This is the time of the year when the connections of the world's fastest horses are thinking about one last prep before the Breeders' Cup.
For Songster, a 3-year-old Grade 2 stakes winner, Saturday's $100,000 Gallant Bob Handicap at Philadelphia Park is the end of the line for this season.
Trainer Tom Albertrani said that regardless of the outcome the Gallant Bob will be Songster's last start until 2007. He will be freshened and pointed to the Sunshine Millions Sprint at Santa Anita on Jan. 27.
Bruising storms slammed Chicago on Monday night, knocking out power, uprooting mature trees - and finally tightening up the main track at Hawthorne.
Loose, deep, and difficult for many horses to handle, Hawthorne's dirt track got doused Saturday night before taking even more rain Monday evening, and the result Wednesday, the first day of this racing week, was notably quicker times and less spinning of wheels in every dirt race.
ELMONT, N.Y. - Chasing the Crown's upset win in the last race Thursday at Belmont Park made for a $456,860 pick-six carryover heading into Friday's card.
There was a carryover of $167,014 entering Thursday's card and there were two live tickets entering the last leg, one on the favorite, Your Hour's Up, and the other on third choice Citifest. Each of those tickets was worth $228,430. But neither of those two horses finished in the money.
Other double-digit winners in the sequence on Thursday were I'm So Brave ($14.20), Kris Angel ($15.40), and Dixie Baghdad ($10).
The cream of the local turf sprint division will gather Saturday, weather permitting, to go five furlongs over the grass in the $45,000 Hooting Star Stakes at Calder.
The Hooting Star will feature stretch-runner Gin Rummy Champ against veteran speedsters Love My Mountain and Paradise Dancer. The field also includes top contenders Dirtymoposse, Nacascolo, and Hollywood Left. Lucky Frolic and Blue Pepsi Lodge would benefit if the race comes off the turf and switches over to the main track.
Millsap Stables and trainer Hal Wiggins could see lightning strike twice at Louisiana Downs on Saturday, when they send out Roll On Roll On in the $50,000 Razorback Futurity. The connections won last year's running of the race with Brassie Prince, a full brother to Roll On Roll On.
The Razorback is the first of two stakes on the card, both at six furlongs and both restricted to 2-year-olds bred in Arkansas. Its counterpart for fillies is the $50,000 Lady Razorback.
Miraculous Miss took an unscheduled extended vacation after she fell on her back in the starting gate and sustained cuts on her left hind leg and above her left eye prior to the June 10 Acorn at Belmont Park.
The nearly five-month respite from racing between her wins in the Grade 1 Comely in April and last month's Grade 3 Endine Handicap at Delaware Park has a silver lining, however. Trainer Steve Klesaris now has a fresh filly for the fall's biggest races.
has a score to settle with Pure as Gold in the Grade 1, $250,000 Ancient Title Stakes on Saturday at Santa Anita.
The six-furlong race is Bordonaro's first start since his controversial defeat in the Grade 1 Bing Crosby Handicap on July 30 at Del Mar. Favored at 4-5, Bordonaro got smacked on the face by the whip of Pure as Gold's rider, lost focus, and finished a half-length behind. The video replay failed to provide stewards with sufficient evidence to disqualify Pure as Gold, and the result was allowed to stand. Saturday is payback time.
On Thursday, when the field for the Grade 1, $750,000 Jockey Club Gold Cup was formalized, trainer Tom Albertrani was quite pleased the race didn't come up as tough as it could have for Bernardini.
"I would rather keep the testing for the Breeders' Cup," Albertrani said moments after Bernardini was assigned post 1 in a four-horse field. "I would rather see the horse have a race pretty much as he did in the Jim Dandy, where he would come out of it and be fresh for the Breeders' Cup."
Trainer Jaime Gomez had the best possible result in the Governor's Cup Futurity at Los Alamitos in late July. Two of his starters - Checknbac and Tac It Like a Man - finished in a dead heat for first in the $418,000 race for 2-year-old Quarter Horses. Both were rested after that race and geared toward a fall campaign of three futurities. They are among the 10 qualifiers for the first of those races, Saturday's $450,000 Pacific Coast Quarter Horse Racing Association Futurity at Los Alamitos.
LEXINGTON, Ky. - Kentucky Oaks winners have met on the racetrack in the past, but certainly not all that often. The last time it happened was nearly seven years ago, and what an anticlimax it was: Keeper Hill was fourth and Silverbulletday was sixth in the 1999 Breeders' Cup Distaff at Gulfstream Park.
