all-sources handle for a 102-day meet last year, according to figures provided by the track on Friday.
INGLEWOOD, Calif. - There is a narrow band of race distances that best suit Star Nicholas.
He was third in the California Cup Classic over 1 1/8 miles on Oct. 3, which was too far. The one-mile Windy Sands Handicap over a mile at Del Mar on Sept. 5 was pushing it.
The statebred stakes over 7 1/2 furlongs at Hollywood Park, such as Saturday's $75,000 On Trust Handicap, are ideal. Last December, Star Nicholas won his first stakes in the On Trust. Earlier this year in stakes over 7 1/2 furlongs, he was second in the Tiznow Stakes and third in the Grade 3 Ack Ack Handicap.
The Sunland Park Derby, which produced this year's Kentucky Derby winner, Mine That Bird, will be worth $800,000 for its 2010 running if it receives a grade for next year. Otherwise, the purse will be $600,000. The race, run at 1 1/8 miles, is set for March 28, 2010.
Either way, the Sunland Park Derby will be the richest race of the Sunland Park mixed meet for Thoroughbreds and Quarter Horses that opens Dec. 11. The 77-date meet will run through April 20, 2010. Purses for the meet are projected to average $230,000 a program.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario - Awesome Rhythm was the first star of the 3-year-old division when the races stretched out here this spring, winning three consecutive stakes around two turns.
On Saturday, Awesome Rhythm will be looking to wind up his campaign on a high note when he faces older rivals for the first time in the $150,000 Autumn at 1 1/16 miles.
"He'll have to step it up; he'll have his work cut out for him," said John Ross, who trains Awesome Rhythm for owner Domenic Triumbari. "This is like a Breeders' Cup race for the local horses."
OZONE PARK, N.Y. - New York Racing Association officials canceled the 59th running of the Stuyvesant Handicap, scheduled for Saturday, when only five horses entered the Grade 3, $100,000 race, with the possibility that only three would start.
The likelihood of a wet track for Saturday would have caused trainer John Kimmel to scratch Timber Reserve from the race. The connections of Honour Devil informed the racing office that their horse was not guaranteed to start regardless of track condition. The other three entrants were Dry Martini, Naughty New Yorker, and Tomcito.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. - The controversy that erupted the last time Harlem Rocker was in a horse race has subsided. It was Nov. 29, 2008, when Harlem Rocker launched a huge rally to cross under the wire first in the Grade 1 Cigar Mile, only to be disqualified for what the Aqueduct stewards ruled as stretch interference against Tale of Ekati, the eventual winner.
HIALEAH, Fla. - Ghosts are stirring. Past the sun-bleached awning leading to the clubhouse, past the scratch board that still has the changes from the last day of racing in 2001, past the ceiling fans that are beginning to creak and hum.
There are no clocks, there is no sound. Just echoes of your imagination. Desperados smoke cigars with Churchill. A crowd strains for a glimpse of President Truman. Charlatans mingle with Kennedy and Sinatra.
The dust has barely settled, the echoes still faint from Saturday's Breeders' Cup at Oak Tree at Santa Anita. The racing scene has shifted to Hollywood Park, but that doesn't mean the ripples from the Breeders' Cup will not affect big races in the upcoming meet.
The lure of the Hollywood Park fall meet has been two-fold for the game's upper crust. For some, it indicates the ceremonial ending to the season. For others, it provides a bridge for potentially bigger and better things for the next year.
