After two races, both at Hawthorne, My Time to Star looks little like a run-of-the-mill Illinois-bred. And next month in Louisiana, he may get a chance to drive home that point.
Two turns is next for Uh Oh Bango following his runner-up finish in the Grade 3 Iroquois last weekend at Churchill Downs, trainer Kory Owens said.
The Iroquois, a one-turn mile race, was the first start beyond six furlongs for Uh Oh Bango, who in September earned his division's best Beyer Figure to date, a 102, for a stakes win at Prairie Meadows.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario - Woodbine's turf racing season finished last weekend on a good note, with five of the last six races going as scheduled despite less-than-ideal conditions.
Those races brought the total number run over the E.P. Taylor course this year to 180, which falls short of the ideal envisioned by turf course superintendent Sean Gault.
ARCADIA, Calif. - Trainer Bob Baffert swept the first four races at Santa Anita on Sunday, the first time in his career that he could recall saddling four consecutive winners on the same day.
The achievement put him well on his way to the training title at the Oak Tree at Santa Anita meeting, which ends on Sunday. To Baffert, the title would mean little. After Crisis of Spirit had won Sunday's Anoakia Stakes, his third winner of the day, the trainer's focus was fully on the Breeders' Cup races on Friday and Saturday.
The Golden Gate trainer Dean Pederson says the term star "may be a little strong," but he thinks the undefeated 2-year-old Sourdough Sam does have potential.
A John Nicoletti homebred by Decarchy, Sourdough Sam is 2 for 2 after winning an allowance race Saturday at Golden Gate by three-quarters of a length. He rallied from last to catch Shudacudawudya, who had two wins and a second in three starts.
"The horse that ran second did everything right except win," Pederson said. "He just got caught by a horse that seems to have a lot of potential."
LOUISVILLE, Ky. - As good as Sunday's Grade 3 Iroquois and Pocahontas stakes at Churchill Downs were, those races might prove to be mere tastes of what is to come on closing day of the fall meet, Nov. 28.
A number of the top performers from the two races are expected to return in the Grade 2 Kentucky Jockey Club for juvenile males and the Grade 2 Golden Rod for juvenile fillies, including the winners of the Iroquois and Pocahontas - Thiskyhasnolimit and Sassy Image - their trainers said Sunday.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario - Carolyn Costigan couldn't have scripted a more soaring beginning to her training career.
Costigan, a 28-year-old native of Ireland, was saddling her first official starter when Roan Inish won last Saturday's $251,200 Princess Elizabeth here by a length.
"It was pretty awesome," Costigan said. "It was a pretty special day. A couple of people have told me I should retire, that I started at the top and should keep it that way."
Golden Gate Fields has forwarded information to the California Horse Racing Board and other racing investigatory agencies about a possible past-posting incident on its third race on the Sept. 26 card, according to officials of the track and regulatory organizations.
LEXINGTON - Average all-sources daily wagering on races from Keeneland Racecourse in Lexington for its 17 days of fall racing recovered strongly this year, up 8.7 percent, but the figures failed to restore wagering levels to the heights the track established prior to the recession, according to figures provided by the track.