ARCADIA, Calif. - The comparisons will be inevitable. If Obrigado wins Saturday's $150,000 Oak Tree Derby at Santa Anita, trainer Neil Drysdale will be hard-pressed to make it through the day before someone asks him to compare Obrigado to last year's Oak Tree Derby winner, Aragorn.
Aragorn has been a star for Drysdale this year, winning four consecutive major stakes. He is the leading American-based contender for the Breeders' Cup Mile at Churchill Downs on Nov. 4.
The connections of Star Dabbler have filed a protest with the Indiana Horse Racing Commission, claiming their horse won last Saturday night's $500,000 Indiana Derby at Hoosier Park outright and did not dead-heat with Cielo Gold in the Grade 2 race.
Barry Schwartz, the owner of Star Dabbler, and Mike Hushion, the colt's trainer, filed the protest on Monday. Hushion, who watched the race from an offtrack betting facility on Long Island, believes the photo finish of the race clearly shows that Star Dabbler had his nose in front at the wire.
EDMONTON, Alberta - Trainer Don Gilkyson, who won two stakes on Alberta Fall Classic Day, deals from a strong position once again with his uncoupled pair of Pickinontheolbanjo and Guitars N Cadilacs in Friday's feature here at Northlands Park. The one-mile nonwinners-of-three allowance is restricted to 3- and 4-year-olds.
Pickinontheolbanjo, a 3-year-old hombred son of Banjo, was fourth to Teagues Flight in the Beaufort and draws the rail with regular rider Desmond Bryan up.
Dreamsandvisions is a prime contender for Saturday's Texas Hall of Fame Stakes at Retama Park.P
Dreamsandvisions, a $2,500 purchase who has earned $304,481, will start as one of the favorites Saturday night in the $100,000 Texas Hall of Fame Stakes at Retama Park. The 1 1/16-mile turf race is one of six restricted stakes on a card worth more than $500,000.
Prior to the races, the newest members of the Texas Horse Racing Hall of Fame will be inducted. Honorees are Texas horsemen Hilmer and Faye Schmidt and Jerry Windham, and the late politician Robert Johnson Sr.
Apprentice jockey Chris Landeros, 18, notched career win No. 100 by riding College Graduate to victory in the $25,200 Bienvenidos Stakes last Friday, opening day at Turf Paradise.
Landeros, who hails from San Mateo, Calif., was the track's apprentice of the meet last season.
Brother Derek is among the 35 horses nominated to the $250,000 Oklahoma Derby, which will be run at Remington Park on Oct. 20.
Nominations closed Tuesday. Others made eligible for the 1 1/8-mile race include Cielo Gold, dead-heat winner of the Grade 2 Indiana Derby, and Sensational Score, winner of the $100,000 Pomona Derby.
The Oklahoma Derby is the richest of six stakes scheduled for the card.
Parthenope tied for the most wins by a horse in North America this year last Friday when she captured a six-furlong starter allowance for fillies and mares.
The victory was Parthenope's second of the Hoosier meet and her ninth in 20 starts this season. That put Parthenope in a five-way tie for first, which was broken Monday at Woodbine when the Ontario-based Cold War won his 10th race of the year.
MIAMI - The Florida Stallion Stakes will conclude its 25th birthday celebration on Saturday with the running of the $400,000 In Reality and $400,000 My Dear Girl stakes.
The Stallion series was first conceived in 1979 by then-Calder president and general manager Kenny Noe Jr., along with prominent owner-breeder Dan Lasater. It had its first running in 1982 and ultimately emerged as a major event on the south Florida racing calendar after becoming the cornerstone of Calder's Festival of the Sun program in 1992.
Saturday's 12-race Maryland Million card at Laurel Park attracted a total of 117 horses when entries were taken on Wednesday, including Cherokee's Boy, the headliner in the featured eight-horse Classic.
Cherokee's Boy, a 6-year-old, is scheduled to make his final start in the $250,000 Classic at 1 3/16 miles before retiring to stud at the Maryland Stallion Station. In his 2-year-old campaign, Cherokee's Boy won the Nursery Stakes on the Maryland Million card, and has gone on to win $1,170,446, 13th on the all-time career earnings list for Maryland-bred horses.
EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. - Park Avenue Ball, the durable and consistent New Jersey-bred, is the likely favorite for Friday night's Grade 2, $500,000 Meadowlands Breeders' Cup Stakes.
The signature event of the Meadowlands Thoroughbred meet, the 1 1/8-mile Meadowlands Cup drew a field of seven.