ETOBICOKE, Ontario - Midnight Shadow ($3.40) held off a charging Lucas Stretch to take Sunday's $150,400 Shady Wells Stakes for 2-year-old fillies at Woodbine
Midnight Shadow broke on top in the five-furlong dash before pressing On the Podium through a rapid opening quarter in :21.24 seconds. They dueled around the turn, and Midnight Shadow assumed command through a half-mile in :44.55.
A higher degree of infiltration has begun. Kentucky-based trainers who have been focusing primarily on Churchill Downs will be paying more attention to Arlington Park, now that the spring meet at the Louisville, Ky., track has ended and they are in need of alternate venues.
Jockeys Lonnie Meche and Jose Verenzuela gave a whole new meaning to the term heated pace battle following Sunday's first race at Louisiana Downs. Moments after Verenzuela, aboard 6-5 favorite Literary Row, and Meche, who rode 9-5 second choice Campinout, alternated for the lead through fractions of :22.66, :45.71 and 1:10.12 going a mile and a sixteenth on the turf, the two riders were involved in an altercation as their mounts were being unsaddled. The two front runners each tired down the lane and were passed by both Summertime Mood and Charming Kid.
EDMONTON, Alberta - With only a neck separating them at the wire, both Bear Character and Bell n' Gone enhanced their Canadian Derby prospects in the one-mile Ky Alta Handicap here at Northlands last Saturday.
After months of traveling, Bear Character celebrated his return to Edmonton by winning the narrow decision with an impressive stretch drive to track down Bell n' Gone, last year's Alberta 2-year-old champion.
Belmont Stakes winner Jazil will be forced to miss the $1 million Travers on Aug. 26 because of bruising in his right hind cannon bone, trainer Kiaran McLaughlin said Tuesday.
Jazil has been taken out of training for one month. On Monday he arrived at owner Sheikh Hamdan's Shadwell Farm in Lexington, Ky., to continue his recovery. Jazil will be re-evaluated in three weeks, at which time he will either go back into training or get more time off.
Ask Queenie was named New England horse of the year for 2005 on Monday night by the region's turf writers at the annual awards dinner in Danversport, Mass.
Owned by Laurine Barreira and trained by her mother, Lori Lockhart, Ask Queenie won 7 of 11 starts in her 4-year-old campaign last year, including four stakes races against Massachusetts-breds. Ask Queenie was honored with the James B. Moseley Award, named in honor of Suffolk Downs's former chairman.
Ask Queenie was also named top New England-bred and top turf horse in the region.
GRAND PRAIRIE, Texas - Candy Ball showed she may be a major player in this region's upcoming turf stakes following her powerful two-length victory in the $40,000 Fresa at Lone Star Park last Saturday. The victory was her fourth straight, all on turf, after she had started her career 1 for 5 on dirt.
"She just keeps on winning," said Andrew Leggio Jr., who trains Candy Ball for Tom Ball.
BOSSIER CITY, La. - True Tails on turf in Florida. That is the plan with the Louisiana Downs-based sprinter, a multiple stakes winner on dirt whose excellent speed makes her an interesting candidate for a five-furlong turf race. Her trainer, Cole Norman, said the target is the $250,000 Distaff Turf Sprint Championship at Calder on Aug. 5.
The five-furlong race is for fillies and mares, and will serve as True Tails's turf debut.
"She worked on turf the other day, and she really got over it well," said Norman.