INGLEWOOD, Calif. - A two-day pick six carryover of $232,349, the largest of the Hollywood Park fall meeting, will be the focus on Friday evening's eight-race program.
An upset win by Majestic Diamond ($67) in Thursday's seventh race and a loss by 7-5 favorite Flew First Class in the last race assured the carryover.
Friday's program begins at 7:05 p.m. Pacific; the pick six races are the third through eighth races.
INGLEWOOD, Calif. - Midshipman, the winner of the Breeders' Cup Juvenile, was recently sent from California to Kentucky to begin a quarantine process that will lead to him being shipped to Dubai this winter, trainer Bob Baffert said.
Midshipman was acquired earlier this year by Sheikh Mohammed of Dubai when he purchased most of the assets of Stonerside Stable. The colt will join Sheikh Mohammed's Godolphin stable, which spends the winters in Dubai.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. - The German-based trainer Andreas Wohler has done a pretty good job over the years selecting which of his horses would fit in North American stakes. Horses such as Silvano, Paolini, and Simonas have finished first or second in Grade 1 events in North America, with Silvano winning the 2001 Arlington Million.
MIAMI - There may be more recognizable names on Saturday's $1.2 million Florida Million program at Calder than Frolic's Dream. But nobody in the eight statebred stakes races will be under closer scrutiny than the speedy 2-year-old filly when she goes off as the overwhelming favorite in the $150,000 Joe O'Farrell Juvenile Fillies Stakes.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario - Trainer Roger Attfield has never been far from the spotlight.
But after a few relatively quiet years, Attfield has been back at center stage in 2008 and should eclipse his personal Woodbine earnings record of $4.13 million.
Heading into the final five weeks of the meet, Attfield's runners have earned $3.97 million while accounting for 12 stakes wins, giving him the lead in that category at the meeting.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. - Royal bloodlines never insure success on the racetrack, but when a filly such as Acoma has two graded stakes wins from her first seven starts, it's difficult not to point to her pedigree as a major factor.
Acoma (pronounced AK-uh-muh, not a-CO-ma) is by Empire Maker from a sensational female family, and trainer David Carroll, who will saddle the 3-year-old filly as one of the favorites Saturday in the Grade 2 Mrs. Revere Stakes at Churchill Downs, believes class has come to the fore.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. A parade of longshots Wednesday led by 64-1 shot Blue Hill Bay resulted in a pick-six carryover of $152,918 heading into Thursdays card at Aqueduct. There was a carryover of $47,821 entering Wednesdays card after the wager went unhit Sunday.
Blue Hill Bay won the fifth race, or the second leg of the pick six, as 21-year-old Jacqueline Davis picked up her first career victory. Davis is the daughter of retired jockey Robbie Davis.
STICKNEY, Ill. - Hawthorne has gotten lucky in terms of weather, with very few turf races at this meet lost to wet conditions. But the luck might be running out this week. With a 90 percent chance of rain here Thursday night, the featured sixth race on Friday is in danger of being switched from 5 1/2 furlongs on grass to 5 1/2 on the main track.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario - One's first inclination may be to think that whoever named Hawkey Star came up a bit short in the spelling department.
But Hawkey Star, the 2-year-old gelding who will make his stakes debut in Saturday's $125,000 Frost King at Woodbine, has a name that rings true on more than one level.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. - Jacqueline Davis, the 21-year-old daughter of retired jockey Robbie Davis, earned her first career victory at Aqueduct on Wednesday, guiding Blue Hill Bay ($131) to a front-running victory in a $35,000 claiming race on the turf. She won her first race in her 33rd mount.
Davis is a graduate of the inaugural class of Chris McCarron's North American Racing Academy, based in Lexington, Ky.
