Sandburr could be making the penultimate start of his career Saturday night in the $100,000 Texas Horse Racing Hall of Fame Stakes at Retama Park.
The 1 1/16-mile turf race is one of six restricted stakes on the card worth a total of $500,000. The card is the richest of the meet and it complements the inductions of Bill Allen, Bobby Cox, Dorothy Scharbauer and Joe Straus Jr. into the Texas Horse Racing Hall.
Despite a 2 percent decrease in average all-sources handle during its 91-day meeting that ended Sunday, Emerald Downs will distribute a retroactive 4 percent increase in non-stakes purses, the track's president, Ron Crockett, announced Wednesday. The increase will provide horsemen with an additional $300,000 in purses.
Average daily handle from all sources, including bets on incoming simulcasts, was $1,381,572. The handle on Emerald Downs races increased about 3.5 percent to $868,640 per day. But there was an 11 percent decrease in wagering on out-of-state races, to $512,932.
STICKNEY, Ill. - An obvious strategy for playing the early days of the Hawthorne fall meet would be to look for the dirt horses. There certainly exist animals in the local populace that either struggled over Polytrack at Arlington, or were given light campaigns this summer while waiting for a more serious effort during the fall meet at Hawthorne.
ELMONT, N.Y. - Despite the fact there were three winning favorites in the sequence, nobody correctly picked six for the third consecutive card at Belmont Park, resulting in a monster carryover of $540,334 entering Friday's card.
The wager has not been hit since last Saturday.
BOSSIER CITY, La. - Three Louisiana Downs riders were transported to a local hospital following a nasty spill in Thursday's fifth race. The four horses directly involved in the incident all escaped serious injury and were walked off the turf course.
NORTH RANDALL, Ohio - The 22nd renewal of the Best of Ohio Championship for statebreds will be presented at Thistledown this Saturday. The Best of Ohio is made up of five stakes with a total value of $425,000.
The top events are a pair of $l00,000 races, the 1 1/4-mile Endurance and the 1 1/8-mile Distaff. A trio of $75,000 races - the six-furlong Sprint, and the John Galbreath Memorial and Juvenile, both at 1o1/16 miles for 2-year-olds - complete the lineup.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario - Trainer Herman Brown and jockey John Egan, the men behind Canadian International invader Mourilyan, are visiting this country for the first time.
And the two would like nothing better than to make their trip an unforgettable one with an upset victory in Saturday's Grade 1, $2 million feature for 3-year-olds and up.
Mourilyan, an Irish-bred 4-year-old colt, has won 4 of 10 starts but has been a fringe performer to date in Group 1 company.
ARCADIA, Calif. - The $250,000 California Cup Classic on Sunday will be the seasonal highlight for one of the eight runners entered. Collectively, the group has not accomplished much this year.
The field of eight has one 2008 stakes winner - Cheroot, the winner of the Daytona Handicap in February who is on a five-race losing streak. Several runners are seeking a first stakes win.
Bold Chieftain, the defending champion, has been entered in the $175,000 California Cup Mile on turf on the same program, which is entirely dedicated to California-bred horses.
VANCOUVER, British Columbia - Trainer Cindy Krasner is having quite a year.
Going into this weekend, Krasner has won six stakes at the Hastings meet, including the Grade 3 British Columbia Derby with Krazy Koffee. Prior to this year, the most stakes she had won in a single season was four.
Krasner has a good chance of increasing her stakes totals with P. S. Good N Ready, who will be odds-on to win the $100,000 Sadie Diamond Futurity on Saturday.