DEL MAR, Calif. - If it hadn't been so discouraging, it would have been comical. Whatever Storm Mesa tried to do last year as a 2-year-old filly, she failed.
She lost all three of her starts at 2. Behind the scenes, things were even worse. Storm Mesa wanted nothing to do with a starting gate, always seemed nervous, and once banged her head in her stall and needed stitches.
"There was always something she was getting herself into," trainer Bret Calhoun said.
AUBURN, Wash. - Millionaire True Metropolitan, the 122-pound highweight for Sunday's 73rd running of the Grade 3, $300,000 Longacres Mile, drew post 11 in a field of 12 at Wednesday's prerace breakfast.
While the connections of most entrants were hoping to avoid a wide post, trainer Terry Jordan was unconcerned regarding True Metropolitan's draw.
BOSSIER CITY, La. - This year's $100,000 Prelude Stakes, slated for Saturday, has had more prerace drama than the event has seen in several seasons.
The race got a shot in the arm last week when the connections of Golden Yank, second in the Grade 2 Jefferson Cup at Churchill Downs in his last start and one of the region's top 3-year-olds, committed to the 1 1/16-mile prequel to next month's Grade 2, $500,000 Super Derby instead of remaining on the grass for last Saturday's Secretariat Stakes at Arlington Park.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario - Trainer Nick Gonzalez's barn, already responsible for a meet-leading eight stakes winners here at Woodbine, will have three shots at adding to that total Saturday.
In the $150,000 Ontario Debutante, a six-furlong race for 2-year-old fillies, the stable will be represented by a pair of new faces in Back to Therapy and After the Applause.
In the $100,000 Belle Mahone, a 1 1/16-mile overnight stakes, My List will be looking for her third stakes win of the season.
MIAMI - Paco Lopez is the leading rider at Calder and among the top contenders for an Eclipse Award as the outstanding apprentice jockey in 2008. But Lopez's chances of attaining those goals were put in jeopardy earlier this month when he received a 30-day suspension from the Calder stewards for his ride aboard Awesome Alexandra in the Ema Bovary Stakes here on Aug. 3.
ARLINGTON HEIGHTS, Ill. - Arlington Million day produced solid financial results for Arlington Park, but the meet as a whole, mirroring national trends, has suffered a downturn this season in local betting.
Arlington handled $2,944,566 ontrack last Saturday, down about 4 percent from 2007, while total all-sources handle on the 12-race card was $16,733,202, down more than 2 percent from $17,122,560 in 2007. Attendance on Million Day fell slightly, from 32,055 to 31,463.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario - The second half of the Woodbine meeting is just beginning, but it would appear that trainer Will Armata is well on his way to clinching the unofficial "rookie of the year" award.
Armata, 26, took out his trainer's license on April 23 and won his first race one week later, with his second starter, Astera, who he owns under his nom du course of All Day Racing Stable.
Heading into Thursday's card Armata had won with 8 of 37 starters at Woodbine and 4 of 14 at Fort Erie, the latest being Sunday Prince in a $10,000 maiden claimer there Monday.
Golden Yank was on the verge of shipping to Arlington Park for last weekend's Grade 1 Secretariat, but trainer Gary Thomas changed plans and instead intends to send the horse to Louisiana Downs for the $100,000 Prelude Breeders' Cup on Saturday. The 1 1/16-mile race offers its winner a fees-paid berth into the Grade 2, $500,000 Super Derby.
