GROVE CITY, Ohio - Three jockeys were taken to local hospitals after a three-horse spill at Beulah Park in the third race on Friday.
Ronnigan, ridden by Jareth Loveberry, broke down while dueling for the lead entering the turn of the five-furlong race, throwing Loveberry over his head and to the ground. Classic Style, ridden by apprentice Chris Fackler, fell over the fallen horse and threw Fackler to the ground, and then Casino Sally, ridden by Wilkin Ortiz, fell over them.
Livin Lovin, the impressive winner of the Tempted Stakes at Aqueduct in her last start, has been scratched from Friday night's Grade 3, $500,000 Delta Princess at Delta Downs with a small chip in her left ankle, according to trainer Steve Klesaris.
Klesaris indicated that the 2-year-old daughter of Birdstone will have surgery and then be off two months. Klesaris expects Livin Lovin to rejoin his stable in the spring.
The colts have long had their Jackpot, but now the fillies are getting some serious cash, too. Delta Downs has boosted the purse of the Princess from $300,000 to $500,000, and the one-mile race, which will be run as a graded stakes for the first time Friday night, has drawn an excellent match-up in C. S. Silk and Livin Lovin.
C. S. Silk is expected to start as a slight favorite following her appearance in the Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies. She set a hot pace and finished seventh to probable champion Stardom Bound in the mile and a sixteenth race Oct. 24 at Santa Anita.
Golden Yank has been cross-entered in two of Zia Park's biggest weekend stakes, the $150,000 Derby and the $200,000 Distance Championship, but on Thursday trainer Gary Thomas said the plan is to run Saturday in the Zia Park Derby. The appeal is that the 1 1/16-mile race is Golden Yank's last opportunity to compete with straight 3-year-olds.
"This is it," Thomas said. "I don't think we can let the derby go by, for sure."
INGLEWOOD, Calif. - Jockey Corey Nakatani is nearing a comeback after spending most of the past two months waiting for his collarbone to heal. Nakatani has not ridden since Sept. 24, when he was injured after his mount Easy on the Eye clipped heels at the start of the Grade 3 Morvich Handicap on the downhill course at Santa Anita.
"I couldn't tell you how many times I have broken my collarbone," Nakatani said early this week after exercising horses at Santa Anita. He starting working horses Sunday and is expected to resume riding within the next two weeks.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario - Bob Tiller's next win was bound to be a memorable one in any case, but the trainer showed a flair for the dramatic here Wednesday evening.
Entering the card with just two starters and one win shy of the 1,500 career mark, Tiller reached the milestone with Dancer's Bajan in the $125,800 Sir Barton Stakes.
"Absolutely it was appropriate to do it in a stakes race," said Tiller, who has been training since 1972 and was to celebrate his 59th birthday on Friday. "He's a good horse - a horse with heart and desire and class. He wants to win."
Dancer's Bajan ($7.40) wore down Archers Alyancer and Sand Cove in the final strides to take the $125,800 Sir Barton Stakes Wednesday night at Woodbine. The win was the 1,500th of trainer Bob Tiller's career.
Sand Cove, the even-money favorite, set moderate fractions on an uncontested lead in the 1 1/16-mile event for Ontario-sired 3-year-olds and upward.
Dancer's Bajan stalked three wide throughout and took dead aim at Sand Cove and Archer's Alyancer at the eighth pole before inching by to score by a half-length in a time of 1:43.60.
Champion Ketel Won will defend his title in Sunday's Grade 1, $175,000 Zia Park Quarter Horse Championship when he faces Mr Perry Dash, who defeated him in their most recent meeting.
A year ago, Ketel Won scored his first Grade 1 win when he pulled away to a half-length victory in the Zia Park Championship. He then won the Grade 1, $400,000 The Championship at Sunland Park, securing the 2007 champion aged horse and champion aged stallion titles.
INGLEWOOD, Calif. - Several times in the last year, Black Mamba has closed furiously through the stretch of major turf stakes for fillies and mares, always tipping that races were not long enough to suit her style.
Sometimes she won, as was the case in the Grade 2 Beverly Hills and Grade 1 John Mabee handicaps during the summer, and sometimes she lost, as in a third-place finish in the Grade 1 Yellow Ribbon Stakes in September.
Trainer John Sadler has found a solution to the distance issue - Saturday's $250,000 Hollywood Turf Cup at 1 1/2 miles.
STICKNEY, Ill. - Hawthorne in the winter is no place and time to have a promising grass horse, one reason why 2-year-old Proceed Bee went back to trainer Terry Gestes at Fairmount Park rather than coming to Chicago following his upset win last Saturday in the Grand Canyon Stakes at Churchill Downs.
But Proceed Bee is destined for Oaklawn Park this winter, a venue without turf racing at all, and his connections are hopeful that it was a stretch from sprints to a route distance, as much as a move to turf, that propelled Proceed Bee to a 22-1 upset in the Grand Canyon.