OCEANPORT, N.J. - Trainer Joe Orseno has realistic expectations for Reata's Shadow in the Haskell.
The 50-1 outsider on track handicapper Brad Thomas's morning line, Reata's Shadow most recently won a second-level allowance race here. He now steps up to face proven Triple Crown colts like Curlin and Hard Spun.
The old cliche advises that "pace makes the race," and this Haskell attracted several horses - Hard Spun, Cable Boy, and Stormello - who are very comfortable setting fast fractions.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - A familiar name is atop the trainer standings after the first eight days of the Saratoga meet.
Bill Mott, who won or shared eight Saratoga trainer's titles from 1992-2001, has six winners, two more than current Spa king Todd Pletcher and Christophe Clement.
"We'll take it for the day or two that it lasts," Mott, who turned 54 on Sunday, said Thursday morning, hours before sending Queen Joanne out to a maiden turf win in the fourth race.
DEL MAR, Calif. - Balance may lose Sunday's $300,000 Clement Hirsch Handicap at Del Mar and still leave trainer David Hofmans convinced that she is on course for the $2 million Breeders' Cup Distaff at Monmouth Park Oct. 27.
Hofmans is concerned that Balance is conceding weight and an advantage in distance to Nashoba's Key in the Grade 2 Clement Hirsch Handicap over 1 1/16 miles.
Hofmans thinks Balance is better at 1 1/8 miles than 1 1/16 miles.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario - Trainer Mac Benson won his first Breeders' Stakes here in 1979 with Bridle Path, who was ridden by Sandy Hawley.
Five years later, Benson won his second Breeders' with Bounding Away, who was ridden by David Clark.
On Sunday, Hawley, Benson, and Clark all have connections to the $500,000 Breeders', the 1 1/2-mile turf race that is the final leg of the Triple Crown for Canadian-bred 3-year-olds.
DEL MAR, Calif. - It kind of figures that the best horse Carla Gaines has trained would be young and troubled. Whether around horses, or in her previous life as a counselor to at-risk kids in her native Alabama, Gaines has been the nurturer, trying to get her charges to harness that anger and translate it into something good.
DEL MAR, Calif.-The absence of a winning favorite in all six legs of Wednesdays pick six has led to a carryover of $133,600 for Thursdays eight-race program at Del Mar.
Thursdays pick six covers the third through eighth races, and most of the races have full fields.
Jockey Richard Migliore has leading contenders in four of the six races.
DEL MAR, Calif. - The first two weeks of racing on Del Mar's new Polytrack synthetic surface have left trainer Art Sherman baffled at times on the best way to prepare his horses.
He says the course he trains over in the morning is firmer than it is during the afternoon, when abundant sunshine makes the course more tiring. It has not been an easy transition for a trainer long-accustomed to racing on a speed-oriented conventional dirt track, and it has forced him to change his training style.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario - Trainer Wayne Mogge, who is based at Turfway Park, shipped Top Speed to Woodbine for a first-level allowance race on July 22, and the colt finished second.
After returning to his home base, the 3-year-old will be back in town and making his stakes debut in Sunday's $500,000 Breeders' over 1 1/2 miles on turf.
"He's kind of an immature colt," said Mogge, who trains a division for Toronto-based owner Stuart Hyman. "It's taken him a while to come together.
BOSSIER CITY, La. - Things have quieted down considerably for trainer Cecil Borel since those frenzied days that prevailed immediately after younger brother Calvin piloted Street Sense to victory in this year's Kentucky Derby.
The elder Borel, who is more of a father figure than an older brother to Calvin, was a big part of a celebration that began before the race was even declared official, high-fiving his younger brother on the way to the winner's circle. Cecil also was highly popular with the media, seemingly granting as many interviews as the winning connections.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - When Barry Irwin finalized a deal last Saturday to purchase the undefeated 3-year-old filly Astor Park, he did so with the newly created $1 million Breeders' Cup Filly and Mare Sprint in mind.
In the last week, however, Irwin found a much more immediate goal for the filly. Astor Park will arrive at Saratoga from Penn National on Friday and run in Saturday's Grade 1 $250,000 Test Stakes for 3-year-old fillies at seven furlongs.
