ARCADIA, Calif. - Trainer Eric Guillot served a five-day suspension that ended Tuesday and paid a $3,000 fine because one of his starters at Del Mar tested positive for the banned steroid trenbolone this summer.
The post-race test was taken from Champagne d'Oro, the winner of the sixth race on Aug. 9. The filly is among the pre-entries for the Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies and Juvenile Fillies Turf at Santa Anita on Nov. 6, with the Juvenile Fillies listed as a first preference.
For the first time in eight years, someone other than Scott Lake is the champion trainer at Delaware Park.
By winning two races on Monday's closing-day card, Autrey finished with 58 victories, three ahead of Lake, denying Lake what would have been a record-breaking eighth straight title. The track record of seven consecutive titles is shared by Lake and Bud Delp (1963-69).
In his first full season riding at Delaware, David Cohen dominated the jockey standings with 152 victories, 34 ahead of runner-up Anna Napravnik.
Fort Erie-based owner-trainer Michael Osborne has been suspended for nine months through July 28, 2010 and fined $1,500 for an incident at Woodbine.
Osborne had shipped in Intothewilderness to run at Woodbine on Aug. 2. A random inspection of the receiving barn by Woodbine security uncovered a plastic bag containing a loaded hypodermic syringe with a needle attached in Osborne's possession.
A follow-up analysis by the Ontario Racing Commission determined liquid in the syringe to be n-butanol and ethanol both alcohol, a Class 2 medication.
Uh Oh Bango, who put up the best Beyer Figure for a 2-year-old colt so far this year when he won the $53,000 Prairie Meadows Freshman in September with a 102, will likely make his next start in the Grade 3, $100,000 Iroquois at Churchill Downs on Nov. 1. The backup plan for the horse would be the $175,000 Jean Lafitte at Delta Downs on Nov. 7, said his trainer, Kory Owens.
Owens, who on Tuesday was working on shipping plans, said there were a couple of reasons to target the one-mile Iroquois off the horse's win at six furlongs in the Freshman.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario - Nathan Wallis, who checked into Woodbine without fanfare late this summer, had his first winner here last Sunday when Venom captured a $10,000 claiming race for nonwinners-of-three.
Venom was the 10th starter at the meeting for Wallis, a 37-year-old native of Texas who took out his trainer's license in 2000 but had established a thorough foundation long before that as he grew up around horses on his family's Dormello Farm in Decatur, Texas.
April Pride won her first graded stakes in Saturday's Grade 3, $100,000 Harold Ramser Handicap over a mile on turf, prompting trainer Jim Cassidy to consider an even loftier goal for her next start - the $300,000 Matriarch Stakes, a Grade 1 over a mile on turf for fillies and mares at Hollywood Park on Nov. 28.
April Pride won the Ramser by 1 1/2 lengths, overcoming a touch of trouble on the turn to reach the front in the final furlong.
"She really has to be ridden aggressively," Cassidy said.
LEXINGTON, Ky. - Mere seconds after he and his fellow Keeneland stewards had declared the official here Saturday, John Veitch was smiling at the irony of the result.
Veitch said he had been on the phone "all afternoon" Saturday with Jerry Jamgotchian, the California-based owner of Satans Quick Chick, the eventual longshot winner of the $300,000 Raven Run. Jamgotchian, sensing the race was too competitive for a filly who had never won a stakes, had wanted to scratch, but Veitch would not permit it.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario - Rahy's Attorney has been unable to match his heroics of last season, when he won the Woodbine Mile and was voted Canada's champion turf horse.
But Rahy's Attorney, a homebred Ontario-sired 5-year-old gelding trained by Ian Black, ended his 2009 campaign on a high note and with the promise of more to come next year when he captured last Saturday's $125,400 Bunty Lawless Stakes.
Lady Railrider's repeat victory in Saturday's $50,600 Pacific Heights Stakes could complicate trainer Steve Specht's life. The wire-to-wire victory in the 1 1/16-mile race was her first on turf and gives Specht more options as he plans her schedule for later this year and early next year.
The Pacific Heights was the second start on the grass for the 4-year-old Lady Railrider. She ran second to stablemate Shes a Lucky Wager - who was the runner-up in the Pacific Heights - in her turf debut at age 2.
Last year's Pacific Heights was run on the Tapeta main track.
