EDMONTON, Alberta The best betting race on a solid nine-race program here Sunday drew just six older geldings, but a case could be made for each in a 6 1/2-furlong race for $30,000 claimers.
There is speed signed on, with Powerful Summer, Smokem Ninetynine, and Guitars N Cadillacs ensuring a rapid pace for the stalking trio of C R Jag, Colombiano, and Bling.
Sundays feature at Assiniboia Downs, the $30,000 Frank Arnason Sire Stakes, is restricted to Manitoba-sired 3-year-old colts and geldings. Local stallion Battle Cat is well represented, with his foals accounting for five of the nine entrants in the six-furlong affair.
Three maiden winners take on six maidens, including a first-time starter, and the role of favorite should fall upon Spying Eyes, a sharp maiden special weight victor last time out.
ELMONT, N.Y. - It was not by design that trainer Christophe Clement brought Vacare back from an eight-month layoff in the Grade 1 Just a Game Handicap last month. It was certainly no surprise when she got beat four lengths by Ventura in the one-mile race that ran in a solid 1:32.75.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario - It took a long time for Singing Saint to make it to the races.
But it would appear that the 4-year-old colt, who races for Stronach Stable and Brian Lynch, has been well worth the wait after he made an auspicious debut here Wednesday evening.
"We've always had high hopes for him," said Lynch. "We had to take a chip out of his knee as a 3-year-old, just when we had him ready to run down in Florida."
Dermot Weld knows something about sending horses around the world to win big races from his home at the Curragh. In 1990 he won the Belmont Stakes with Go and Go. A year later he saddled Additional Risk to win the Hong Kong Bowl. He has won the Melbourne Cup with Vintage Crop and Media Puzzle and has landed Group 1 races in England, Italy, and Germany.
VANCOUVER, British Columbia - Trainer Troy Taylor isn't sure if both Holy Nova and Lady Raj will start in Saturday's $50,000 Vancouver Sun Handicap for fillies and mares at Hastings.
Either horse would likely be a strong favorite to win the 1 1/16-mile race, the co-feature on a nine-race card with the $50,000 Supernaturel. If they both start, Taylor's coupled entry will go off as a prohibitive favorite.
ELMONT, N.Y. - The pick six went unhit at Belmont Park for a second consecutive day, resulting in a double carryover of $190,641 heading into Friday's Fourth of July card.
The carryover was assured when Missinglisalewis ($22) won Thursday's nightcap, as there had been only one favorite in the sequence. There were 33 consolations tickets (5 of 6), each worth $1,382.
Friday's pick six will be contested on races 4 through 9 and include the Grade 2 Tom Fool Handicap and the Grade 2 First Flight Handicap, both seven-furlong sprint races.
EDMONTON, Alberta Teagues Fight and Footprint rekindle a rivalry that flared this spring at Stampede Park and promises to continue throughout this meet in Saturdays $50,000 Spangled Jimmy.
Footprint scored first in the Teeworth Plate, establishing a course record in the one-mile test, and Teagues Fight rebounded a month later in the Herald Gold Plate, equalling the course record.
VANCOUVER, British Columbia For the first time this year Hastings has carded two stakes races on the same program. Leading off in the seventh is the $50,000 Supernaturel Handicap for 3-year-old fillies. The 1 1/16-mile race attracted six horses, including probable favorite Remarkable Miss.
The Troy Taylor-trained entry of Holy Nova and Lady Raj will be a very short price in the second stakes, the Vancouver Sun. The $50,000 Sun at 1 1/16 miles goes as the eighth race, with eight fillies and mares entered.
Sam Houston Race Park will host the 36th annual Willie Nelson's Family Picnic on Saturday. Among the artists set to perform during the daylong festival are Nelson, Merle Haggard, and Los Lonely Boys. Friday night, the feature is the $20,000 Silestone for Quarter Horses.