Princess Deelite, no worse than second in three career starts - all against male opponents and including a runner-up finish in the $150,000 D.S. "Shine" Young Futurity - finally races exclusively against her own gender in Friday night's filly division of the $100,000 John Franks Memorial Stakes.
will face off against 11 foes in the 5 1/2-furlong race restricted to fillies who passed through the sales ring here last March.
The Minnesota Thoroughbred Association will host its annual yearling auction at Canterbury Park on Saturday in the Ubetcha Bar and Grill at the north end of the grandstand.
Walt Robertson and his associates from the Fasig-Tipton Company will conduct the auction, which begins at 6:30 p.m.
Because of a number of withdrawals before the sale, all 11 of the "also-eligible" sales entries listed in the catalog will be offered in the sale. Canterbury Park will host a new-owners seminar in conjunction with the sale at 9 a.m.
Last Sunday's fifth race was named in honor of Sandy Rettele, a longtime fixture behind the scenes in Nebraska racing who died suddenly last fall. The winner's circle was full of friends and family who were on hand for the blanket presentation, something Rettele had always been a big part of.
For 31 years Rettele made the blankets for Columbus Races and the other tracks in the state. Along with her husband, Jerry, dozens of well-wishers were on hand to honor her memory. Over the years it was estimated she made more than 30,000 blankets and 2,200 sets of silks.
Got Country Grip, one of the fastest paint horses ever, overcame extreme trouble in the $45,000 Speedhorse Derby last Friday night at Fair Meadows in Tulsa, Okla., to win his 12th straight race and remain undefeated.
Got Country Grip was bumped soundly at the start of the 350-yard race for 3-year-old paints and Appaloosas, but led at every call for a half-length win at 1-5.
He needed a substantial class drop to do it, but the grand old man of trainer Scott Lake's massive stable, 13-year-old gelding Stormy Do, won for the fourth time this season in Monday's sixth race at Philadelphia Park.
Facing $5,000 claimers, Stormy Do went to the front in the six-furlong sprint, opened up a 2 1/2-length lead at the eighth pole, and held on by a half-length.
It was Stormy Do's first win since he was re-claimed for $10,000 by Lake in early May. Lake lost the horse for $12,500 in March.
SANTA ROSA, Calif. - It seems trainer Chuck Jenda sensed something in El Real's initial start on the turf. El Real ran poorly the first time he raced on grass, but since then it has become his best surface.
looks tough in Friday's Sonoma County Fair feature as he returns to the turf off a main-track sprint to meet six rivals in a $20,000 claimer at one mile.
HENDERSON, Ky. - Florida shipper Prospective Saint will be the 119-pound highweight Saturday in the annual high point of the Ellis Park meet, the Grade 3 Gardenia Handicap, which serves as the focus of the Big Four Stakes program.
Prospective Saint is one of 11 fillies and mares entered Wednesday for the $150,000 Gardenia, the richest of the Saturday stakes. The three other stakes, worth $50,000 apiece, on the 11-race card are: the Anna M. Fisher Debutante, the James C. Ellis Juvenile, and the Regaey Island.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario - Emma-Jayne Wilson will be riding as an apprentice for the last time at Woodbine on Monday and will be looking to go out on a high note aboard Count to Three, one of the leading candidates for the $150,000 Royal North Stakes.
Wilson, who entered this week as the meet's leading rider in both races won, with 73, and money won, with $3,246,720, will actually keep her five-pound apprentice allowance until Aug. 12.
Wilson, however, will not be at Woodbine for her first day as a journeyman.
This is the meet they've been waiting for at Remington Park.
With a casino now in full swing, there will be a record purse distribution will during the 68-date season, which opens Friday night. It is a revived Remington, the kind of meet state industry leaders in Oklahoma envisioned when a referendum providing for electronic gaming was passed in 2004.
"We're thrilled to death to be kicking off what we think is going to be a new era for Remington Park and for Oklahoma Thoroughbred racing," said Scott Wells, vice president and general manager of Remington.
DEL MAR, Calif. - Considering the competition that El Don and Super Strut have faced in recent starts, they will have a much easier time in Friday's $125,000 California Dreamin' Handicap at Del Mar. The two California-breds have run against some of the toughest horses competing in the state this year.
, who won the Crystal Water Handicap at Santa Anita in March, finished third behind Lava Man in the Khaled Stakes at Hollywood Park on April 30. Lava Man went on to win two Grade 1 races at that meeting.
