Gasia sold for a modest $12,000 as a yearling and spent her 2-year-old season far from racing's spotlight at Prairie Meadows and Ellis Park. But she has more than a puncher's chance in the $500,000 Delaware Oaks.
The Grade 2 Oaks tops three stakes on Saturday's nine-race card at Delaware Park, a prelude to the meet's centerpiece, the $1 million Delaware Handicap on Sunday.
If horses for courses can be a helpful handicapping angle, why not trainers for specific races?
In the case of Graham Motion, recent history certainly indicates that anything he runs in the Robert G. Dick Memorial Breeders' Cup is an automatic contender.
After winning 5 of the last 7 runnings of the $300,000 Dick, Motion has yet another threat for Saturday's running of the 1 3/8-mile turf race for fillies and mares at Delaware Park in his 4-year-old filly Olaya.
EDMONTON, Alberta - Bell n' Gone, Alberta's 2005 champion 2-year-old colt, heads a field of six in Saturday's $50,000 Ky Alta Handicap at Northlands Park. The Ky Alta, a major stepping-stone to the Canadian Derby, will be contested at a mile.
Bell n' Gone, owned by Bar None Ranches and ridden by Rickey Walcott, will be favored because of the absence of Halo Steven, who shipped to Stampede Park and won the Alberta Derby.
AUBURN, Wash. - Halonator will seek a 10th consecutive win on Saturday at Emerald Downs, but she will have to defeat a stakes-quality field to find it.
Halonator, a 5-year-old daughter of Delineator, notched her ninth win in a row against $5,000 starter allowance company on May 29. On Saturday, she will meet five other fillies and mares, three of them stakes winners, under $40,000 optional claiming conditions at 6 1/2 furlongs.
VANCOUVER, British Columbia - Halo Steven will be trying to win his third straight stakes race when he takes on six other 3-year-olds in the $75,000 Burnaby Breeders' Cup at Hastings Saturday. The 1 1/16-mile Burnaby goes as the seventh race.
Tom Ball owned the six-time stakes winner Fresa, and on Saturday he will have the probable favorite in an overnight stakes named for her at Lone Star Park.
The $40,000 Fresa is a one-mile turf race restricted to fillies and mares who have not won a stakes in 2006.
Candy Ball, who races for the Rancha Fresa operation of Ball and his wife, Sue, is in top form. She has won her last three starts, and has never been beaten on turf.
Candy Ball began her streak in April, when she won a first-level allowance on turf at Lone Star.
Outlaw Cowboy has proved his versatility in regard to racing surface and running style, and that should serve him well when he takes on defending champ Herecomesthemannow in the $45,000 Route 66 at Fair Meadows in Tulsa, Okla.
The 6 1/2-furlong race is for Oklahoma-breds and it drew a field of nine, including multiple stakes winner George Taylor.
Fillies trained by Cole Norman have been quite effective in stakes this meet at Louisiana Downs, and he will send out another capable pair in Elliecat and My Silver Charm in the $50,000 Dixie Miss.
The six-furlong race is for 3-year-old fillies and it drew seven, including stakes winner Jb's Golden Regret and the stakes-placed Shimmering Sunset.
Charedi's Peak, undefeated at Great Lakes Downs in three starts, looks for her third stakes win when she faces nine 3-year-old fillies in the $50,000 Plymouth Stakes at seven furlongs.
On June 10, Charedi's Peak led all the way to win the first stakes of the season, the $50,000 Regret Stakes, by 2 1/2 lengths. That race included four of her Plymouth rivals. Charedi's Peak, the 5-2 morning-line choice in the Plymouth, is trained by Ronnie Allen. Mike Allen will ride.
