ALBANY, Calif. - Golden Gate Fields winds up its fall meeting Sunday with a solid, competitive card from top-to-bottom.
Eight fillies and mares meet in the closing-day feature, a $50,000 optional claimer at six furlongs.
Trainer Steve Specht sends out an uncoupled entry that could prove quite tough. Kiss Kiss Kiss and the recently re-claimed Princess Lianna have a combined record of 8 wins, 5 seconds and 3 thirds from 22 starts here.
Maggi Moss, the leading owner in New York and in the country in terms of wins, has fired Gary Contessa, the winningest trainer in New York this year, after a nine-year working relationship.
Moss has split the horses she had with Contessa between trainers Robert Klesaris and Bruce Levine. Moss said she gave both trainers five horses each. Contessa said it was four each.
Moss, who ranks first nationally in wins (167) and fifth in earnings ($3,246,875), has won 33 races on this circuit in 2006. Moss said she had some concerns with Contessa's stable getting too large.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario - Trainer Don Schnell has been getting around this year, starting out in Turf Paradise and moving on to race at Prairie Meadows, Canterbury, Arlington, and Remington.
Now Schnell, a 53-year-old native of Alberta, has hung up his shingle at Woodbine, and the early returns have been encouraging.
Schnell, who has six horses here, recorded his second win from four starters here when Sonoma Storm was a front-running winner for a $50,000 claiming price on Wednesday night.
EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. - Trainer Kate Demasi took pride in Beautiful East's effort in the Eleven North Handicap at Monmouth Park.
At $100,000, the Eleven North on Sept. 16 was the richest race of the year for New Jersey-bred filly and mare sprinters and it produced a dramatic finish, with graded stakes winner Wild Gams prevailing by a neck over Pure Disco, who was only a head better than Beautiful East.
"She ran a very brave race," Demasi said. "I thought she was almost going to get there."
A. P. Warrior has already proven that he can win important stakes on turf and dirt. In March, he won the San Felipe Stakes, a prep to the Kentucky Derby, which was on dirt. In August, he won his turf debut in the Grade 2 La Jolla Handicap at Del Mar.
Now, he must prove he can win such races consecutively. A. P. Warrior can accomplish that in Saturday's Grade 2, $150,000 Oak Tree Derby at the Oak Tree at Santa Anita meeting, his first start since the La Jolla Handicap.
Can't Beat It's name has been in the papers quite a bit since he ran in the Grade 2 American Derby at Arlington Park on July 22, but for all the wrong reasons. He finished second behind Union Avenue, but was disqualified after testing positive for isoxsuprine and naproxen, both Class 4 medications, in separate rulings issued by the Illinois Racing Board. Trainer Marty Wolfson and owner Charlotte Weber have appealed those rulings, and a hearing is scheduled in January.
ALBANY, Calif. - There is an X factor in Saturday's $50,000-added Hays Valley Stakes at Golden Gate Fields - the stakes winner Courting Seattle, who leaves the friendly confines of Emerald Downs to make his first start here for trainer Howard Belvoir. The
1 1/16-mile race for 3-year-olds drew a field of five.
In nine career starts, Courting Seattle has missed the board only once, with an 11th in the Emerald Breeders' Cup Derby at 1 1/8 miles, which Belvoir admits is probably farther than he wants to go.
Maiden races for Indiana-bred 2-year-olds were a staple of Hoosier Park's racing programs throughout September, and many of the winners of those races will congregate in a pair of stakes this weekend. The most impressive filly maiden winner during the month, Silken Dreams, is the likely favorite Saturday in the $40,000 City of Anderson Stakes at 5 1/2 furlongs.
Plaid has proven to be a horse who takes her track with her, having won races this year at Sunland Park, Churchill Downs, Horsemen's Park, and Evangeline Downs. Saturday, she will be an odds-on favorite to add Louisiana Downs to the list when she makes her first start at the track in the $50,000 Delicada at 1 1/16 miles.
Plaid will face seven other fillies and mares in the Delicada. Among those in the field are stakes winners Grand Facile, Raspberry Wine, and Baileys Affair.
