VANCOUVER, British Columbia - Management is hopeful that Hastings will be the happening place to be in Vancouver on Friday nights. The first of 16 Friday evening cards goes this coming week and the marketing strategy employed by Hastings is clearly geared to a young audience.
There will be bands and DJs performing every Friday and also discounted prices for food and beverages.
ELMONT, N.Y. - Though last Monday's Metropolitan Handicap drew its largest field in 18 years, one horse conspicuous by his absence was Discreet Treasure. Coming off a hard-charging second-place finish in the Grade 3 Westchester to Bribon - who went on to win the Met Mile - the handsomely bred colt would have been a logical entrant in the Met Mile.
But trainer Stanley Hough opted to be a little more conservative with Discreet Treasure and instead has entered him in Saturday's $65,000 Lord of the Night, an overnight stakes at 1 1/16 miles on the dirt.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario - Tell It As It Is has been pointing for the Nassau here at Woodbine since she returned to training this spring.
On Saturday, Tell It As It Is will get her crack at the Grade 2, 1 1/16-mile turf race for fillies and mares, and trainer Jim Smith expects the 5-year-old to have a say in the outcome.
"I think we've got a shot, definitely," said Smith, who conditions Tell It As It Is for the Cinnamont Stable of Richard Lister.
INGLEWOOD, Calif. - Trainer Doug O'Neill's 2-year-olds have been unstoppable at Hollywood Park this month.
O'Neill has won five 2-year-old races since May 7 and will be after another victory when The Skinny Man makes his career debut in Saturday's fifth race.
The Skinny Man, bought for $240,000 at the Barretts March sale of 2-year-olds in training and owned by Paul Reddam, has drawn the outside post in a field of 10 in a $46,000 maiden special weight race over five furlongs.
The Prairie Meadows board of directors on Wednesday voted to request a reduced Thoroughbred schedule for 2010 from the Iowa Racing and Gaming Commission.
This year, Prairie Meadows will hold a 50-day Thoroughbred meet, followed by a 32-day mixed meet, with each mixed-meet card consisting of five Thoroughbred races and five Quarter Horse races. The live season will conclude with a 16-day harness session.
VANCOUVER, British Columbia - Trainer Juan Olmos is looking forward to what could be a big weekend at Hastings. Olmos, who owns all of the horses he trains, has three horses entered on both Saturday and Sunday. Leading the parade is El Sinaloense who will be making his 2009 debut in the third race on Sunday.
INGLEWOOD, Calif. - Hollywood Park intends to run four days a week through the conclusion of the spring-summer meeting on July 19, pending approval from the California Horse Racing Board, track president Jack Liebau said Wednesday.
The track will ask the racing board for permission to eliminate racing on five Wednesdays - June 17 and 24 and July 1, 8, and 15 - and run four days a week on a Thursday-through-Sunday basis.
"We are certainly going to petition" the racing board, Liebau said. "It's in the best interest of Southern California racing to go with this."
All-sources average daily wagering on races during Pimlico Race Course's 21-day spring meet that ended on Saturday rose 37.9 percent, according to figures supplied by the track on Wednesday.
The average, $6.04 million, was bolstered by an 18 percent jump in wagering on the May 16 card, which featured the Preakness Stakes, the second leg of the Triple Crown. In addition, last year's meet had 31 days, 10 more than this year's meet. The average during last year's meet was $4.38 million.
James Bishop, the longtime track handicapper and publicist at Suffolk Downs, died Sunday at his home in Revere, Mass., from cancer. He was 56.
Bishop is survived by his mother, Flora Bishop, of Peabody, Mass.
Visiting hours are from 4-8 p.m. on Thursday, at the Vertuccio Home for Funerals, 773 Broadway, in Revere. A funeral service was scheduled for 10:30 a.m. Friday at Immaculate Conception Church, 133 Beach St., on the corner of Winthrop Avenue, in Revere. Burial is to follow at Woodlawn Cemetery in Everett, Mass.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario - Roses 'n' Wine has bloomed as a 4-year-old, winning her first two allowance conditions in her two starts on the main track.
On Saturday, Roses 'n' Wine will be looking to take her game to the next level in the Grade 2, $300,000 Nassau, the 1 1/16-mile race that is the first turf stakes race of the meeting for fillies and mares.
"We've always loved the filly," said David Bell, who trains Roses 'n' Wine for the Estate of Firestone Farms Ltd. "Her pedigree's late-maturing."
