Fri, 09/05/2008 - 00:00

Will drop in class do the trick?

AUBURN, Wash. – Just Get’er Done heads a field of seven fillies and mares in Sunday’s Emerald Downs feature, a $17,500 claiming affair at 6 1/2 furlongs.

Fri, 09/05/2008 - 00:00

Look for tight finish in Sales Stakes

EDMONTON, Alberta – Sunday’s $50,000 Sales Stakes for 3-year-old colts and geldings drew six entrants, including stakes winners Brazen Son, Ballintoy, and Garys Buddy. The lineup also includes the improving Smile N Wave, who merits the title of the “now horse” off his steady rise from the lower claiming ranks.

The Sales Stakes, a one-mile race, runs as the eighth race and promises to be a competitive affair with Garys Buddy, winner of the 6 1/2-furlong Western Canada on July 1, expected to prompt the early fractions along with Alberta’s 2007 champion juvenile, Brazen Son.

Fri, 09/05/2008 - 00:00

El Sinaloense lays over field

VANCOUVER, British Columbia – El Sinaloense will be heavily favored to win his fourth straight stakes race in the $60,000 CTHS Sales Stakes at Hastings on Sunday. The 6 1/2-furlong feature for Canadian-bred 2-year-old colts and geldings drew five horses, but El Sinaloense is in a class by himself. To be eligible to the race a horse must have gone through a Canadian Thoroughbred Horse Society sale.

A gelding by Mud Route, El Sinaloense was purchased for $9,500 out of the 2007 sale by Juan Olmos, who is also the trainer of the talented gelding.

Thu, 09/04/2008 - 00:00

Dutrow, Frankel runners in supporting roles, too

ETOBICOKE, Ontario - Sunday's Woodbine Mile will not be the only stage for a clash here between New York trainers Rick Dutrow and Bobby Frankel.

But while Kip Deville, trained by Dutrow, and Ventura, trained by Frankel, will be the principal players in the Woodbine Mile the situation will be different in the Grade 1 Northern Dancer.

Dutrow will send out Frost Giant, who is the 6-1 third choice for the $750,000 Northern Dancer, a 1 1/2-mile turf race for 3-year-olds and upward which attracted a field of 10.

Thu, 09/04/2008 - 00:00

Who'll face Big Brown for $500K?

OCEANPORT, N.J. - If Big Brown does indeed run in the Sept. 13 Monmouth Stakes, as expected, the $200,000 purse jumps to $500,000, a big reason why the race closed Wednesday with 35 nominations. But even with that kind of money on the line there are lots of alternatives for area turf horses, which makes it difficult to zero in on the probable field.

Thu, 09/04/2008 - 00:00

Del Mar Futurity rivals figure to meet again

DEL MAR, Calif. - Midshipman and Coronet of a Baron, who finished a nose apart in a thrilling Grade 1 Del Mar Futurity on Wednesday's closing day, were already safely tucked into their new stalls at Santa Anita on Thursday morning and could face one another twice more in the next seven weeks there, in the Norfolk Stakes on Sept. 28 and then the Breeders' Cup Juvenile on Oct. 25.

Thu, 09/04/2008 - 00:00

Kip Deville heads field of 8 in Mile

ETOBICOKE, Ontario - Kip Deville, winner of last year's Breeders' Cup Mile, will be the 124-pound highweight and has been made the 6-5 choice for Sunday's 12th running of the Grade 1 Woodbine Mile.

A field of eight was announced for the Woodbine Mile, a turf race for 3-year-olds and upward that offers a purse of $1 million, at the ceremonial draw in the trackside tent here Thursday.

Thu, 09/04/2008 - 00:00

Business takes expected drop

DEL MAR, Calif. - Owing to the economy in general and malaise in the tourist industry in the San Diego area specifically, Del Mar officials before the meet expected a drop in business this year, and they were right. But the overall numbers were still encouraging, with the track recording its sixth-highest handle in history, perhaps an indication that bettors were more willing to embrace a Polytrack surface that was far more consistent this year than during its inaugural season of 2007.

Thu, 09/04/2008 - 00:00

Boxcars the speediest of Sales Stakes fillies

VANCOUVER, British Columbia - The fillies division of the $60,000 CTHS Sales Stakes sets the scene for the annual yearling and mixed sale that will be held by the British Columbia division of the Canadian Thoroughbred Horse Society this Tuesday. The 6 1/2-furlong feature for 2-year-old fillies attracted six horses, and it appears to be a wide-open event.

None of the horses entered has won at the distance, and four of the six horses are maidens.

Thu, 09/04/2008 - 00:00

Shippers give Saskatchewan Derby wide-open feel

SASKATOON, Saskatchewan – Saturday’s $25,000 Saskatchewan Derby at Marquis Downs takes on a markedly different feel this year as seven ship-ins arrive to do battle with one local hopeful in what amounts to the most competitive derby field in recent years.