Golden Gate Fields took a step forward on Tuesday in its plan to install a synthetic surface this summer. The city of Albany advised the track that the project was exempt from having to meet the environmental requirements contained in the California Environmental Quality Act, and the track's request for a grading permit was approved by the city.
The decision leaves Golden Gate awaiting a permit from the Albany planning department before it can begin construction on the synthetic Tapeta surface.
Trainer Donnie Von Hemel will have leading contenders in each of the three turf stakes to be run at Louisiana Downs on Saturday. The races are part of a four-stakes card. Von Hemel's horses will be invading from Texas.
"At this time, we'll have Waupaca, Slew by Slew, and D Fine Okie," Von Hemel said Tuesday.
CHICAGO - Lady Belsara, winner of Saturday's Grade 3 Chicago Handicap, is a pure product of the Polytrack era. All seven of her races have come on Polytrack, either at Turfway, Keeneland, or Arlington, and not since her earliest breezes over the main track at Mountaineer Park in 2005 has Lady Belsara done anything on dirt.
Understandably, trainer Matthew Kintz is reluctant to point toward a race on a conventional dirt surface, though he might consider it without a better option.
"Polytrack got us here, and we are a little reluctant to change right now," Kintz said.
GRAND PRAIRIE, Texas - Gyrovagi is a term that means wandering monk, but for those handicapping the featured eighth race Thursday night at Lone Star Park, it means the horse to beat. Gyrovagi will go favored in the first-level allowance sprint following a flashy maiden win for which he earned a Beyer Speed Figure of 90. He also is bred to be a nice one as a half-brother to Bedanken, a multiple Grade 3 winner of $539,629.
The chief threat in the six-furlong race appears to be Super Danny, who is seeking his fifth straight win Thursday.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario - Sid Attard may be Woodbine's best-kept secret.
Maybe it's because Attard, who has been training here since 1977 and has managed the careers of several Canadian champions, has never been recognized with a personal Sovereign Award despite being the leading trainer at the past three Woodbine meetings.
Or, maybe it's because Attard chooses to rest his stock during the offseason while other local trainers compete south of the border and raise their profiles.
INGLEWOOD, Calif. - Designed for Luck just won't go away, and that is perfectly fine with trainer Vladimir Cerin.
At the remarkable age of 10, Designed for Luck is on the verge of his first start since the fall of 2005, having overcome an injury discovered when he was in Hong Kong for a scheduled start in December of that year.
Judging from his comebacks in the past, Designed for Luck may still be a factor at his advanced age.
"I'm just happy to have him," Cerin said. "He's not happy on the farm. He loves being on the racetrack."
MIAMI - Mach Ride won his first four starts and held his own against some of the top 3-year-old sprinters in the country last year, so it was hard to believe it had been a full year between winner's circle visits for Mach Ride when he posted a 7 1/2-length triumph in the Champali Stakes at Calder on Saturday.
Trainer Aidan O'Brien got off to an explosive start at Royal Ascot on Tuesday as he engineered a one-two-three finish - led by Excellent Art - in the St. James's Palace Stakes. But the Irishman was out of luck in the Queen Anne Stakes, saddling favorite George Washington, who ran a late-closing fourth behind Godolphin's race-winning Ramonti.
The main victim of the O'Brien trifecta in the Group 1, $495,000 St. James's Palace Stakes was the even-money favorite, Cockney Rebel.
AUBURN, Wash. - Trainer Craig Roberts hasn't saddled a Longacres Mile starter since the Grade 3 race, which now boasts a purse of $400,000, was transferred to Emerald Downs in 1995. With any luck at all, that will change with this year's Aug. 19 renewal of the Northwest's most prestigious race.
