OCEANPORT, N.J. Promenade Girl earned her breakthrough victory last season at Monmouth in the Grade 2 Molly Pitcher Stakes, beating Round Pond, who later won the Breeders' Cup Distaff at Churchill Downs.
Trainer Larry Murray hopes a return to Monmouth Park Saturday for this year's Molly Pitcher will get Promenade Girl back into the win column.
She is winless in five races since last year's Molly Pitcher, including three straight third-place finishes to start this season.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. Had things gone according to plan this spring, Vitruvius might have been one of Street Sense's tougher rivals in Saturday's $1 million Travers Stakes. But Vitruvius, a 3-year-old son of E Dubai, has been forced to miss most of the spring and summer due to a bad case of skin disease.
On Thursday, Vitruvius, a winner of both of his career starts, makes his return to the races in a second-level allowance race at Saratoga going 1 1/8 miles. It will be his first start since winning a first-level allowance race by 3 3/4 lengths at Aqueduct on April 11.
CINCINNATI - Perry Ouzts joined one of the most elite clubs in racing when he rode his 5,000th winner Tuesday at River Downs, becoming just the 22nd jockey in North America racing history to achieve that lofty milestone.
Ouzts, 53, was aboard Kandinsky in the first race, a $4,000 claiming sprint. Breaking with the pack from the inside post in a field of seven, Kandinsky fought for the early lead with Twice as Fabulous before pulling away to win the six-furlong race by 3 3/4 lengths.
DEL MAR, Calif. - You know the old joke, "Other than that, how was the play Mrs. Lincoln?" Well, that's how trainer John Shirreffs feels about the Arlington Million. His horse After Market shipped in well and likely would have been the favorite in the race. Shirreffs said he was treated royally by the personnel at Arlington Park. Everything was in perfect order.
But persistent rain left the course soft - it was rated "good" - the kind on which After Market had a significant setback last year in the Kent Breeders' Cup Stakes at Delaware Park. So, he was scratched.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - Calvin Borel wasn't feeling well Monday, saddled with some sort of virus that has caused vomiting and laryngitis.
While a doctor did put him on antibiotics, there is no elixir quite like sitting on a Kentucky Derby winner.
On Tuesday morning, Borel was aboard Street Sense, guiding him through a five-furlong workout in 1:00.14 over Saratoga's main track. It was the 3-year-old colt's last work before he runs as a heavy favorite in Saturday's $1 million Travers Stakes at Saratoga.
Horses will return to Golden Gate Fields on Oct. 5 and can begin training on the track the next day, the track's general manager, Robert Hartman, said Monday.
"We will finish the installation of our new surface 10 days ahead of schedule," he said. "There haven't been any surprises, and our contractors have been making up time every day."
Golden Gate Fields, following a mandate by the California Horse Racing Board, is installing a synthetic surface, having chosen Tapeta Footing. The project began in mid-July. The Golden Gate meeting opens Nov. 7.
A funeral service will be held at 1 p.m. Wednesday for trainer David MacLean, who died at age 49 last Friday of pancreatic cancer.
MacLean's career in the Thoroughbred racing industry spanned 30 years and he trained horses from 1986 to this year.
For six years in the 1990's, McLean was the private trainer for the powerful Duchossois family in Illinois.
His stakes winners during that span included Katahaula County, Rule Sixteen, Olden Rijn, and Once a Sailor.
Crossing the Line unleashed a rally at the top of the stretch of the $400,000 Del Mar Mile that carried him to the winner's circle - and possibly to the Breeders' Cup Mile at Monmouth Park on Oct. 27.
Crossing the Line ($6.60) won the Grade 2 Del Mar Mile by three-quarters of a length over Becrux, finishing a mile on turf in 1:32.59. With the victory, he earned an automatic berth to the BC Mile, if the partnership that owns the 5-year-old New Zealand-bred gelding chooses to pay a supplemental fee.
OCEANPORT, N.J. - Trainer Eddie Plesa Jr. and Centaur Farms have set their sights on the Oct. 26 Breeders' Cup Dirt Mile for Gottcha Gold following his second straight upset in a graded stakes at Monmouth Park.
The challenge is mapping out the best way to get the 4-year-old to the Breeders' Cup at Monmouth, where Gottcha Gold is 5-2-0 in 8 starts.
One option: train the horse up to the race following his win at 15-1 Saturday in the Grade 3 Philip H. Iselin Stakes.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - The top three finishers from Saturday's Alabama Stakes will likely head their separate ways before likely meeting up again in the Breeders' Cup Distaff at Monmouth Park on Oct. 27.
Lady Joanne, who survived a two-pronged challenge from Lear's Princess and Octave as well as a stewards' inquiry into the stretch run, will make her next start in the Grade 1, $500,000 Spinster Stakes on Oct. 7 at Keeneland, trainer Carl Nafzger said.