LOS ALAMITOS, Calif. - From the Freaky to the poignant to the remarkable, the major stakes winners at Los Alamitos last Saturday offered a preview for the lucrative Quarter Horse stakes in the second half of the year.
Freaky won his third stakes of 2009 in Saturday's $98,500 Spencer Childers Memorial Championship, enhancing his status as the leading contender for the $750,000 Champion of Champions on Dec. 12.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario - With the turf training course session canceled due to the ongoing rains, Woodbine's main track was a busier place than usual for a Wednesday morning.
The most prominent names on the work tab included Not Bourbon, Sand Cove, and Sligovitiz, all of whom breezed in preparation for upcoming stakes engagements for trainer Roger Attfield.
Not Bourbon, with his regular rider Jono Jones in the irons, was clocked in 1:00.60 for five furlongs.
DEL MAR, Calif. - Jockey Rafael Bejarano, who suffered facial injuries in a spill on July 22, is targeting Aug. 28 for a comeback, according to his agent Joe Ferrer.
The projected return is later than what Bejarano and Ferrer had hoped after the jockey underwent surgery on July 23 for a fractured left cheek and jaw. At the time, there were discussions that Bejarano could return after two to three weeks.
"The target date is Aug. 28," Ferrer said. "One doctor said four weeks. Another said five weeks.
CHESTER, W.Va. - True to the historic nature of having a classic winner in the field, the West Virginia Derby will showcase a classic matchup of speed vs. closer.
Big Drama, the millionaire speedster shipping in from Monmouth Park, will be trying to stay clear of the closing punch of Kentucky Derby winner Mine That Bird when the Grade 2, $750,000 West Virginia is run for the 40th time Saturday at Mountaineer Park.
OCEANPORT, N.J. - Atomic Rain has been downgraded to "unlikely" for the $1.25 million Haskell Invitational on Sunday at Monmouth Park.
"He missed the last few days of training with a sore foot," said Rick Mettee, the New York-based assistant to Saeed bin Suroor for Godolphin Racing. "It looks unlikely that he will make the race."
A final decision was to be made prior to Thursday morning's draw.
"If there is a chance he can go to the track, we may enter him and see how it looks," Mettee said.
Average daily handle on the race cards at Colonial Downs in New Kent, Va., plummeted more than 30 percent compared with last year during the track's recently completed 40-day meet, according to figures provided by the track.
Average handle was $780,365 a day during the meet, compared with $1,118,734 during last year's 45-day meet, according to the track's figures. The decline was almost exclusively tied to a 35 percent drop in handle from off-site sources, where handle fell from $960,834 a day last year to $627,850 this year.
AUBURN, Wash. - After dozens of maiden races and a couple of restricted stakes, Emerald Downs enters the heart of its 2-year-old program next weekend when the $50,000 Angie C Stakes for fillies and the $50,000 Premio Esmeralda for colts and geldings will be contested on consecutive days.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - Forever Together and her trainer, Jonathan Sheppard, were out at the Oklahoma training track seemingly forever on Wednesday morning.
The Eclipse Award-winning mare's final workout for a defense of her title in Saturday's Grade 1 Diana Handicap was delayed more than 20 minutes while the horse ambulance attended to, and ultimately vanned off, a member of trainer George Weaver's stable who had been injured during a workout over the Oklahoma turf course.
BOSSIER CITY, La. - The state's finest will gather at Louisiana Downs on Saturday for Louisiana Cup Day. Eight stakes events will showcase the best in statebreds and will be worth a cumulative $750,000. The 10-race program, which also includes a maiden special weight affair and a second-level allowance on the turf for Louisiana-breds, gets under way at 1:25 p.m. Central.
