Assiniboia Downs will be celebrating its 50th anniversary this season, and the Winnipeg racetrack's 70-day meeting begins Friday evening.
Racing secretary Ray Miller put together an eight-race card for opening night with 62 horses entered for a program that begins at 7:05 p.m. Central. All of Friday's races will be run at five furlongs.
The opening-night feature, an open allowance for fillies and mares, attracted a field of six, including recent Portland Meadows stakes winner Blanding.
INGLEWOOD, Calif. - For the second consecutive week, Mr Napper Tandy has been entered in the feature race at Hollywood Park on Saturday. This weekend, he is an intended runner in the $100,000 Inglewood Handicap at 1 1/16 miles on turf.
Last Saturday, trainer Jack Carava took a look at the field for the Grade 2 Mervyn LeRoy Handicap and decided that Mr Napper Tandy was staying in the barn.
"He was 30-1 and it looked like he couldn't win the race," Carava said. "This looks like a much easier spot. He fits with these kinds of horses. I don't think he'll be 30-1."
ETOBICOKE, Ontario - Edenwold, the 2005 Canadian champion 2-year-old colt and 2006 Queen's Plate winner for owners Jim and Alice Sapara, has been retired from racing and sold for stud duty to Selwyn River Stud in New Zealand.
Edenwold, a 5-year-old son of Southern Halo out of Best of Friends, by Mining, was bred by Gail Wood and William Diamant and was purchased by the Saparas' Winsong Farms for $100,000 at the Canadian Thoroughbred Horse Society (Ontario division) 2004 September yearling sale.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. - The seemingly endless wait before Saturday's 6:04 p.m. post time for the Kentucky Derby should pass a little easier with the opportunity to watch and wager on five competitive undercard stakes headed by the Grade 1 Woodford Reserve Turf Classic and Grade 1 Humana Distaff.
The Woodford Reserve and Humana Distaff will be preceded on Saturday's 12-race program at Churchill Downs by the Grade 2, $250,000 Churchill Downs Handicap, the Grade 3, $150,000 La Troienne, and the Grade 3, $150,000 Distaff Turf Mile.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. - Trainer Todd Pletcher arrived fashionably late to this year's Kentucky Derby, shipping his two horses, Monba and Cowboy Cal, to Churchill Downs following their training at Keeneland on Wednesday morning.
So why did he wait so long?
"They wouldn't let me come in any later," said Pletcher, sounding more like Barclay Tagg, who until this year had usually been the last to arrive. "You had to be here today. I would have come Friday or Saturday if they'd let me."
ARLINGTON HEIGHTS, Ill. - A dispute between Chicago-based jockeys and some Illinois horsemen continued to simmer this week. Jockeys briefly walked off the job last Friday at Hawthorne, delaying the races there by some two hours while insisting that owners increase the fee paid to jockeys whose horses don't earn a piece of the purse. Now, the question is how the situation will carry over into the Arlington meet that begins Friday.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario - Trainer Malcolm Pierce, riding the crest of solid meetings at Fair Grounds and Keeneland, checked back into Woodbine last Saturday.
"We had a great winter," said Pierce, 51, who recorded 16 winners from 63 starters at the Fair Grounds meeting, which began late last fall, and added 3 wins from 14 starts at Keeneland.
"It seems to be, so far, carrying on here."
GRAND PRAIRIE, Texas - Monterey Jazz came into the Grade 3, $300,000 Texas Mile at Lone Star Park last Saturday with several questions to be answered.
He came out of the race with the year's second-highest Beyer Speed Figure, the 118 he earned for his eight-length romp. That is 1 point off the Beyer Figure of 119 that Commentator earned at Gulfstream Park for a 14-length win in a $100,000 optional claiming race at a mile in January.
NORTH RANDALL, Ohio - Thoroughbred racing returns to northeastern Ohio on Thursday when Thistledown begins a 122-day schedule that runs through Oct. 26.
For the third consecutive year, the number of racing days at Thistledown has been reduced. In 2005 Thistledown raced 187 days. That number was reduced to 156 in 2006 and to 136 last year. This year's 122-day schedule was agreed to after months of negotiations between the track's owner, Magna Entertainment Corp., and the Ohio Division of the Horsemen's Benevolent and Protective Association.
Legislation has been introduced in the Louisiana state senate to bring racing back to the old Evangeline Downs in Carencro, La.
The bill would reintroduce racing to Lafayette Parish without a vote by its residents. In 1997, Lafayette voters outlawed video poker, which prompted the construction of the new racing and gaming facility in nearby Opelousas, in neighboring St. Landry Parish.
Opposition to the new bill is stiff and includes Opelousas Mayor Donald Cravins Sr.