The $40,000 To Much Coffee Stakes, for older Indiana-breds at 1 1/16 miles at Hoosier Park, attracted a full field of 12. But the race really boils down to one horse: Mr. Mink.
One of the more prolific statebreds of recent years, Mr. Mink is out to make amends for a second-place finish in the 2005 To Much Coffee. The speedy gelding was favored last year and built up an eight-length lead down the backside, but he was caught in the final furlong by Pass Rush, a graded stakes winner.
Dance Fee boasts the best last-race Beyer Speed Figure among the seven fillies and mares in the closing-day feature at Delaware Park. But those looking to find a reason to play against Dance Fee, the probable favorite, in Sunday's $54,000 Justakiss Stakes at 1 1/16 miles have plenty of evidence to support their opinion.
Veteran race-caller Larry Collmus has been named the track announcer for the 2007 Gulfstream meeting. Collmus replaces Vic Stauffer, who had held the post for the last six years.
The 2007 Gulfstream meet opens on Jan. 3.
Collmus, 40, was only 18 when he got a job as backup announcer in his native Maryland. His first full-time assignment came two years later at Birmingham Racecourse in Alabama. Collmus has been the regular announcer at Suffolk Downs since 1992, at Monmouth Park since 1994, and he has also called the last two winter meets at Aqueduct.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. - Between them, they have accounted for such major stakes as the Grade 2 Commonwealth Breeders' Cup and the Grade 2 Kentucky Jockey Club Stakes. But when Clock Stopper and Private Vow oppose four others in the Sunday feature at Churchill Downs, it will be after layoffs of notable durations, so the trainers of both are approaching the seven-furlong $61,000 allowance with cautious optimism.
INGLEWOOD, Calif. - The brilliantly fast Jump On In will be favored to stabilize the 2-year-old filly division, and restore her reputation, in the $100,000 Moccasin Stakes on Sunday at Hollywood Park.
Eight entered the seven-furlong stakes, and if front-runner Jump On In is not the surest winner on the card, she is the one to catch. Trained by John Sadler, Jump On In won her Aug. 6 debut with a soaring 98 Beyer Figure, then bombed one month later in the Grade 1 Del Mar Debutante.
PORTLAND, Ore. - Blackies Cuttie will be out of action for three to four months after suffering a hairline stress fracture of her cannon bone, according to trainer Ben Root.
Blackies Cuttie, an impressive winner of her first two starts, finished third at 1-10 odds in the Janet Wineberg Stakes for Oregon-bred 2-year-old fillies on Nov. 5. She initially seemed to come out of the race without injury, but a second set of X-rays revealed the barely perceptible fracture.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. - Trainer Michael Matz is mulling several options for Sangrita, his stakes-winning homebred filly, with the Grade 2, $150,000 Top Flight Handicap at Aqueduct a leading contender.
The one-mile Top Flight on Friday is one of the six stakes over four consecutive days at the Big A.
"I think she's going that way, but I'm just not sure," Matz said of the Top Flight. "I want to take a look at everything."
INGLEWOOD, Calif. The biggest disappointment of last year's Hollywood Park fall meeting was the suspension of grass racing and, with it, the stakes-filled turf festival over the Thanksgiving holiday weekend.
Thankfully, grass racing is back, and on Friday anticipation began to build for next weekend's turf festival when Silent Name, one of the leading candidates for the Grade 1, $400,000 Citation Handicap on Nov. 24, worked six furlongs in 1:12.40 over the Cushion Track surface with exercise rider Felipe Guerrero.
SAN MATEO, Calif. - Trainer Michael Lenzini was happy when he saw a five-furlong turf race available for Athlete at Bay Meadows on Sunday.
He was even happier when entries were drawn for the $62,500 optional claimer.
Athlete has five rivals, each with one thing in common: they all want to be on the lead.
Athlete is content to sit back early and will probably be the trailer early before unleashing his late kick. He's used that style with good success when sprinting on the turf, with two wins, two seconds and a third in eight tries.
VANCOUVER, British Columbia - New ground will be broken here next weekend when a woman will become the leading trainer at Hastings for the first time in this track's 117-year history.
Heading into the final four days of the meet, Terry Clyde, with 47 wins, holds a four-win lead over Barbara Heads. Clyde is a heavy favorite to win the title, although there is still an outside chance Heads could catch her.
Both Clyde and Heads are aware of the significance of winning the title, but they are taking it in stride.