ETOBICOKE, Ontario - Cherokee Dancer, who faltered to finish sixth of seven in the Labeeb Stakes here last time out, is cutting back to six furlongs and could be the one to beat in Thursday's optional-claiming feature at Woodbine.
The Labeeb, originally scheduled for a mile on turf on Nov. 5, was run at a mile and 70 yards on the main track four days later because of a cancellation.
INGLEWOOD, Calif. - Last weekend's Hollywood Prevue and Moccasin stakes were prep races for next month's big Grade 1 races for 2-year-olds at Hollywood Park, the Futurity and the Starlet. Your Tent or Mine, who won the Prevue, is on target for the Futurity, but Moccasin winner Private World's status for the Starlet is a little more questionable, at least at this early stage.
Ocean Runaway, the 2-year-old champion male of 2004, broke a 15-year-old track record on Saturday in a time trial for the $500,000 Champion of Champions for Quarter Horses at Los Alamitos on Dec. 10.
Ocean Runaway ran 400 yards in 19.305 seconds, breaking the mark of 19.34 seconds set by Takin on the Cash in 1990. Ocean Runaway's trial win came seven days after he finished second to Apollitical Time in the Los Alamitos Super Derby, a race that carried an automatic berth to the Champion of Champions.
If you did not know the Fair Grounds meet was up and running, now you have no excuse. The $75,000 Thanksgiving Handicap, which is the track's traditional opening-day feature, will go on Thursday, but it comes during the second week of a Fair Grounds meet being held at Louisiana Downs in Bossier City, La., because of damage to the New Orleans track from Hurricane Katrina.
Last winter at the Fair Grounds meet, The Beter Man Can turned in one of the more memorable performances of the season with her 11-1 upset in the $100,000 Tiffany Lass. On Saturday, she ran another noteworthy race, when she helped open the Fair Grounds meet at Louisiana Downs with an eye-popping 7 1/4-length allowance win in her first start since April.
It was a powerful performance from a powerful filly, and for her effort in the seven-furlong race for fillies and mares she earned a career-best Beyer Speed Figure of 98.
MIAMI - Nominations have been released for Grand Slam I, the first of three multiple-stakes cards during the final five weeks of the Calder meet. If the nominations lists are any indication, the four stakes on the Dec. 3 card figure to produce some outstanding racing.
Grand Slam I features the Grade 3 My Charmer and Tropical Turf handicaps, along with the What a Pleasure and Three Ring stakes for 2-year-olds. All four races carry a purse of $100,000.
ALBANY, Calif. - Trainer Bob Hess likes the look of Friday's $100,000 Forty Niner Handicap at Golden Gate Fields. So does his son, Bob Hess Jr.
Each Hess runs a horse that can take advantage of what will likely be a fast pace in the 1 1/16-mile Forty Niner. Hess saddles My Creed, Hess Jr. sends out Easy Million.
"There's a lot of speed in the race, with , and most of the others have some speed, too," said Hess Sr. "That should help My Creed."
Ken Tohill practically owns Zia Park right now, and that bodes well for Blue Song, who will be reunited with the red-hot jockey on Thursday for the track's $75,000 Chaves County.
The one-mile race for fillies and mares drew a field of eight.
Tohill picked up career win 2,000 last Friday, then won with 5 of his 7 mounts on Monday to set a record for wins by a rider on a card at Zia. He had a 43-19 lead in the jockey standings over second-place Alfredo Juarez Jr. through Wednesday.
ANDERSON, Ind. - A dozen 2-year-olds, including a three-horse entry from trainer Barb McBride, are set for Thursday's fillies division of the $40,000 Indiana Stallion Stakes at Hoosier Park.
McBride's entry of will likely be favored in the six-furlong race, with any of the trio capable of winning. Northern Lady won the restricted Hoosier Silver Cup. She was sixth in the Miss Indiana Stakes and also sixth in the City of Anderson Stakes. Detailed has been runner-up to her stablemate in their two meetings, the Silver Cup and in a maiden race in September.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario - Trainer Mark Casse and owner Robert J. Wilson, who won Sunday's Glorious Song Stakes here at Woodbine with Top Notch Lady, go back a long way.
"I've trained for him since I was 18," said the 44-year-old Casse, who began his career in Kentucky at that young age. "I even trained this filly's dam for him."
Casse indeed did train Ocean Breeze, a Wilson homebred who is the dam of Top Notch Lady, back in the mid-1980's.
Now Top Notch Lady has joined her dam as a stakes winner after capturing the $146,575 Glorious Song in her sixth career appearance.
