LOUISVILLE, Ky. - It was a Wednesday morning before the Belmont Stakes, and Tom McCarthy, working solo, was excusing himself to empty a wheelbarrow full of soiled straw into a muck pit outside his Churchill Downs shed row.
"Yeah, I'd like to be up there at Belmont Park," said McCarthy. "But things just didn't work out like we'd hoped."
The New York Racing Association has pulled its video signal from the state's Nassau County Off-Track Betting Corp., claiming that the company provided live streaming video of NYRA racing on its Internet site in violation of state law.
The signal was also lost to homes in Suffolk County on Wednesday, though NYRA officials say that was a mistake and hoped to restore that signal in time for Thursday's program.
HURON TOWNSHIP, Mich. - Shrouded under a cloud of uncertainty brought about by a staggering Michigan economy, Pinnacle Race Course opens its first full season on Friday with racing issues that are not fully determined, but an attitude by management that definitely is.
"Of course I'm optimistic," said Mike Mackey, general manager of the suburban Detroit facility that opened with an abbreviated season last July that returned racing to the Motor City after a decade-long absence. "I'm looking forward to it positively. It's going to be a successful meet."
VANCOUVER, British Columbia - Trainer Cindy Krasner is looking forward to seeing how well Krazy Koffee runs in the $50,000 John Longden 6000 at Hastings on Saturday. Krasner isn't viewing the 1 1/16-mile Longden as a prep race for the $100,000 Lieutenant Governors on July 1. Instead, she has Krazy Koffee geared up for a big effort Saturday.
"Right now it is one race at a time," said Krasner. "Of course we know the Lieutenant Governors is coming up and we plan on running there, but for now, we're only concerned with the Longden."
ETOBICOKE, Ontario - Gold Strike's success in the 2005 Woodbine Oaks remains the most lucrative among the 70 career stakes wins recorded by trainer Reade Baker.
On Saturday, Baker will be looking to knock down another $500,000 Woodbine Oaks with High Mist, who was to have been supplemented at a cost of $12,500 when entries for the 1 1/8-mile race for Canadian-bred 3-year-old fillies were taken Thursday.
"She has the pedigree and she has the temperament to go that far," Baker said. "The whole question is how fast can they run?
GRAND PRAIRIE, Texas - Trainer Steve Asmussen has won 10 titles at Lone Star Park since 1999 to rank as the track's all-time leading trainer in wins, with 861, and purse earnings, with more than $19 million. So, it comes as a surprise to learn he does not hold Lone Star's record for seasonal wins by a trainer. But it looks like that could soon change.
MIAMI - Nominations were released earlier this week for the four stakes races on Summit of Speed Preview Day here June 13. Except for a couple of intriguing exceptions in the $100,000 Leave Me Alone Stakes, the program will primarily showcase local talent hoping to earn spots in the four graded stakes on Summit of Speed Day four weeks later on July 11.
INGLEWOOD, Calif. - With his fourth trainer, and nearly three years after the best performance of his career, Union Avenue will try to win the biggest race of his career in Saturday's $300,000 Charles Whittingham Handicap at Hollywood Park.
A 6-year-old horse, Union Avenue is best known for winning the Gradeo2 American Derby at Arlington Park in July 2006 with trainer Bill Mott. Union Avenue was trained by Neil Drysdale in 2007 and Graham Motion in 2008 before joining Jerry Hollendorfer's stable earlier this year.
BOSSIER CITY, La. - It took trainer Ray Spencer nine months to get Vickies in Town back on the grass, but the wait has been well worth it. Last Friday, the 4-year-old Vickies in Town returned to the turf for the first time since her debut on the surface, a solid second last August in the Elge Rasberry Stakes as a 17-1 outsider.
Under Spencer's son-in-law and defending riding champ Don Simington, Vickies in Town overcame minor traffic problems in upper straight before kicking strongly clear in the second-level allowance for statebred fillies and mares at Louisiana Downs.
