EDMONTON, Alberta - Under a double draw system used to determine post positions for Saturday's Grade 3, $300,000 Canadian Derby at Northlands Park, trainer John Ross on Wednesday used the first pick to select post 5 for Stylish Citizen, the 8-5 morning-line favorite. Invaders will take most of the action in the 1 3/8-mile race, which is the highlight of the Northlands racing season. A full field of 12 was entered.
Whistle Pig will try to continue his dominance over the Presque Isle Downs Tapeta surface Friday evening in the $75,000 Leemat, a 6 1/2-furlong sprint for Pennsylvania-breds. Whistle Pig is 5 for 7 at Presque Isle in his career.
Trained by Andrew Carter, Whistle Pig has bankrolled nearly $600,000 and is owned by the HACK Stable. Although the 5-year-old gelding is based at Philadelphia Park, he has been at Presque Isle for the last three weeks, according to racing secretary Dave Frizzell.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario - Not Bourbon, Canada's champion 3-year-old male and winner of the 2008 Queen's Plate, will not make it to the races this season.
Scratched from his scheduled first start of the year in the open Bold Venture on July 19 to await the restricted Shepperton here at Woodbine on Aug. 5, Not Bourbon was not right on the morning entries were taken.
While initially the injury was believed to have been minor, Not Bourbon did not come around and extensive testing was undertaken.
Jockey Shane Sellers has won 24 races a month and a half into his comeback, the most notable coming last Saturday at Louisiana Downs. He was aboard Uno Mas in the $100,000 Prelude, the local prep for the Grade 2, $750,000 Super Derby. With the win, Sellers improved his mount earnings to $570,763 from 111 starts since returning July 2 from a layoff of more than four years.
ARLINGTON HEIGHTS, Ill. - Steve Hobby had never even started a horse in the state of New York before Telling, a 33-1 shot, ran in the Sword Dancer Handicap late Saturday afternoon.
"I hate to go back again," Hobby quipped. "I'm undefeated at Saratoga."
Undefeated, and in a somewhat unbelievable fashion. Telling, a 5-year-old A.P. Indy horse culled from the Darley Stable in 2007, had lost his first five starts of 2009, and was winless in more than a year. He had never won a stakes race of any kind, much less a Grade 1 on a major circuit.
DEL MAR, Calif. - For a horse who has run just five times, Internallyflawless has had a star-crossed career. She defeated maidens so impressively in her turf debut at Santa Anita's Oak Tree meeting last fall that she was entered in the Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf, but she failed to get in from the also-eligible list. She then turned in a strong effort finishing second in the Miesque Stakes at Hollywood Park, but after a poor try as the odds-on favorite in the Blue Norther at Santa Anita in December, she went into a funk.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - Fantastic weather and full fields have helped Saratoga enjoy a strong first half of the 2009 meet, posting gains in attendance, ontrack handle, and all-sources handle compared to the first three weeks of 2008.
Total attendance for the first 18 days of the meet is 439,713, up 8.4 percent from 405,616 in 2008. Daily average attendance is 24,429, compared with 22,534 in 2008.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - Kentucky Derby winner Mine That Bird was to undergo throat surgery on Tuesday to repair an entrapped epiglottis, but his connections are hopeful the 3-year-old gelding can still make the $1 million Travers Stakes here on Aug. 29.
"There's no guarantee but the doctors think he'll be good for Travers, but it'll be somewhat day-to-day," Chip Woolley, the trainer of Mine That Bird, said Monday outside the stakes barn. "We will not run him if he's not 100 percent. We will see how things go; whatever decision we make will be made for the horse."
