Trainer Frank Lucarelli will look to widen his lead in the race for leading trainer Sunday, when he sends out two contenders in the Emerald Downs feature, a six-furlong test that has drawn a field of six fillies and mares eligible to be claimed for $20,000.
After saddling two winners on Thursday's card, Lucarelli held a 44-37 lead over his nearest pursuer, Howard Belvoir. Lucarelli will saddle six runners Sunday, including Melba Jewel and Zairsaplan in the feature.
AUBURN, Wash. - Flamethrowintexan shipped out Thursday morning for Chicago, where he will contest the Grade 2, $500,000 Hawthorne Gold Cup at 1 1/4 miles next Saturday.
Kay Cooper, assistant to trainer Jim Penney, said Flamethrowin-texan was accompanied by stablemates Grafton and Bardy Woman, who will also contest stakes on the Sept. 30 Hawthorne card. Cooper said the three horses flew to Chicago with two attendants.
ALBANY, Calif. - Trainer Lloyd Mason freely admits that luck plays a role in horse racing.
So do timing, talent, and a good eye.
All those factors came together for Mason and his client Jim Kwong in the form of a 3-year-old filly named Shaggy Mane, who will be looking for her fourth straight victory in Sunday's Golden Gate Fields feature, a $50,000 optional claimer at six furlongs.
VANCOUVER, British Columbia - Ok Nothanksforaskn and Head Chopper arrived here on the same flight from Toronto at 4 a.m. Friday. If the more than 2,000-mile journey from Woodbine to Hastings didn't wear them out, they will be very tough to beat in Sunday's Grade 3, $250,000 British Columbia Derby. The 1 1/8-mile derby drew 13 colts and geldings, with Luhuk's Dancer on the also-eligible list. All will carry 126 pounds.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario - The Flaming Page, a $100,000 overnight stakes for fillies and mares, ordinarily wouldn't be much more than a footnote on Woodbine's Sunday program, headlined by the Grade 2, $300,000 Sky Classic.
But this Flaming Page has the potential to become an important prep for the E.P. Taylor Stakes, just as the Sky Classic does for the Canadian International here on the same Oct. 22 program.
WINNIPEG, Manitoba - Elite Mercedes and The Max headline Sunday's Gold Breeders' Cup, the closing-day feature here at Assiniboia Downs. The Gold Breeders' Cup, a 1 1/8-mile race for 3-year-olds and upward, carries a guaranteed purse of $40,000 with $25,000 available to Breeders' Cup-eligible entrants Albarino, Quick Witted, and The Max.
By RON GIERKINK
ETOBICOKE, Ontario ? Better Talk Now, the 2004 Breeders? Cup Turf winner, will take center stage Sunday at Woodbine in the Grade 2, $300,000 Sky Classic Stakes.
Better Talk Now, based in Maryland with trainer Graham Motion, will become the first Breeders? Cup winner to race at Woodbine since Chief Bearhart won the Sky Classic in 1998. Better Talk Now won the Grade 2 Dixie at Pimlico in his 2006 debut on May 20, and subsequently finished fifth behind some formidable opposition in the Grade 1 United Nations at Monmouth.
ELMONT, N.Y. - There are 33 3-year-olds nominated to the Grade 2, $150,000 Jerome Breeders' Cup Handicap here on Oct. 1, but very few that are interested in running against the undefeated Discreet Cat.
Thus, the Belmont Park racing office may have to work overtime to get the race to fill.
As of Friday, the only horse who is considered definite to face Discreet Cat is Noonmark, who won his maiden here last fall by 10 1/4 lengths and ran third behind Songster and Too Much Bling in the Woody Stephens Breeders' Cup in June.