AUBURN, Wash. - City Sprint looks like the one to beat in Friday's Emerald Downs feature, a 1 1/16-mile race for $25,000 claimers.
City Sprint, who has raced most of his career in Canada, won his Emerald debut at the same 1 1/16-mile distance, overcoming a slow pace to defeat $25,000 optional claiming company by a half-length in 1:43. He stepped up to take on $32,000 optional claimers at a mile in his last start on July 14, finishing fourth while trying to close into an even slower pace.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - Despite winning four consecutive races, including two graded stakes, Take D' Tour will still have more to prove when she runs in Sunday's Grade 1, $250,000 Go for Wand at Saratoga.
Take D' Tour is 7 for 7 in races run around one turn, including the Grade 2 Shuvee and Grade 1 Ogden Phipps at Belmont Park in the spring. She won both of those races by 5 1/2 lengths. The Go for Wand is 1 1/8 miles around two turns.
DEL MAR, Calif. - Trainer Jerry Hollendorfer, best known for his dominant role in northern California, has won three races from his first five starters at Del Mar this summer.
Most trainers would be elated with those results. When asked about the start of his meeting on Wednesday, Hollendorfer did not seem that thrilled.
"We started off okay," he said. "Everybody likes to win, and win on a regular basis."
MIAMI - With the Summit of Speed and Extreme Day in the books, most of the attention here over the next several months will turn to the 2-year-olds eligible for the Florida Stallion Stakes program. The Stallion Stakes series kicks off Aug. 5 with the six-furlong Dr. Fager and Desert Vixen stakes and will be followed four weeks later by the seven-furlong Affirmed and Susan's Girl divisions. The series concludes with the In Reality and My Dear Girl on Oct. 14.
Fastest qualifier Tac It Like a Man, racing in a wide-open Grade 1, $415,000 Governor's Cup Futurity, is one of the high-profile participants during California Champions Night, a program filled with Cal-bred races offering $1 million in purses at Los Alamitos on Saturday.
Also featured are Wave Carver, fastest qualifier to the Grade 1, $167,000 Governor's Cup Derby, and Be a Bono, a gelding who goes for his third straight win in the Grade 1, $150,000 Spencer Childers California Breeders Championship - a race named after his owner.
OCEANPORT, N.J. - The brand new $6 million turf course that Monmouth Park unveiled last month continues to veer to extremes.
Some trainers have complained that the main turf course is too firm, but the opposite has been the case with the course's two chutes. Management has yet to run a race from the brand-new 5 1/2-furlong turf chute, because the footing has been too soft. The chute's maiden voyage could come in Friday's fourth race.
Usher In will attempt to win for the ninth time this year in a mile and 70-yard starter allowance that goes as race 9 on Friday's card at River Downs.
Usher In, who is in a four-way tie for first for most wins in North America this season, will have to get by Longbranch Saloon, who will be shooting for his seventh win of the season.
If Usher In does not succeed, the mare Parthenope might make it a five-way tie for leading winner if she is successful Saturday in a starter allowance for fillies and mares at six furlongs.
Media relations director Kevin Gorg demonstrated he is a triple threat when he filled in Sunday for regular track announcer Paul Allen, who had been called away to address a family emergency.
Gorg, who also serves as the track handicapper in televised paddock previews, got a less than subtle hint about the first-time starter Lovango in the first race from owner Barry Butzow.
"I knew this horse must be a runner," Gorg said, "because Barry called me over in the paddock and told me how to pronounce his horse's name."
Nebraska's final extended meeting of the season gets under way Friday night when Columbus fires up for a 24-day session that runs through Sept. 10.
Columbus will sport one of its highest purse levels ever, with purses ranging from a bottom of $5,000 up to more than $8,000 for higher-allowance level horses. Stakes races also received a boost this year and will have a minimum of $12,500.