FORT ERIE, Ontario - Edenwold slipped in beneath the radar as the 16-1 winner of the Queen's Plate at Woodbine on June 25, but will be the center of attention here at Fort Erie Sunday in the $500,000 Prince of Wales Stakes.
The Prince of Wales, a 1 3/16-mile race that is the showpiece of the Fort Erie meet, follows the Queen's Plate as the second leg of the Canadian Triple Crown for Canadian-bred 3-year-olds.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario - Trainer Bob Tiller, who won the first restricted 2-year-old stakes of the Woodbine meeting last weekend with Spread the News, will send out promising 2-year-old filly Midnight Shadow in Sunday's $150,000 Shady Well Stakes.
Midnight Shadow ran greenly when she made her debut in a 4 1/2-furlong maiden special weight dash, in which she rallied to finish fourth.
FORT ERIE, Ontario - With more than $300,000 in earnings, Silver Highlight owns the biggest bankroll in the field of six in the $75,000 Ernie Samuel Memorial, a supporting stakes to Fort Erie's feature attraction on Sunday, the $500,000 Prince of Wales.
Not a dime of Silver Highlight's money was earned at Fort Erie, which has been her home since last summer. The Ernie Samuel, for Canadian-bred fillies and mares and scheduled for 1 1/16 miles on the turf, will be the first chance that Silver Highlight gets to shine before the local spectators.
MIAMI - Several horses prepping for the "wrong way" race on next Saturday's Extreme Day program took advantage of the opportunity to work clockwise over the main track at the conclusion of regular training hours on Friday, and the experiment seemed to go off without much incident.
Both Automatic Weapon and Blue Mon handled the switch without a problem, although Quakers Appeal, who likely will be among the favorites in the 1 3/8-mile starter allowance race, did drift to the middle of the racetrack upon leaving the turn and heading "up" the stretch toward the finish line.
AURORA, Co. - Red-hot trainer Jon Arnett will send out Cajun Pepper, the horse to beat, in Sunday's $25,000 Aspen Handicap at Arapahoe Park. The six-furlong Aspen, for Colorado-bred colts and geldings, 3 and up, attracted a field of eight.
Five weeks into the Arapahoe meeting, Arnett is saddling winners at 36-percent clip.
Cajun Pepper finished second in this race a year ago for owners Harry Veruchi and Eli Diamant. His lone win last season came prior to that outing, in Arapahoe's Inaugural Handicap, an open six-furlong race that he won by 5 1/4 lengths.
INGLEWOOD, Calif. - Declan's Moon, the champion 2-year-old male of 2004, makes his first start in more than 16 months in an allowance race at 6 1-2 furlongs at Hollywood Park on Sunday.
Trained by Ron Ellis for Mace and Samantha Siegel, Declan's Moon battled injuries in the last year, but has trained well in recent months for his comeback.
Led by four Grade 1 stakes in the first two weekends of the meeting, the Oak Tree at Santa Anita meeting will feature 28 stakes during its fall meeting from Sept. 27 to Oct. 29. Three of the Grade 1 races are being run on Sept. 30, and two have altered purses this year.
The Yellow Ribbon Stakes, for fillies and mares at 1 1/4 miles on turf on Sept. 30, has been cut from $500,000 to $400,000. The Oak Leaf Breeders' Cup Stakes has been increased from $200,000 to $250,000. The race, promoted from a Grade 2 since last year, is run for 2-year-old fillies at 1 1/16 miles.
Prairie Meadows canceled the final nine races on opening night of its 36-day mixed meeting Thursday because of unsafe track conditions caused by a deluge of rain that hit the central Iowa area about 10 minutes before the only race of the evening was run.
Despite the threat of rain, the track was being harrowed when the storm hit instead of sealed. The first race, a $14,000 claiming event, was run without incident over a track listed as sloppy, with 2-1 favorite Gato Bob scoring a 2 1/2-length victory.
MIAMI - A year ago Lost in the Fog cakewalked over a modest field of 3-year-olds in Calder's Carry Back Stakes, posting a career-best 116 Beyer Speed Figure while registering the sixth of his eight straight victories on the season. On Saturday, the reigning Eclipse Award-winning sprinter will find his competition quite a bit stiffer when he returns to Calder for the Grade 2, $500,000 Smile Sprint Handicap, a six-furlong dash that highlights the $2 million Summit of Speed.
