ELMONT, N.Y. - There is a pick-six carryover of $185,986 entering Thursday's card at Belmont Park after the wager went unhit for a second consecutive race card Wednesday.
Consecutive victories by longshots Vladimira ($33.40), Quasicobra ($27), and Gold Record ($23.60) combined to knock out just about everybody before logical winners You Go West Girl ($7.70) and J T Moore ($7.70) completed the sequence.
FLORENCE, Ky. - Six older horses with possible designs on the Breeders' Cup Classic have been entered in the Kentucky Cup Classic, with Zanjero, Stream Cat, and Honest Man the logical favorites in what shapes up as a telling prep because of the similar surfaces at Turfway and Santa Anita.
BOSSIER CITY, La. - Tortuga Flats, perhaps the best older Louisiana-bred racing right now, is nearing the end of her career. She went over the $500,000 mark in earnings last Saturday at Louisiana Downs with her win in the $100,000 River Cities, and plans are to retire her at the end of this year, owner John Balensiefen said.
Tortuga Flats will likely be bred to a yet-to-be determined stallion in Kentucky, Balensiefen said, and will be based in Louisiana.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario - The Oct. 4 program here, featuring four graded turf stakes, will be a first for Woodbine in more than one respect.
The major change will be that the Canadian International, E.P. Taylor, Nearctic, and Summer all will be Breeders' Cup Win and You're In races for the first time.
But on a logistical front, the program also will present a challenge to Woodbine as an unprecedented four consecutive turf races will be run in less than two hours.
If the Breeders' Cup Classic were not being run on a synthetic surface this year, there is absolutely no way that Stream Cat would be under consideration for the $5 million race.
But it is, and he is, and so what happens Saturday in the Kentucky Cup Classic at Turfway Park will be crucial in helping trainer Rusty Arnold determine whether to send Stream Cat to Santa Anita for the Oct. 25 BC Classic.
"We feel like if he runs an impressive race Saturday, we'd have to go on to Santa Anita," said Arnold.
ARCADIA, Calif. - Flashy debut winner Details R Sketchy is perfectly qualified to run in either Grade 1 for 2-year-olds this fall during the Oak Tree meet at Santa Anita. But for now, trainer Carla Gaines and owners Burt and Jane Bacharach will take the low road.
Details R Sketchy won a Del Mar maiden sprint Aug. 31 by nearly four lengths, earning a Beyer Speed Figure of 91, six points higher than Midshipman earned winning the Del Mar Futurity. The two will meet when Gaines believes Details R Sketchy is ready for the deep end.
The second horse in four days sustained a catastrophic breakdown in a morning workout on the new Santa Anita main track when He's Invincible suffered a sesamoid injury Tuesday.
Trainer Mark Glatt, however, believes the incident is unrelated to the surface. Santa Anita has installed Pro-Ride, a synthetic surface that has received favorable reviews leading to the Oak Tree meet.
Saturday, the John Sadler-trained Tizsweetdreams was euthanized after a workout injury. Both trainers suggested the breakdowns were unfortunate coincidences.
Coronet of a Baron and Desert Party are out and Regal Ransom is in the Grade 1, $250,000 Norfolk Stakes at the Oak Tree meet at Santa Anita on Sunday, as late developments have caused Sheikh Mohammed al-Maktoum's Darley Stable to shuffle its lineup for upcoming juvenile stakes.
According to Jim Bell, president of Darley USA, Desert Party, winner of the Grade 2 Sanford Stakes, was found to have "a minor amount of swelling in his left foreleg" on Monday and will be out of training for an undetermined amount of time.
ARLINGTON HEIGHTS, Ill. - Business at the 2008 Arlington Park meet, which wrapped up Sunday, was down, but not a debacle.
Handle and attendance both fell from 2007 figures, and ontrack handle on Arlington races declined enough to raise eyebrows, but the numbers pretty much lined up with the difficult economic climate both in racing and the country.
BOSSIER CITY, La. - In the six stakes run last Saturday at Louisiana Downs as part of the Super Derby Day program, no winner was more dominant than Abbott Hall. She powered to a six-length score in the $150,000 Happy Ticket for 2-year-olds fillies at 1 1/16 miles on turf, and she could make her next start in a stakes at Keeneland, her trainer, Hal Wiggins, said Tuesday.