BOSSIER CITY, La. - As warm-up acts go, Saturday's $100,000 Happy Ticket Stakes should prove to be a good one. A competitive field of nine 2-year-old fillies will go 1 1/16 miles on the grass in the race immediately preceding the afternoon's featured $750,000 Super Derby.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario - Bribon, winner of the Grade 1 Met Mile at Belmont Park this spring, has been made the 5-2 favorite and will begin from post 5 in Sunday's Grade 1 Woodbine Mile.
A field of 10 was announced for the $1 million Woodbine Mile, a turf race for 3-year-olds and upward, in a ceremonial draw at the trackside tent here Thursday.
AUBURN, Wash. - Connie Bouslaugh has saddled eight winners at Emerald Downs this summer. She won't be the track's leading trainer, not by a longshot. But there's an award for top training achievement, and she assuredly will get votes for her work with Clair Annette, who raced to a front-running victory in the $50,000 Belle Roberts on Washington Cup Day last Sunday.
BOSSIER CITY, La. - Regal Ransom will break from post 4 in a field of seven Saturday when he makes his first start since the Kentucky Derby in the Grade 2, $750,000 Super Derby at Louisiana Downs.
"That sounds like a good draw," said Rick Mettee, the U.S.-based assistant to trainer Saaed bin Suroor. "It's about right. We thought 4 or 5 would be a good draw."
BOSSIER CITY, La. - Soul Warrior became a sudden 3-year-old of interest last month when he upset Kentucky Derby winner Mine That Bird in the Grade 2, $750,000 West Virginia Derby. Saturday at Louisiana Downs, he will attempt to build on that accomplishment. Soul Warrior is the 2-1 morning-line favorite for the Grade 2, $750,000 Super Derby at Louisiana Downs - a far cry from his 23-1 odds at Mountaineer Park.
ARLINGTON HEIGHTS, Ill. - As much as Stonehouse seems to like Hawthorne Race Course and as solid as his win last Saturday night in the Prairie Meadows Handicap appeared to be, trainer Spanky Broussard is not inclined to give Stonehouse a shot in the $500,000 Hawthorne Gold Cup on Oct. 3.
"I don't know if he'll go a mile and a quarter, and that's a tough place to test him," Broussard said.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario - Trainer Mark Frostad and Sam-Son Farm have been the most prolific participants in the brief history of the Woodbine Mile, with 13 starters in the first 12 runnings.
Frostad and Sam-Son did miss two Woodbine Miles in recent years but had got ahead of the curve with two entrants on three occasions and won the race with Quiet Resolve in 1999 and Soaring Free in 2004.
On Sunday, the outfit will be looking to record a Woodbine Mile upset with Grand Adventure, who will seek to become the first 3-year-old to win the Grade 1, $1 million feature.
VANCOUVER, British Columbia - Huitzilopochtli wrapped up the local 2-year-old championship with another easy win in the $66,441 CTHS Sales Stakes at Hastings on Sunday.
With leading rider Fernando Perez in the irons, Huitzilopochtli was up close to an honest pace before taking control of the race at the quarter pole. After opening up a two-length lead at the top of the stretch, he drew off to win by a widening 4 1/2 lengths. Huitzilopochtli is undefeated in five starts and has won the last three stakes races for 2-year-olds at Hastings by a combined total of 20 1/2 lengths.
