ETOBICOKE, Ontario With the percentage of winning favorites at the Woodbine meeting hovering at a low 29 percent, its certainly not a bad idea to try to beat the chalk at every opportunity on the quirky Polytrack.
And just as 2-5 favorite True Metropolitan came up short in a four-horse race in Tuesdays Dominion Day Stakes, Knights Cause is no cinch to get the job done in Fridays eighth race, an Ontario-sired maiden special worth $66,000.
Summer Doldrums looks to have rounded into form just in time for the $175,000 Presque Isle Mile at Presque Isle Downs on Friday. The richest race of the meet so far and second-richest of the season, the Presque Isle Mile drew a field of nine 3-year-olds and up.
Trained by Richard Violette Jr., Summer Doldrums has the benefit of a race over the Presque Isle Tapeta Footings surface, having won an optional claiming race June 8 by 12 lengths.
EDMONTON, Alberta Trainer Red McKenzie, at 80 years of age, had a very successful spring meet at Stampede Park, thanks to a pair of 3-year-old fillies he bred and raised. On Friday, MacKenzie will saddle that pair of Lady Lev and Chatahoochie in the $50,000 Chariot Chaser, a 6 1/2-furlong handicap named after the filly he sent out to win the Canadian Derby in 1965.
Since he won a stakes race while setting a track record in only his third start at 2, Vicarino has been considered special. At 3, he won a stakes in his lone start, and he looks for his first stakes victory as a 4-year-old Friday in the $50,000 Sam J. Whiting Handicap at the Alameda County Fair in Pleasanton, Calif. Vicarino has 3 wins and 3 thirds in 7 starts this year and will likely be a strong favorite in the Whiting.
INGLEWOOD, Calif. - The injury and subsequent retirement of Heatseeker did not just happen overnight, even though trainer Jerry Hollendorfer and owner William de Burgh initially wanted to believe the filling in his ankle was just an untimely setback last week.
"Horses have trauma on their joints, and their ankles fill up time to time," Hollendorfer explained Tuesday. That includes Heatseeker. "He had little filling in an ankle every now and then."
AUBURN, Wash. - Coming into Sunday's one-mile Tacoma Handicap, Gallon had begun to accumulate a few critics. Though he had been beaten just a head by Fear No Evil in the six-furlong Auburn Stakes and only a neck by Margo's Gift in the 6 1/2-furlong Pepsi-Cola Handicap, some felt he should have won those races. They felt he was in position to win, but hung, or flattened out, at the moment of truth.
ARLINGTON HEIGHTS, Ill. - The trainer Al Stall won 15 races here at Arlington Park during the 2003 meet - but hardly has been seen in these parts since. Beginning the next year, his summer stable was split between Churchill Downs and Louisiana Downs, with Arlington out of the mix. Stall started just six horses here from 2004 to 2006, and did not have an Arlington runner last year.
But he has one now, and a victory Friday in the $175,000 Stars and Stripes Turf Handicap would catapult Lattice toward the top tier of long-distance grass horses in North America.
GRAND PRAIRIE, Texas - Storm Mesa parlayed a stakes win at Lone Star Park in May into a graded score at Prairie Meadows last Friday night, and now she could be headed to Grade 1 company in New York. The Test or Alabama might be the next stop for the filly, who put up a Beyer Speed Figure of 108 in the $100,000 Cinemine at seven furlongs this spring at Lone Star. From there, Storm Mesa won at 1 1/16 miles in the Grade 3, $200,000 Iowa Oaks.
If the third race last Sunday at Louisiana Downs was any indication, the $75,000 Hallowed Dreams Breeders' Cup could end up being a bang-up race. Doyouwanttodance and Steamy Ridge duked it out through the stretch of a five-furlong allowance moved to the main track, and both could run back next in the Hallowed Dreams, a 6 1/2-furlong stakes for fillies and mares on July 19.
In the allowance, Doyouwanttodance came back for a half-length win over Steamy Ridge. For the effort, Doyouwanttodance earned a career-best Beyer Speed Figure of 98.
MIAMI - If the nomination lists are any indication, the 2008 Summit of Speed could be the best in the eight-year history of the event. The Summit of Speed, which features four graded sprint stakes including the Grade 1 Princess Rooney, will be decided at Calder on July 12.
The $400,000 Princess Rooney and Grade 2, $400,000 Smile are Win and You're In races for this year's Breeders' Cup. Purses were cut by $300,000 for the Summit of Speed shortly after the meet began because of the lack of a purse contract between local horsemen and track management.