SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - As a horse owner who lives within 20 miles of Saratoga Race Course, this time of year is always special to Roddy Valente.
"This is Christmas for me," Valente said on the eve of the opening of Saratoga's 140th season. "Six weeks of Christmas."
DEL MAR, Calif. - The Del Mar meeting began in earnest on Wednesday for Zenyatta, the leading older female in the nation.
Unbeaten in six starts, Zenyatta had her first exercise over the track's Polytrack surface on Wednesday, preparing for a start in the $300,000 Clement Hirsch Handicap on Aug. 2. Trainer John Shirreffs left Zenyatta at his Hollywood Park base for an extra week after that track ended its spring-summer meeting on July 13, saying that he wanted to see how the Del Mar Polytrack surface played before committing the 4-year-old Zenyatta to a start here this summer.
GRAND PRAIRIE, Texas - Ernesto and Lone Star Special have accounted for three turf stakes wins this summer for trainer Danny Pish, who is just beginning to map out fall campaigns for the horses. Ernesto won his third straight race in the $50,000 Bob Johnson Memorial last weekend at Lone Star Park, and earned a career-best Beyer Speed Figure of 94.
"That was a big one there," Pish said. "He beat some nice horses. It looks like he's picked his game up to a new level."
Louis Stokes, a 29-year-old native of Lafayette, La., won the hotly contested riding title at the 56-day Summit meeting, which concluded last week. His 38 wins were two better than runner-up Weldon Cloninger Jr. Jeffrey Skerrett was third with 35. Cloninger and Skerrett were co-champions at last year's corresponding meeting.
"It feels great to win my first title, a lot better than last year," said Stokes, who suffered four cracked ribs and a punctured lung in a spill here in 2007.
Jockey Ronnie Allen Jr. leads the jockey standings at Presque Isle after overcoming a great deal of adversity in his personal life. Allen came back from a 4 1/2-year hiatus this past February at Tampa Bay Downs and won 46 races before coming north to Presque Isle. He has 59 wins this meet, seven more than his nearest rival, Rex Stokes.
The 44-year-old Allen is a recovering alcoholic.
"I thank God, my family, and my friends that I'm back and I am happy," Allen said.
The Minnesota Thoroughbred Association will host its annual yearling sale at Canterbury Park on Saturday. Seventy-four horses were cataloged for the sale, including yearlings by Holy Bull, Woodman, Birdstone, Teton Forest, Double Honor, and locally based sires Demidoff, Kyle's Our Man, Ghazi, and Sam Lord's Castle.
Trainer James Jones sent out Singin Vicar for his second consecutive derby victory of the meet Sunday. He defeated the Nebraska-invader City Slicker by 1 1/2 lengths in the open $35,000 Colorado Derby. In his previous start on July 4, the $35,000 Colorado Breeders Derby, he romped by six lengths over Major River.
Last summer, Jones accomplished the identical feat with Folsum for breeder Willard Burbach. Both horses were bred in Colorado. Burbach is the outright owner of Singin Vicar and co-owner of Folsum.
Build it and they will come.
Pinnacle Race Course, the field of dreams that rose from the swamps and cornfields just south of Detroit Metropolitan Airport, has attracted good crowds through its first four days of racing, including an overflow crowd on opening day that resulted in police turning cars away from the track when the two-lane country roads and the parking lots they lead to were inundated.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - Grade 1-winning sprinter Fabulous Strike will be forced to miss Saturday's Alfred G. Vanderbilt Handicap after injuring his left front foot Tuesday morning, trainer Todd Beattie said.
According to Beattie, Fabulous Strike ripped off a piece of the frog on the bottom of his front left foot. Beattie said the injury would be similar to "peeling off layers of skin under your heel."
GRAND PRAIRIE, Texas - Real Appeal might return to graded stakes competition for his next start following his recent last-to-first win in the $75,000 Alysheba Breeders' Cup for 3-year-olds at Lone Star Park. He breezed five furlongs in 1:00.40 at his Churchill Downs base Tuesday.
"We're going to take a look at the West Virginia Derby," said Tom Amoss, who trains Real Appeal for Roulette Racing. "It's a big step, obviously. We're going to look at it and decide if he fits."