NEW BOSTON, Mich. - Past Michigan champions Meadow Vespers and Valley Loot look to pad their resumes at Pinnacle Race Course on Saturday, while youngsters Top Touch and Prince of Paulie look for their first stakes win when Pinnacle offers its richest card so far this meet. The program includes four $50,000 stakes for Michigan-breds and serves as a prep for the six Michigan Sire Stakes scheduled for Oct. 3.
DEL MAR, Calif. - Having excised Monday, the worst performing day of the week from its former six-day-a-week schedule, Del Mar found this summer that less was more. Owing to a five-day-a-week schedule that kept bettors and horses fresher, both ontrack attendance and overall handle were up on average over last year's meeting.
OCEANPORT, N.J. - Piscitelli passed several important tests last Saturday, rallying for third in the Grade 3 Arlington-Washington Futurity in his first race away from Monmouth Park.
A 2-year-old trained by Greg Sacco, Piscitelli proved he could handle shipping to a strange track, a class hike, and a synthetic surface. All are important considerations if he goes all the way to the Breeders' Cup Juvenile at Santa Anita on Nov. 7.
"It's certainly in the picture," Sacco said of the Breeders' Cup. "We'll talk it over and see where the next step will be in early October."
ETOBICOKE, Ontario - Bogue Chitto didn't make it to the races until last November, when he was 4. But he certainly has been making up for lost time and recorded his third straight victory here at Woodbine on Wednesday night in second-level optional $80,000 claiming race over six furlongs on turf.
"He's a really competitive horse, and he loves to win," said Ian Howard, who trains Bogue Chitto for owner Luis de Hechavarria. "Not having run at 2 and 3, having missed all that wear and tear, is helping him now. He's a pretty sound horse; his tendons have been his one big issue."
DEL MAR, Calif. - John Sadler was headed north on Thursday morning, which figures, because his barn is going the same direction.
Sadler won the Del Mar trainers' title for the second straight year, and he did it emphatically, winning 31 races, nearly twice as many as second-place Bob Baffert. His 25 percent strike rate for wins and 51 percent strike rate for in-the-money finishes was the best of any trainer in the top 10 when Del Mar's meet ended on Wednesday.
DEL MAR, Calif. - The consistent Gotta Have Her, who has thrived every summer at Del Mar, closed the 2009 meeting with a gritty victory in the Grade 2, $200,000 Palomar Handicap, outbattling pacesetter Lethal Heat and Eastern invader Carribean Sunset to win the closing-day feature on Wednesday.
Gotta Have Her ($8.80) won by a neck over Lethal Heat, with Carribean Sunset, the even-money favorite, another three-quarters of a length back in third.
AUBURN, Wash. - Hollywood Harbor, the leading 2-year-old at Emerald Downs, likely will bypass the restricted Dennis Dodge Stakes on Sunday and run next in the $75,000 Gottstein Futurity on Sept. 26, trainer Chris Stenslie said Wednesday.
AUBURN, Wash. - Calling her decision a "no-brainer," trainer Doris Harwood will start 2-year-old filly sensation Knight Raider in the restricted Diane Kem Stakes on Sunday at Emerald Downs, rather than run her against males in the $75,000 Gottstein Futurity on Sept. 26.
ELMONT, N.Y. - Saturday's Grade 1 Ruffian Handicap at Belmont Park was shaping up to be almost an exhibition for Godolphin Stable's horse Seventh Street. That changed on Wednesday when trainer Dale Romans opted to enter Delaware Handicap winner Swift Temper.
Swift Temper will be running back just 13 days after finishing a well-beaten second to Icon Project in the at Saratoga, but Romans said he thinks she's ready.
