ARCADIA, Calif. - Stardom Bound, the leading 2-year-old filly in the West, is scheduled to be sold at the Fasig-Tipton November select breeding stock sale in Lexington, Ky., on Nov. 2.
Before then, Stardom Bound could run in the Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies at Santa Anita on Oct. 24. She is likely to be the favorite in that race on the strength of her wins in the Del Mar Debutante over seven furlongs on Sept. 1 and the Oak Leaf Stakes over 1 1/16 miles at Santa Anita on Saturday.
ELMONT, N.Y. - Trainer Bobby Frankel doesn't think Vineyard Haven got the credit he deserved for winning the Grade 1 Hopeful last month at Saratoga. Frankel said all he's heard after the race is how Cribnote would have won had he not blown the turn coming into the stretch.
"Everybody says he would have won, but who knows what [Vineyard Haven] would have done if Cribnote came to him?" Frankel said.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario - The European contingent for Saturday's Canadian International and E.P. Taylor is in the house, as the final four shippers checked in at about 6 p.m. Sunday.
The fields for the $2 million Canadian International and $1 million E.P. Taylor, both Grade 1 turf races, will be announced at a ceremonial draw here Wednesday.
STICKNEY, Ill. - Hawthorne's main track during opening week played nothing like a speed palace. Closers consistently ran over tiring front-runners, no one ran especially fast, and more than one jockey termed the surface demanding. But at the finish of the Hawthorne Gold Cup on Saturday, Fairbanks and jockey Richard Migliore had 2 3/4 lengths on their nearest pursuer, and the pair still appeared to be traveling comfortably - reason for Fairbanks's connections to consider moving from the Gold Cup's 1 1/4 miles to the 1 1/2 miles of the Breeders' Cup Marathon on Oct. 25 at Santa Anita.
Tam Lin overtook pacesetting Forefathers in upper stretch and continued on for a 4 1/4-length victory over Stalingrad in Sunday's Grade 2, $250,000 Kelso Handicap at Belmont Park. It was three-quarters of a length to Operation Red Dawn in third.
The victory was the sixth from 16 starts overall and second in six starts in North America for Tam Lin, a 5-year-old Great Britain-bred son of Selkirk owned by Sheikh Mohammed al-Maktoum's Godolphin Stable. Tam Lin's other victory in North America came in June at Belmont in the Scottish Monk Stakes.
FLORENCE, Ky. - Zanjero, who earned a Beyer Speed Figure of 99 and a berth in the Breeders' Cup Dirt Mile with his 1 1/2-length triumph Saturday in the Grade 2 Kentucky Cup Classic at Turfway Park, will be flown next Monday to Santa Anita, said trainer Steve Asmussen.
Although Asmussen was otherwise occupied with Curlin, who was just a few minutes away from becoming the all-time North American earnings leader by winning the Jockey Club Gold Cup at Belmont Park, Asmussen was able to sneak a peek at the Turfway simulcast.
ARCADIA, Calif. - Santa Anita officials adjusted the maintenance program of its Pro-Ride main track over the weekend, drawing positive comments from two jockeys and from one trainer who has been a vocal critic of synthetic surfaces.
The track increased the number of times the surface is being harrowed after some jockeys said last week that the top was loose.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario - Sand Cove spent the early part of the season in the shadow of a stablemate, Queen's Plate winner Not Bourbon.
But, Sand Cove has burst into the spotlight in recent weeks and recorded his second straight stakes victory here in Sunday's $162,800 Ontario Derby.
Sand Cove, owned by Barbados resident Ralph Johnson and trained by Roger Attfield, had become a stakes winner in the Vice Regent, a one-mile turf race for Ontario-sired 3-year-olds here Aug. 31.
With 66 horses for seven Thoroughbred races on Wednesday, opening day, and 56 for seven Thoroughbred races on Thursday, the Big Fresno Fair in Fresno, Calif., is off to an encouraging start, track officials say.
"I think we're going to have a great race meet," said Dan White, the fair's chief of racing. "Our first two cards are good, and if we stay true to form, we'll have a great meet."
The meet, the final fair meet of the season, runs for 11 days through Oct. 13.
Afleet Angel ($12.80), ridden by Wilfredo Lozano Jr., was all out hold off Trainee by a neck in the $100,000 HBPA Stakes at Presque Isle Downs on Saturday evening.
New Edition was 1 1/2 lengths back in third.
It was the first stakes victory as a trainer for Paula Bacon, although she had won 13 as a jockey.
Afleet Angel ran the mile and 70 yards in 1:40.29.
Jockey Stewart Elliot won both the Debutante and the Fitz Dixon Jr. Memorial.