Trainer Tom Albertrani doesn't care who shows up to run in Saturday's $750,000 Jockey Club Gold Cup, just as long as Bernardini does.
"You don't ever want to get overconfident, and you got to respect every horse that's in the race," Albertrani said Tuesday morning. "They're there to win, too. As long as our horse shows up and he's training well, that's all we're really asking for. If he runs his race back to what he's been showing us, he's still going to be the horse to beat."
Cindago sustained a tendon injury Monday in a workout at Santa Anita and will not run in the Grade 2 Indiana Derby on Saturday at Hoosier Park. The injury also jeopardizes his racing career.
Cindago will be out at least six months, said trainer John Sadler.
"We're not calling it retirement, but it is a bad injury," said Sadler.
ARCADIA, Calif. - With the introduction of synthetic surfaces, old-fashioned dirt racing may soon become a historical footnote in Southern California. But as the autumn season hits full swing, turf is still authentic and it remains the surface over which many of the best races are run.
Grass races averaged one additional starter per race than dirt races opening week of the Oak Tree meet at Santa Anita (8.8 starters per race on grass, 7.9 on dirt), and the trend continues Thursday, when the two best races are on grass.
CHICAGO - Six older allowance horses with well-established form, or nine still finding their way in the equine world? Take your pick - either race 5, the second-level allowance, or race 8, an entry-level allowance for 2-year-olds, could serve as the feature on Thursday at Hawthorne Race Course.
The eighth seems more interesting; it drew a larger field than the six-horse fifth, and has some horses that seem genuinely talented.
LEXINGTON, Ky. - If the field that Keeneland drew for its Friday feature, the Alcibiades Stakes, is a fair gauge, then Polytrack will be a huge hit. Fourteen 2-year-old fillies, including Spinaway winner Appealing Zophie, will clash in the Grade 2 Alcibiades, which helps to lead off a terrific three-day opening weekend.
ELMONT, N.Y. - Bernardini, the leading 3-year-old in the country, worked five furlongs in 1:03.33 Tuesday morning at Belmont Park, his final move in preparation for Saturday's Grade 1, $750,000 Jockey Club Gold Cup. Exercise rider Simon Harris kept Bernardini even farther off the rail than usual, in part because of his dissatisfaction with Belmont's main track and in part because several horses had worked before him and the inside part of the track was chewed up.
EDMONTON, Alberta - Rindanica, a multiple stakes winner on this circuit, returns to the racing wars and faces five rivals in an optional $40,000 claimer at 6o1/2 furlongs that will be the featured seventh race here at Northlands Park on Wednesday.
A 6-year-old horse, Rindanica was retired to stud last fall after he was scratched out of a stakes engagement at Assiniboia Downs in Winnipeg because of a leg injury.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario - Stakes winner Midnight Shadow should be strongly favored in Wednesday's $125,000 Victorian Queen Stakes, a six-furlong dash for Ontario-sired 2-year-old fillies.
Midnight Shadow won her maiden convincingly second time out in June with a Beyer Speed Figure of 87, one of the highest Beyer Figures earned by a 2-year-old at Woodbine this year. She proved it wasn't a fluke when she took the July 16 Shady Well Stakes with an 82 Beyer.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario - Shillelagh Slew's season began in disappointing fashion, as his path to the Queen's Plate was compromised by illness. He was able to finish no better than fifth behind Edenwold in that $1omillion showpiece here June 25.
But Shillelagh Slew, who is owned by David James and trained by Mike DePaulo, has been making up for lost time since then, and now finds himself in the driver's seat for divisional honors following his emphatic score in Sunday's 1 1/8-mile Ontario Derby for 3-year-olds here at Woodbine.
