SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - It has come one year later than planned, but Fabulous Strike is ready to make his Saratoga debut.
One year after being forced to scratch from the Grade 2 Alfred G. Vanderbilt Handicap because of a foot injury, Fabulous Strike is one of six talented sprinters entered in Sunday's $250,000 Vanderbilt at six furlongs. Fabulous Strike, the 123-pound highweight, drew the outside post.
ARLINGTON HEIGHTS, Ill. - At $50,000, the Top Flight Stakes offers a purse comparable to a Saratoga maiden race, but don't let that fool you. The Top Flight, the first of two 2-year-old stakes here on Saturday's Arlington Million undercard, looks loaded with talent. The Top Flight for fillies goes as race 5, while the Spectacular Bid for males is race 11.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. - Two days after a torrential downpour dumped a record six inches of rain on Churchill Downs in about an hour, leaving large portions of the track's dirt and turf courses under water, horses returned to training there Thursday.
Track spokesman John Asher said track maintenance crews worked Tuesday and Wednesday to clear drainage systems, and dumped 25 truckloads of dirt to fill rough spots or wash-outs from Tuesday's rainfall.
DEL MAR, Calif. - For what it's worth, Smiling Tiger has won both his starts in Northern California by a combined 14 lengths, facing little competition.
Smiling Tiger will be tested in Sunday's $150,000 Best Pal Stakes at Del Mar, or maybe he'll just crush his rivals again and leave trainer Jeff Bonde wondering how much ability the colt possesses.
Smiling Tiger won a half-mile maiden race by six lengths May 1 and the Lost in the Fog Stakes over five furlongs by eight lengths on June 13. Both races were over the Tapeta at Golden Gate Fields.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario - Trainer Malcolm Pierce will be at Arlington Park on Saturday to saddle Points of Grace for the Grade 1, $750,000 Beverly D.
But Pierce also will be keeping close tabs on the home front, with Carem Crescent, a homebred he trains for Eugene and Laura Melnyk, set to make her stakes debut in the seven-furlong Duchess for 3-year-old fillies.
"She's going to have to step it up a little bit, but she's really doing good right now," Pierce said. "She's sure acting like a pretty nice filly."
PHOENIX - Turf Paradise unveiled its stakes schedule for the upcoming 2009-10 meet, which features 41 stakes valued at $2.1 million.
The 156-day meet, the 54th Turf Paradise stand, opens Oct. 2 and runs through May 2, 2010. Live racing will be conducted Friday through Tuesday with first post of 12:30 p.m. Full-card simulcasting is offered seven days a week.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario - Drunken Love ($21.90) prevailed in a tight finish over Yummy With Butter and Stuck in Traffic in the $126,200 Shepperton Stakes on Wednesday night at Woodbine.
Stuck in Traffic set a rapid pace in the 6 1/2-furlong dash, while Drunken Love stalked in second under Gerry Olguin. Drunken Love collared Stuck in Traffic around the sixteenth pole, and then held off a closing Yummy With Butter to score by a head, in a time of 1:15.56.
DEL MAR, Calif. - Unusual Suspect pulled an upset in Wednesday's $150,000 Cougar II Handicap at Del Mar, outfinishing Richard's Kid by a nose in the Polytrack race at 1 1/2 miles.
The win carried an automatic berth to the Breeders' Cup Marathon at 1 3/4 miles on the main track at Santa Anita on Nov. 6 through the Breeders' Cup's Win and You're In program.
As a winner of almost 3,500 career races as a jockey, Gerard Melancon has seen his share of young riders. Recently at Evangeline Downs, Melancon has had his eye on one young apprentice in particular.
"He has really good hands, sits well on a horse, and can finish," Melancon said this week. "I think he has a real future."
Melancon's opinion, while accurate, may also be a bit biased as he is speaking of his oldest son, Jansen, 21.
"He has the tools and the background," said the elder Melancon. "Now it is just a matter of how much he wants it."
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - While the Grade 1 Test is always a tough race to win, Flashing should find this spot a tad easier than her last Grade 1 appearance.
Flashing was beaten 31 1/2 lengths by Rachel Alexandra in the Grade 1 Mother Goose, which ran with only three horses. Rachel Alexandra, of course, came back to whip the boys in Sunday's $1.25 million Haskell Invitational - her eighth consecutive victory - at Monmouth Park.
