Defending champion Unbridled Belle heads a group of 17 older fillies and mares nominated to the $1 million Delaware Handicap on July 13 at Delaware Park.
Unbridled Belle, trained by Todd Pletcher, will be seeking to become the first horse to win back-to-back runnings of the Grade 2, 1 1/4-mile Delaware Handicap since Nastique in 1998 and 1999.
Weights for the race will be assigned Saturday and entries drawn Tuesday.
Reacting to the news that a horse trained by Steve Asmussen has tested positive for the Class 2 drug lidocaine in a race at Lone Star Park, Woodbine has begun putting Asmussen's entrants under its surveillance program.
Asmussen horses entered to race at Woodbine will be monitored beginning five hours before their post times by Woodbine security, who will restrict access to designated handlers. Jamie Martin, Woodbine's senior vice president of racing, said that the surveillance is a "house" rule.
INGLEWOOD, Calif. - The California Horse Racing Board began collecting blood samples for anabolic steroid testing on Wednesday. While the penalty phase of the new steroid policy will not take effect until later this summer at the earliest, trainers expressed concern on Wednesday that they could be sanctioned for claiming a horse who has recently been administered steroids.
INGLEWOOD, Calif. - Trainer Ken McPeek brought his family to Southern California for the week, turning the opportunity to run My Baby Baby in the Grade 1, $750,000 American Oaks into a Southern California vacation. The McPeeks have encamped at a beachside hotel in Santa Monica, which is about as far as My Baby Baby will be from the rail when she starts in the American Oaks on Saturday at Hollywood Park.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario - Not Bourbon, winner of the Queen's Plate here June 22, breezed five furlongs in 59.20 seconds on the training track Wednesday in preparation for Fort Erie's July 13 Prince of Wales stakes.
The $500,000 Prince of Wales, at 1 3/16 miles, follows the 1 1/4-mile Queen's Plate as the second leg of the triple crown for Canadian-bred 3-year-olds.
Regular rider Jono Jones was aboard Not Bourbon for Wednesday's workout, which was the colt's first this season over the training track's dirt strip and the fastest of nine at the distance.
Trainer Larry Jones is beefing up security at his Delaware Park barn after a racehorse and his stable pony were found loose in the barn area on consecutive nights this week.
Delaware Park security and the Thoroughbred Racing Protective Bureau are investigating the incidents and are focusing "internally in [Jones's] operation," according to John Mooney, Delaware Park's executive director of racing.
Jones said investigators are focusing on an employee he fired Sunday night.
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.