SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - Jamie Sanders had hoped to give Teuflesberg a break and bring a fresh horse into the Grade 1 King's Bishop on Aug. 25. Problem is, Teuflesberg is not cooperating.
So instead of fighting the colt, Sanders has entered Teuflesberg in Saturday's $80,000 Glow, an overnight stakes for 3-year-olds scheduled for one mile over Saratoga's inner turf course.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario - Mike Fox, winner of the Queen's Plate, and Alezzandro, hero of the Prince of Wales, will play their rubber match Sunday in the $500,000 Breeders' Stakes here at Woodbine.
The Breeders', a 1 1/2-mile turf race, follows the 1 1/4-mile Queen's Plate and Fort Erie's 1 3/16-mile Prince of Wales in the Triple Crown series for Canadian-bred 3-year-olds.
A field of 10 was entered for the Breeders' on Thursday.
HENDERSON, Ky. - By fate or luck, horsemen and other people affiliated with the Claiming Crown were nowhere near Minnesota this week, unlike in seven of the past eight years, when the event was held at Canterbury Park.
Claiming Crown coordinator Nat Wess, who has been at Ellis Park since July 23, said the tragic bridge collapse that occurred Wednesday evening near downtown Minneapolis surely would have cast a pall on the event this year if it were being run at Canterbury.
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.
