AUBURN, Wash. - Judicature will be an overwhelming favorite when she takes on four challengers in Saturday's $45,000 Knights Choice Stakes for 2-year-old fillies at 6 1/2 furlongs.
A daughter of Tribunal trained by Bill Tollett, Judicature comes off a 2 3/4-length score over the best juvenile fillies on the grounds in the $47,000 Angie C. Stakes on July 16. She sped six furlongs in 1:09.60 under Leslie Mawing.
Trainer Doug Fout brought Hirapour back to the races this year at age 10 with one goal in mind, to win an Eclipse Award for the second time in three years. Hirapour on Thursday was making his first start since November, when he chipped an ankle, and was racing over a distance considered short of his best, but the old man looked as spry as ever by romping to a four-length victory in the Grade 2, $79,500 at Saratoga.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario - Due to circumstances beyond his control, Main Executive didn't get to strut his stuff in the $125,000 Shepperton at Woodbine last Sunday.
But Main Executive didn't have to wait long to return to action, as he is among a field of six in a $79,900 allowance race at 7 1/2 furlongs here Saturday.
Main Executive actually was in the starting gate as the favorite for the Shepperton, but the back of his stall was not properly secured and the gelding was backing out just as the flag dropped.
FORT ERIE, Ontario - Two fillies who each won her last start by a huge margin headline a field of seven in the 1 1/16-mile Golden Horseshoe Cup at Fort Erie on Saturday.
Grab the Cat and At First Sight earned career-high Beyer Speed Figures of 84 and 74, respectively, for their recent efforts.
Grab the Cat scored by 6 3/4 lengths in a $20,000 claimer and At First Sight by 16 1/2 lengths at the bottom level of $4,000.
Making his one mount on Wednesday night's Evangeline Downs program count, journeyman rider Tracy Hebert picked up career victory number 3,000 in the fourth race. On a rain-drenched evening, Hebert was joined in the winner's circle following the milestone by his wife, Angie, the Evangeline Downs riding colony, and the track's racing secretary, Jason Boulet.
ARLINGTON HEIGHTS, Ill. - Todd Pletcher finally left his position sitting on the fence Wednesday morning, committing turf star English Channel to the over the Sword Dancer at Saratoga, giving additional luster to Saturday's Grade 1 race here.
But while Pletcher's decision surely delighted Arlington officials, the random post-position draw later Wednesday morning was not exactly welcoming: English Channel, the 3-1 favorite on Arlington's morning line, was assigned post 11.
ARLINGTON HEIGHTS, Ill. - Stretch-runners have an inherent tendency for drama, and that has certainly been the case with Gorella during her brief tenure in America. An eye-catching rally fell narrowly short when she finished a close third behind Artie Schiller last fall in the Breeders' Cup Mile at Belmont Park, and her run from a seemingly hopeless position resulted in an improbable victory in the Just a Game on the Belmont Stakes undercard in June.
ARLINGTON HEIGHTS, Ill. - Ace was second in the 2005 Breeders' Cup Turf, and his trainer, Aidan O'Brien, won last year's Arlington Million. Phoenix Reach has won Group 1 or Grade 1 races in Dubai, Hong Kong, and Canada, while Touch of Land is making his third appearance in the Arlington Million. But any consideration of the quartet of foreign horses here for this year's Million must include the horse from Germany, Soldier Hollow.
ARLINGTON HEIGHTS, Ill. - Lewis Michael, the excellent 3-year-old owned by Frank Calabrese and trained by Wayne Catalano, was out on the Arlington turf course for an easy half-mile breeze on Wednesday morning, though his next start could come in a dirt race at Fairmount Park or Saratoga. But Catalano and Calabrese have another 3-year-old who will take to the turf on Friday at Arlington, and though It's Handsome I Am does not have the class and inherent ability of Lewis Michael, he is a blazingly fast turf sprinter.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - The initial disappointment of having to scratch Sweet Science out of a stakes race three weeks ago may prove serendipitous for trainer Graham Motion, who on Friday will send out Sweet Science in search of her first stakes victory in the $70,000 Waya Stakes at Saratoga.
