ETOBICOKE, Ontario - Sir Blitz has built up a four-race win streak on the grass heading into Friday's Woodbine feature, a $62,500 optional claimer at 1 1/16 miles.
Sir Blitz's roll began July 24 in a $50,000 claimer, which he won by a head after coming from midpack. Just five days later, in another $50,000 race, he shortened up from a mile to 6 1/2 furlongs and rallied wide from far back to prevail by a head.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario - The eyes of the racing world may be on the Breeders' Cup at Belmont this Saturday, but there will be plenty of live action here at Woodbine, with an 11-race card headed by the $166,050 Fanfreluche and $109,000 Chief Bearhart stakes.
The Fanfreluche, a six-furlong race for Ontario-foaled 2-year-old fillies, attracted a field of nine, and one of the leading contenders is Gumboots, a homebred who races for Eaton Hall Farm and is trained by Josie Carroll. Gumboots has seen action just once, winning her maiden over six furlongs here Aug. 27.
FORT ERIE, Ontario - Layne Giliforte, who has been training for 12 years, was Fort Erie's leading trainer for six consecutive years, from 1998 to 2003.
He's also the owner of a few horses, and he races, fittingly, as the Startin Small Racing Stable. On Monday, Giliforte won with a first-time starter he owns and trains.
That winner's name is First Time Byar, a daughter of Byars. She was bred by the late John Franks, who died on New Year's Eve, 2003. Franks was Giliforte's chief client.
Calder Race Course, which suffered extensive damage when it was hit by Hurricane Wilma on Monday, reopened its training track Wednesday but remains closed for both simulcasting and live racing at least through Friday. Calder remained without power Wednesday, and any plans to reopen the facility for either simulcasting or live racing are on hold until power is restored.
ARCADIA, Calif. - It takes a little bit of luck to hit the pick six. Just ask trainer Gary Stute, whose $96 pick-six play produced the only winning ticket Sunday at Santa Anita - worth $124,881.20.
It was a bet Stute almost did not make. As the field loaded for race 4 - the first leg of the pick six - Stute faced a dilemma. His modest-sized $144 ticket, singling Da Svedonya, his starter in race 7, was exactly $44 more than Stute had on his betting voucher.
ARCADIA, Calif. - When his brain eventually catches up to his body, the gelding Excess Temptations may become quite a racehorse.
Until then, each step will be an adventure, including a mile turf allowance that is the race-7 feature Thursday at Santa Anita. The $45,000 race is the first try around two turns for Excess Temptations, whose raw ability makes him the logical favorite against eight rivals in the first-condition allowance for California-breds.
He must mind his manners.
ALBANY, Calif. - Trainer Bill Delia has an old friend whom he sees every day now.
Sea to See, a stakes winner early in his career for Delia, makes his first start off a claim by Delia on Thursday and seems the one to beat in a $20,000 turf starter allowance at 1 1/16 miles at Golden Gate Fields.
"We took him back for sentimental reasons," Delia said.
LEXINGTON, Ky. - No one could have blamed trainer Bob Holthus if he had gone hunting for bigger game with Beau Dare following her 6 1/4-length romp in the Kentucky Cup Juvenile Fillies.
But Holthus stuck to his guns. "We kind of had a plan, and I'm glad we stuck with it," he said.
, owned by the Walts David Stable of Mike Walts and Edwin David, bypassed the Oct. 7 Alcibiades Stakes, the main Kentucky prep for the Breeders' Cup, to await the Thursday feature at Keeneland, the $100,000 Jessamine County Stakes for 2-year-old fillies on the turf.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario - The Bob Tiller-trained entry of Velvet Snow and Warm Rain should be strongly backed in Thursday's Woodbine headliner, an optional $80,000 claimer going seven furlongs on the grass.
Velvet Snow, who won the 2004 Ontario Damsel Stakes as a longshot, is winless in six starts this year. She was a close second in each of her first two starts at the meeting, including the restricted Zadracarta Stakes, which she lost by a nose off a long layoff.
Jockey Michel Lapensee underwent surgery for head injuries Monday night and was in an induced coma, his condition critical, Tuesday at Massachusetts General Hospital after his mount broke down in Monday afternoon's ninth race at Suffolk Downs.
Lapensee, 58, was unconscious when he was taken from the track by ambulance. His mount, Mecke's Money, suffered a compound fracture of the left front cannon bone approaching the three-eighths pole of the $4,000 claiming race. Lapensee was thrown to the track and then stepped on by trailing horses. Mecke's Money was later euthanized.
