ETOBICOKE, Ontario - Trainer Catherine Day Phillips has two wins in the Breeders' Stakes in her portfolio, having sent out A Bit O' Gold to win as the second choice in 2004 and Jambalaya to prevail the following year as the favorite.
But Day Phillips will find herself in a different position Sunday, when she saddles Mr. Foricos Two U for the $500,000 Breeders', the 1o1/2-mile turf race that is the final leg of the Triple Crown for Canadian-bred 3-year-olds.
FORT ERIE, Ontario - Apprentice Bradley Wilson won the first race of his career last Sunday at Fort Erie and subsequently went through the initiation ritual all riders must face.
Wilson, 24, had been waiting patiently for his first win through a series of mounts, and when the win finally came he was overjoyed to put it behind him.
"Winston Wilkinson was kind enough to give me my first ride," said Wilson, "and when I placed in that try, I felt confident that the win would come. It took a while but now it is on to the next."
DEL MAR, Calif. - Zensational, the crack 3-year-old sprinter trained by Bob Baffert, will be favored to win his second consecutive Grade 1 in the $300,000 Bing Crosby Stakes at Del Mar next Saturday.
The six-furlong Crosby may not be Zensational's only start at Del Mar. The $300,000 Pat O'Brien Stakes over seven furlongs will be run on Sept. 6 and remains an option. The Grade 1 O'Brien is the same day as the $1 million Pacific Classic, an afternoon when there will be ample national attention on Del Mar.
Less than a month into the Ellis Park meet, Buff Bradley finds himself atop the trainer standings, having sent out five winners. He is just not sure how much longer he can stay on the lead. The Ellis meet concludes on Labor Day, Sept. 7.
"I guess we fired a lot of good bullets off the bat that happened to get up to win," he said of his mid-sized stable. "Now we have to go through another rotation, and it's gonna get harder for them."
BOSSIER CITY, La. - Sunday's entry-level optional claiming feature at Louisiana Downs drew an interesting cast of characters with several subplots. A field of eight has been entered with one, Miss Atlantic, scheduled to start only if the one-mile affair slated for the turf is transferred to the main track.
OCEANPORT, N.J. Rachel Alexandra, the 4-5 favorite to beat the colts in the $1.25 million Haskell Invitational, arrived at Monmouth Park shortly before 9 a.m. on Friday.
The filly shipped down from Steve Asmussen's barn at Saratoga, accompanied in the van by a pony.
"Everything went fine," said assistant Scott Blasi, who arrived about a half-hour before Rachel Alexandra. "She didn't turn a hair."
Keeping in line with the rest of the industry, Belmont Park suffered steep declines in handle and attendance for the recently concluded 64-day meet.
Daily average all-sources handle, which includes money bet on Belmont races from simulcast outlets, was $9,841,614, a 13.9 percent decrease from 2008, when the meet was 58 days. Total all-sources handle was $629,863,276, a 5.2 percent decline from 2008.
Daily average ontrack handle on Belmont's races was $991,603, down 17.5 percent from 2008. Total ontrack handle was $63,462,612, down 9 percent from 2008.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario - Even though he was making his third career start in a span of less than seven weeks, Reservoir obviously had a following, as he was sent off at less than 12-1 for the $1 million Queen's Plate.
Reservoir wasn't up to the task that day, as he finished a faltering 11th. But Julia Carey, who trains Reservoir for Elliot Kohn and Weila Ye, is hoping that a horse of a different color will show up for Sunday's $500,000 Breeders' Stakes.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - This could potentially be a big weekend for trainer Ian Wilkes and the dam La Cucina.
Wilkes trains siblings Miss Isella and Guam Typhoon, both of whom will be running in stakes races 35 minutes apart at Saratoga on Sunday. Miss Isella, a 4-year-old filly who has won her last two starts, is entered in the Grade 1 Go for Wand, while Guam Typhoon, a 3-year-old colt, is entered in the $70,000 Curlin Stakes. Both horses are out of the Irish-bred dam La Cucina, and are owned by Elaine Jones.
CHESTER, W.Va. - David Fawkes doesn't want to make it more complicated than it has to be. As the trainer of Big Drama, he will simply give Eibar Coa a leg up, then sit back and watch what happens Saturday in the West Virginia Derby.
"I'm going to leave Coa alone and let him ride his race," said Fawkes. "They've had a lot of luck together. If things fall as they do, we should be fine."
