ELMONT, N.Y. - With two weeks and two major workouts to go, Kentucky Derby and Preakness winner Big Brown "is right on schedule" for a start in the $1 million Haskell Invitational at Monmouth Park on Aug. 3, trainer Richard Dutrow Jr. said Friday.
The Haskell, run at 1 1/8 miles, would be Big Brown's first start since he was pulled up by jockey Kent Desormeaux in the Belmont Stakes on June 7.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario - Disfunction made the successful transition into stakes company when capturing the Grade 3 Vigil over seven furlongs here May 19.
On Sunday, Disfunction will be looking to continue his upward mobility in the $150,000 Bold Venture, a 6 1/2-furlong race for 3-year-olds and upward that attracted a field of eight.
"He's doing very, very well," said Julia Carey, who trains the 4-year-old gelding. "Everything's going according to plan."
That plan called for Disfunction to proceed directly from the Vigil to the Bold Venture, a nine-week gap.
GRAND PRAIRIE, Texas - Carole Chaiken was a winner at both Lone Star Park and Hollywood Park last weekend. She was in Texas because Dixie Dot Com, a horse she raced in partnership with her husband, Don, and Bart and Ronelle Heller, was being inducted into the Lone Star Park Hall of Fame. And while she was here, Chaiken watched on simulcast as Premium Quality, one of 33 horses she has in training, won a maiden special weight at Hollywood Park.
Steve Asmussen
Steve Asmussen set a record for North American trainers with 555 wins in 2004; with nearly 250 wins before Memorial Day this year, the trainer of reigning Horse of the Year Curlin threatens to raise the bar higher still.
Asmussen holds titles at Lone Star Park, where he is the all-time leader; Fair Grounds; and Churchill Downs, where he set a record with 45 wins at last year's spring-summer meet, including more than half of the 2-year-old races in which he had starters.
On the eve of Saratoga's 140th season, your best bet is to expect the unexpected. A summer at the Spa defies early predictions and generalizations, and the only sure thing is that no two seasons are ever the same.
EDMONTON, Alberta Greenwood Meadow showed enough promise last spring for trainer Dale Saunders to dispatch him along the Canadian Derby trail, a route that Footprint successfully traversed on his way to Alberta horse of the year honors.
Greenwood Meadow was no match for Footprint in their three meetings last year, but his 261 record from 11 starts banked $64,280.
VANCOUVER, British Columbia Handicappers will have to make a tough choice Sunday in the 1 1/16-mile second-level optional claiming feature. They must decide between the proven stakes horse Shacane, who has won four of his six starts going 1 1/16 miles, or Seminole Brave, who has been brilliant in his last two starts but has never raced beyond 6 1/2 furlongs.
Throw in the multiple route stakes winner Ookashada, plus the sprinter Enforcement, and you have an excellent race. The race has a $50,000 claiming option, and drew seven horses.
AURORA, Colo. Singin Vicar goes from a statebred stakes win to open company in the $20,000 Colorado Derby Sunday at Arapahoe Park. The 1 1/16-mile derby attracted a field of nine, including the second- and third-place finishers behind Singin Vicar in the CTBA Derby here on July 4.