OCEANPORT, N.J. - Trainer Larry Jones conducted a reconnaissance mission at Monmouth Park from July 6-8.
The Delaware Park-based trainer brought five horses to Monmouth to test the main track and the new cushion that was installed before the start of the meet. Jones came away convinced that Kentucky Derby runner-up Hard Spun will have no problem with the speed-favoring surface in the $1 million Haskell Invitational on Aug. 5.
DEL MAR, Calif. A 72-year-old bingo player from San Diego scored the biggest jackpot of his life Thursday when he slipped away from bingo just long enough to play a Del Mar pick six that returned $110,111.40 for one winning ticket.
Raymond Byers placed his wager at Viejas Casino, where he is a regular in the bingo parlor. The unusual structure of his winning ticket - a $16 play that started with four singles - piqued the interest of Del Mar officials. After reviewing procedures Friday, track officials expressed confidence in the integrity of the parimutuel system.
Interest in the ninth annual Claiming Crown is building with each passing day, especially with horsemen in Kentucky, according to officials affiliated with the series.
The Claiming Crown will be run Aug. 4 at Ellis Park in Henderson, Ky., marking the first time the $600,000, seven-race series has been held in Kentucky and just the second time it has been run anywhere other than Canterbury Park in Minnesota. The 2002 running was held at Philadelphia Park.
AUBURN, Wash. - Trainer Dan Markle has had very good luck in his dealings with Tommy Town Thoroughbreds, the large breeding and racing operation based in Santa Inez, Calif. Markle hopes his luck continues when he saddles his latest purchase from Tommy Town, the 3-year-old filly Song and a Wager, for Sunday's $65,000 Washington's Lottery Handicap at Emerald Downs.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario - Sky Conqueror won last year's inaugural Northern Dancer Breeders' Cup Stakes and has been made the 9-5 morning-line favorite for the second running of the Grade 2, $700,000 feature here Sunday.
A field of eight was entered Thursday for the 1 1/2-mile turf race for 3-year-olds and upward.
Sunday's blockbuster program also will include the Grade 2, $300,000 Dance Smartly, a 1 1/8-mile turf race for fillies and mares that will mark the return of Canada's reigning Horse of the Year, Arravale.
ELMONT, NY. - The on-again, off-again career of Attila's Storm appears to be back on again.
After watching him work five furlongs in 1:01.72 Thursday morning over a fast Belmont Park main track, trainer Rick Schosberg said Attila's Storm would most likely make his next start in the $250,000 Alfred G. Vanderbilt Handicap next Saturday at Saratoga. The Grade 2 race at six furlongs is one of four graded stakes to be run that day, with the winners of all four races earning automatic berths into Breeders' Cup events on Oct.o27 at Monmouth Park.
DEL MAR, Calif. - Double Trouble's only loss in her last six starts was a fourth-place finish in the Grade 3 Wilshire Handicap at Hollywood Park in April.
Since then, she has won two allowance races that have resulted in her returning to the stakes level for Saturday's $85,000 Osunitas Handicap over 1 1/16 miles on turf for fillies and mares at Del Mar.
Her regular rider, Brice Blanc, does not expect Double Trouble to lose this stakes race.
As a result of negotiations between the Calgary Stampede and Horse Racing Alberta, a spring Thoroughbred meet will be held at Stampede Park in 2008 and simulcast racing broadcasts will continue through the end of 2008.
Max Gibb, chief executive officer of the United Horsemen of Alberta, cited unforeseen permit and construction delays as the reason a proposed new racing facility at Balzac would not be ready for next year.
The negotiations began on July 12, and a final agreement was reached Wednesday evening and announced in a press release on Thursday.
DEL MAR, Calif. - Any preconceived notion of what tactics to use on Del Mar's new Polytrack surface turned out to be meaningless to jockey Corey Nakatani.
"All the people that said you had to win from the front or come from behind, you throw all those things out," Nakatani said.
Nakatani rode three winners on Wednesday, including two of the five races run on Polytrack. Afterward, he was one of several jockeys who praised the condition of the course, even though it produced slow times.
GRAND PRAIRIE, Texas - Waupaca has been quite productive over the Lone Star Park turf course this meet. From two starts, he has an allowance win and a third-place finish in the Grade 3, $200,000 Dallas Turf Cup, credentials that should make him the favorite Saturday in the $50,000 Bob Johnson Memorial Stakes.
"He's run two big races here," said Donnie Von Hemel, who trains Waupaca for Wayne Sanders.