ARCADIA, Calif. - There is a pick six carryover of $71,703 for Friday's card at the Oak Tree at Santa Anita meeting, the second carryover since the meeting began on Sept. 27.
Friday's pick six covers the third through eighth races on a program that begins at 1 p.m.
ELMONT, N.Y. - New York-breds have made such tremendous strides the last several years that even a sheikh from Dubai has gotten with the program.
Two months ago, Sheikh Rashid bin Mohammed al Maktoum, the son of Sheikh Mohammed, purchased West Virginia privately from Donald and Mary Zuckerman. On Saturday, West Virginia heads a field of 10 entered in the $250,000 Empire Classic, the most prestigious race run for New York-breds.
Bernardini, the probable favorite for the $5 million Breeders' Cup Classic on Nov. 4 at Churchill Downs, worked a leisurely five furlongs in 1:04.67 on Thursday morning at Belmont Park. It was his first breeze since he cruised to an effortless victory in the $750,000 Jockey Club Gold Cup on Oct. 7.
With regular workout rider Simon Harris in the irons, Bernardini was clocked in fractions of 13.47 seconds, 26.34, 38.55, and he galloped out six furlongs in 1:17.93. His time for five furlongs was the slowest of 16 moves at the distance.
EDMONTON, Alberta - North With Will looks for her second victory of the year in an optional $32,000 claimer at 6 1/2 furlongs here Saturday, the penultimate day of the 2006 Northlands meet.
North With Will, a 3-year-old filly owned by Reid Racing Stable, has had some moderate success in the allowance ranks this season. After getting her first win of 2006 over a muddy track against $17,500 claimers, North With Will performed admirably in her next two starts, finishing third and second in allowance and optional claiming company.
VANCOUVER, British Columbia - Undersecretary hasn't developed as quickly as his more illustrious siblings Regal Red and Commodore Craig. Nonetheless, he appears to have a plenty of potential and he looks like the one to beat in the eighth race at Hastings Saturday. The $75,000 optional claiming race for 3-year-olds going 1 1/16 miles drew seven horses, including the B.C. Cup Stellar's Jay winner He's Quite a Guy.
Trainer Robbie Anderson was disappointed when Under-
FORT ERIE, Ontario - Trainer Debbie Rombis has had little to cheer about this year at Fort Erie.
Usually a fast starter, Rombis was slow out of the gate this spring. Then, on June 3, she was severely injured when a horse reared and toppled onto her as she was exiting the sand ring.
Rombis suffered a fractured tailbone and her pelvis was broken in three places. She was hospitalized for two months.
Last year, Rombis had 11 winners and finished in the top 20 in the meet trainer standings. Going into Tuesday's card, she had only two winners for all of 2006.
Wild Rex, a winner of one sprint turf stakes and narrowly beaten in another during Monmouth Park's season, figures to be a short-priced favorite in the $55,000 Great Falls Stakes at the Meadowlands.
The five-furlong grass stakes, restricted to 3-year-olds, drew a field of eight, plus Big Dealer, who is entered for the main track only.
Kong the King has run only once in his career, so it's way too early to label the 2-year-old son of Storm Boot as a candidate for next spring's Triple Crown series. But if he runs a big race in Saturday's $100,000 Dover Stakes at Delaware Park, Kong the King might be worth following.
Between 1950 and 1978, four horses who ran first or second in the Dover went on to capture the Kentucky Derby the following May. More recently, Captain Bodgit won the 1996 Dover and finished second in the 1997 Derby.
MIAMI - Universal Form pulled off one of the most improbable stakes victories of 2006, when he rallied from last at odds of 53-1 to beat War Front by a length in Gulfstream Park's Grade 3 Deputy Minister Handicap.
War Front has since gone on to win a Grade 2 stakes and finish second in a pair of Grade 1 races, and is preparing for the upcoming Breeders' Cup Sprint. Universal Form, on the other hand, has gone winless in six tries since the Deputy Minister and will try again to get back on the right track in Saturday's $45,000 Go to Will overnight stakes at Calder.
ELMONT, N.Y. - Last year, the Iroquois Handicap drew a field of 12, but Seeking the Ante turned it into a one-horse affair. This year, a field of 14 was entered for Saturday's $125,000 Iroquois and literally anyone can win it.
The Iroquois is run at seven furlongs, and the 14 horses have combined to win just 5 of 26 starts at that distance. This field of New York-bred fillies and mares is made up of horses who seem to do better at six furlongs or one mile.
