EDMONTON, Alberta The connections of Tanika could be excused for breathing a sigh of relief when Holy Nova and Lady Raj, the top two mares based at Hastings this summer, stayed at home to contest a pair of stakes last Monday on the rich B.C. Cup Day program.
Lady Raj was upset in the Distaff and Holy Nova was fifth versus male rivals in the Sprint, while Tanika rested comfortably here in Barry Browns shed row in anticipation of Sundays Madamoiselle.
VANCOUVER, British Columbia Aragorn has a lot of catching up to do in order to be compared to his half-brother Spaghetti Mouse, a multiple graded stakes winner who has earned more than $800,000. He could take a big first step when he runs in a first-level allowance race at Hastings on Sunday. The 1 1/16-mile feature for 3-year-olds and up drew six horses and goes as the seventh race.
AURORA, Colo. The $34,650 Gold Rush Futurity is one of four stakes at Arapahoe Park on Sunday, the final day of the 36-day stand.
Major Big Time won the Silver Cup Futurity here on July 26, and returns in the Gold Rush Futurity, carded as the eighth race. He won the Silver Cup by 6 1/2 lengths, but he wont have an easy task in the six-furlong Gold Rush. Those who will ofer stern opposition include Gray Matters, Toccet to Me, and Jimni.
The final eight races of Friday's Saratoga card were canceled when heavy rain made for unsafe track conditions.
The main track suffered multiple washouts on the backside as a result of the storm. The races were canceled just before the scheduled start of the third race. Track officials said it would have taken more than an hour to fix the track.
ARLINGTON HEIGHTS, Ill. The Arlington Million field was reduced to seven and the race lost its likely pacesetter when Sudan was withdrawn from the field with a tendon injury.
Sudan, imported to the United States last year and the fourth-place finisher last month in the Man o War Stakes, arrived here Wednesday on a flight from New York, and galloped over Arlingtons Polytrack on Thursday, but his injury was diagnosed on Friday morning.
"He galloped on the track one day, came up with a tendon the next day," trainer Bobby Frankel said. "Its brutal."
The assets of Bay Meadows, which will conduct racing for the last time on Aug. 17, will be auctioned off on Aug. 22-25, according to a release from Great American Group, the company conducting the auction.
Among the items to be sold are artwork, seating, television and radio equipment, stalls, and computers, as well as restaurant and maintenance equipment.
Bidders can register at .
ARLINGTON HEIGHTS, Ill. - Fourth in the 2007 Arlington Million, Stream Cat is back for a second run in the prestigious turf race Saturday.
Among those watching him with keen interest here will be Bob Hurley, who is well along in the second career of his adult life.
Hurley, the former Duke University basketball star, is one of the partners who own Stream Cat, and if Stream Cat should follow through Saturday on his excellent victory here last month in the Arlington Handicap, it just might top Songandaprayer's 2001 Fountain of Youth victory as Hurley's best racing moment.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - After Eternal Star set a track record for seven furlongs winning the Don Levine Memorial Handicap at Philadelphia Park on June 28, trainer Michael Trombetta immediately started thinking about the Grade 1 Forego at Saratoga on Aug. 30.
As a means of getting to the Forego, Trombetta entered Eternal Star in Saturday's $100,000 James Marvin, one of four overnight stakes on Saturday's 11-race card at Saratoga.
DEL MAR, Calif. - The events of late summer and early fall 2007 continue to weigh heavily on trainer Mike Machowsky's mind.
Last year, Machowsky trained the 2-year-old Drill Down, who ran a game second to Georgie Boy in the Grade 1 Del Mar Futurity in September. But while training for a start in the Norfolk Stakes at Santa Anita later that month, Drill Down was severely injured in a workout and was euthanized.
"It was one of those freak things that happen," Machowsky said. "I'll never get over that."
Diggy Fresh's last two wins have come in the $100,000 Shiskabob at Louisiana Downs - one last weekend and the other in August 2006. The Shiskabob, at 1 1/16 miles on the turf, is the annual feature on Louisiana Downs Champions Day.
Diggy Fresh closed well for a head win in this year's edition, and earned his second-best Beyer Speed Figure, an 89. The race was his first for owner Robert Asaro and trainer Keith Bourgeois after being claimed for $16,000 at Louisiana Downs on July 6.