ETOBICOKE, Ontario - Heading into the final eight days of the meeting, trainer Sid Attard was atop the standings as he seeks his second straight title here at Woodbine.
At 55, Attard also will be looking for his first Sovereign Award as outstanding trainer. He finished third behind Bob Tiller and Mark Frostad last year, when he was a finalist for the first time.
Through Wednesday, Attard's 60 victories this year included six stakes wins, matching his total of last season.
MIAMI - Hollywood Park's failure to grow grass this season will have a major impact on Calder's upcoming stakes schedule, beginning this weekend when trainer Jim Cassidy sends in three members of his stable to compete on Saturday's Grand Slam I card.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. - At this time of year, the majority of Grade 1 winners are being either rested of retired. Few, if any, are being pointed to listed stakes over Aqueduct's inner track.
For Acey Deucey, however, winner of the Grade 1 Prioress in July, the opening of Aqueduct's inner track is a perfect time to return to the races from a lengthy layoff. Acey Deucey will get a head start on her 4-year-old season when she runs in Saturday's $75,000 Garland of Roses over the inner track.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. - After a successful stint in New York last winter, the Maryland-based trainer Robert Bailes is back for another stay at Aqueduct. Bailes will look to get his inner-track meet off to a good start Friday when he sends out Mrs. Doyle in the second-level allowance feature for fillies and mares at a mile and 70 yards.
INGLEWOOD, Calif. - Whilly, the winner of three turf stakes in the last year, had his trip to the $2.3 million Hong Kong Cup later this month canceled after he tested positive for an anabolic steroid in a prerace test required by Hong Kong officials, trainer Doug O'Neill said.
O'Neill said the steroid, which was administered in October, could have cleared Whilly's system before an additional prerace test was conducted, but O'Neill did not want to take any chances of shipping the 4-year-old and having another positive occur.
INGLEWOOD, Calif. - A year ago, owner Tom Lenner bought two horses in Chile as part of a package - the mare Dream's and the colt Tinquilco. Dream's was the main reason for the sale, and Tinquilco was basically thrown in, according to trainer Ron McAnally.
Friday at Hollywood Park, Tinquilco is capable of scoring his first win in this country in a $44,000 allowance race over 1 1/16 miles.
"He has been running pretty good," McAnally said. "We got him practically for nothing. Here he is in the feature at Hollywood Park."
Sunland Park's slot machines have been hard at work, and their expanded hours of operation have pushed purses to a record $241,500 per day for the track's 79-date meet, which will open on Friday in Sunland Park, N.M., just across the border from El Paso, Texas.
Officials on Wednesday announced purses would be boosted by 15 percent from the previously budgeted $210,000. The increase is one of several significant changes in place for the mixed meet, for Thoroughbreds and Quarter Horses.
When people talk New Mexico racing, people talk Rocky Gulch. A winner of 11 stakes and $772,358, he is striving to be the first known New Mexico-bred Thoroughbred to reach $1 million in earnings, and he could get to that goal during the Sunland Park meet in Sunland Park, N.M., that will open Friday.
is being pointed for three stakes at the meet, starting with the $125,000 Johnie Jamison on Dec. 11. He will also be considered for a fourth stakes at the track, and a sweep of the four races, which he accomplished last meet, would push his earnings just over $1 million.
BOSSIER CITY, La. - Fair Grounds racing secretary Ben Huffman is restricted to carding only a handful of turf races a week because of the over-seeded, warm-weather nature of the turf course he has to work with here at Louisiana Downs. Friday's feature, the lone turf race on the card, brings together an intriguing mix of 10 fillies and mares in an optional claimer with two-other-than or nonwinners-of-three conditions.
The 2005 Suffolk Downs season, which concluded last Wednesday, had declines in both handle and attendance. The 117-day meet was marred by the death of jockey Michel Lapensee, another forced hiatus of the Massachusetts Handicap, and roadblocks from the state government in the pursuit of slots.
