Pay the Man will be a prohibitive choice over seven other Ohio-bred filly and mare rivals in the $75,000 Rose DeBartolo Memorial Stakes at Thistledown.
A 4-year-old daughter of Bernstein, she won this race last year and has won two stakes this year. She prepped for the DeBartolo with two fourth-place finishes in stiff allowance sprints at Presque Isle Downs, which should set her up well for this 1 1/8-mile race. She has won two stakes from four starts at the 1 1/8-mile distance.
VANCOUVER, British Columbia The $50,000 PNE Presidents Speed attracted six older sprinters, and any one of them appears capable of winning the six-furlong feature at Hastings on Saturday. Also on the eight-race card is the $50,000 Hong Kong Jockey Club Handicap for 3-year-old fillies.
SASKATOON, Saskatchewan J Cs Action faces King Rose for the third straight time here in Saturdays $25,000 Prairie Lily Sales Stakes at Marquis Downs. The 6 1/2-furlong Prairie Lily, for 2-year-old graduates of the local yearling sale, attracted a field of 10.
J Cs Action will face some adversity as he breaks from the outermost post position, but still should be the odds-on choice. Both of J Cs Actions victories came in stakes and King Rose ran second on each occasion.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - Curlin drew post 5 and was installed as the 3-5 morning-line favorite for Saturdays Grade 1, $500,000 Woodward Stakes at Saratoga.
The Woodward marks Curlins first start since he finished second to Red Rocks in the Grade 1 Man o War on the turf at Belmont Park on July 12. It will also be Curlins first start at Saratoga after spending last summer and this summer training here.
DEL MAR, Calif.-There is a two-day pick six carryover of $473,943 at Del Mar on Thursday after favorites were beaten in five of the six races in Wednesday's pick six.
The pick six covers the third through eighth races on an eight-race program that begins at 2 p.m. Pacific.
The pick six sequence includes four sprints, all on the main track, and two races around two turns, one on turf and on the main track.
Mystery Classic, who had been sidelined with a non-displaced condylar fracture to his right hind leg, returned to training on Aug. 25, said his trainer, Bob Schultz. The horse is based at Retama.
"He just got back," said Schultz. "He probably won't be ready until Houston. We ought to be able to start putting works in him the first part of October."
Mystery Classic was the Texas-bred horse of the year in 2007.
F-T Texas colt gets $120,000
Steve Asmussen went to work on defending his Remington Park training title over the opening weekend, by winning two of the three stakes that were run. He has several horses pointing for Remington's next round of stakes on Monday. He said plans are to run Red Rock Creek in the $150,000 DeBartolo Memorial Breeders' Cup, Doc's Delight and My Three Sisters in the $50,000 Ricks Memorial, and at least one 2-year-old, King Gulch, in the $50,000 Clever Trevor.
DEL MAR, Calif. - The depth of Joseph LaCombe's racing stable will be evident in the $250,000 Del Mar Futurity next Wednesday.
LaCombe owns Azul Leon, who was promoted from second to first via disqualification in the Best Pal Stakes on Aug. 10, and Escalon, an exciting maiden race winner on Aug. 1. As of Wednesday, Escalon was expected to start in the Del Mar Futurity, while Azul Leon may be held out of that race in favor of Norfolk Stakes over 1 1/16 miles at Santa Anita on Sept. 28, according to LaCombe's son, Joe.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario - Sugar Bay and Verdana Bold, who were separated by a nose as the one-two finishers in the seven-furlong Duchess Aug. 9, will meet again on different terms at Woodbine on Saturday.
The surface this time is turf and the distance is one mile for the Ontario Colleen, a $150,000 stakes for 3-year-old fillies that attracted a field of 13.
Sugar Bay, an Ontario-bred homebred who races for George Strawbridge Jr. and is trained by Mac Benson, is coming off back-to-back wins at seven furlongs, with the first coming in a first-level allowance here July 18.