Great Lakes Downs canceled the last five races of its marathon 14-race card closing-day card Saturday because of inclement weather. Terry Houghton, the local Jockeys' Guild representative, called for the cancellation following the ninth race, and the track's general manager, Amy MacNeil, concurred with him.
Saturday was the 100th day of the 2005 racing season at the western Michigan oval, and the cancellation was the year's first.
Turf Paradise in Phoenix will ask the Arizona Racing Commission on Wednesday to add four Wednesdays - Nov. 30, Dec. 7, Dec. 14, and Dec. 21 - to its schedule. Turf Paradise has already added this Wednesday to its usual Friday-Tuesday schedule.
Also on Wednesday, Turf Paradise will begin running races regularly on its reseeded turf course. An average of three turf races will be carded daily. Turf Paradise has run just one race on the turf course this meet, the $40,000 Walter Cluer Handicap this past Saturday.
LOS ALAMITOS, Calif. - Higher Fire beat a field that included All American Futurity winner Teller Cartel in Friday's $1,100,000 Golden State Million Futurity for Quarter Horses at Los Alamitos.
The victory keeps Higher Fire eligible to earn a $1 million bonus for winning the three major futurities at Los Alamitos. The filly won the Ed Burke Memorial Futurity in July. The series continued with the Golden State Million and ends with the Los Alamitos Million Futurity in December.
Princess Sweet entered the week an unraced 2-year-old. She ended it as an undefeated stakes winner.
Princess Sweet, who won a maiden race on Thursday, came right back on Sunday to win the $125,000 , one of four stakes on Aqueduct's card restricted to progeny of New York-based stallions.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario - Perigee Girl will try to stretch out her tactical speed around two turns Wednesday at Woodbine in the $125,000 South Ocean Stakes.
Perigee Girl could be a short-priced favorite in the 1 1/16-mile race for Ontario-sired 2-year-old fillies. In her second time out, she had one of the more impressive maiden-winning performances of the meeting on Sept. 4, scoring by nine lengths after being geared down late. Her 5 1/2-furlong time of 1:04.20 translated into an 84 Beyer Speed Figure.
Rocky Gulch, while spotting his rivals from 10 to 18 pounds as the 127-pound highweight, held off a late bid from Cattleman Prospect for a three-quarter length win Sunday in the $147,200 at Zia Park in Hobbs, N.M.
The one-mile race was the richest for Thoroughbreds on the inaugural New Mexico Cup card, a program of 11 stakes for New Mexico-breds worth $1.5 million. The purses for the races were announced at $1 million when the meet began in September, but have increased three times since then in large part to the success of the 650 slot machines operating at Zia.
ARCADIA, Calif. - Mike Willman is the director of publicity at Santa Anita, and has a popular weekend radio show on a Los Angeles station. But nothing quite gets him going like watching his homebred McCann's Mojave race, and he could barely find the words to describe his feelings after McCann's Mojave bravely fought off all challengers to take the $250,000 before 22,194 on Sunday at Santa Anita's Oak Tree meeting.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. - Jockey Robby Albarado enjoyed a memorable afternoon Sunday at Churchill Downs when riding the winners of the three richest races on a 10-race card, including favored Bending Strings in the Grade 2, $169,350 .
Bending Strings broke a nine-race losing streak when rallying from just off the pace to win by 4 1/2 lengths over Florida invader Prospective Saint. Miss Fortunate finished third, another 3 1/2 lengths back.
Drake's Victory overcame a troubled start to win his first stakes with a stretch long rally in the $175,000 .
Ridden by Corey Nakatani for trainer Julio Canani, Drake's Victory ($12) finished a mile on turf in 1:33.85. He bobbled at the start and was at the back of the field until the final turn.
