ETOBICOKE, Ontario - Moonshine Justice, winner of three stakes and runner-up in the Sovereign Award voting for his division last year, came into his current campaign with serious designs on the Queen's Plate.
But, after suffering a hairline fracture of a right hind tibia in his first start of the season in the Queenston at Woodbine on May 7, all Plate bets were off and Moonshine Justice went to the sidelines for about three months.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario - The king of trainer Catherine Day Phillips's barn is reigning Canadian champion 3-year-old A Bit O'Gold, and she refers to this year's Breeders' Stakes winner, Jambalaya, as the prince.
The filly she calls the princess of her barn, Invitational, will try to notch her first stakes victory Saturday at Woodbine in the $163,200 Carotene, a 1 1/8-mile turf race for 3-year-old fillies.
Two of the finest sprinters on the circuit knock heads in Saturday's $40,000 Caballos del Sol Handicap at Turf Paradise. Grimm and Cocoa Latte, the 123-pound highweights in the six-furlong race for 3-year-olds and up, each is at the top of his game.
The handicapping is complicated Saturday in the $50,000 Zia Park Distaff, with the 10 fillies and mares in the race having made their last start at six different racetracks in four different states. The six-furlong stakes is being run at the new Zia Park in Hobbs, N.M.
LEXINGTON, Ky. - Three days. Eight stakes. Hundreds of thousands in purses. Millions in returned winnings.
And that's just to start.
Seventeen days of the Keeneland fall meet begin Friday with what has developed into yet another tradition at this bucolic track: a rousing three-day weekend to set the tone through the end of October. Regardless of whether the meet peaks too early, the front-loading of important stakes is necessitated by a racing calendar centered around the Breeders' Cup championships, which will be run Oct. 29 at Belmont Park.
LEXINGTON, Ky. - The changing of the guard is pretty much complete now. With the track's all-time leading jockey, Pat Day, having retired two months ago, the jockey colony at Keeneland looks dramatically different than it did just a few years ago.
When the Sycamore Breeders' Cup received a purse hike in 2001 and was moved to the beginning of the Keeneland fall meet, it was positioned to become a prep for the Breeders' Cup Turf.
With a value of $150,000-added, the purse remains too low to attract the nation's premier turf horses, but the quality of the race has undoubtedly improved. It was awarded Grade 3 status in 2003, and in an example of how far the once minor stakes has come, last year's winner, Mustanfar, went on to compete in the 2004 Breeders' Cup Turf, finishing fifth.
EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. - Discretion could prove to be the better part of valor for Alumni Hall in the Grade 2, $500,000 Meadowlands Breeders' Cup Stakes on Friday night.
The Meadowlands Cup is the signature event and richest race of the Thoroughbred meet at The Meadowlands Racetrack.
Trainer Neil Howard was thinking of running Alumni Hall in the Grade 1 Jockey Club Gold Cup last Saturday at Belmont Park following his commanding allowance win at Saratoga. Instead, Howard set his sights a bit lower.
ARCADIA, Calif. - The four-race winning streaks of the outstanding fillies Candy Factory and Dream's are at risk in Friday's $65,000 Swingtime Stakes at Santa Anita.
Neither filly has lost this year, and both will be well-backed to win the restricted Swingtime Stakes, which is run over a mile on turf.
, trained by Mike Machowsky for Dahlberg Farms, won the Solana Beach Handicap for California-bred fillies and mares at Del Mar in her most recent start on Sept. 4. Her winning streak began in August 2004 against maidens and it includes two allowance wins.
The $250,000 Maryland Million Classic Stakes, headliner of a 12-race program at Laurel Park for Maryland-breds on Saturday, drew seven horses at Wednesday's post-position draw, including last year's winner, Presidentialaffair.
The 1 3/16-mile Classic is the richest race on Saturday's card. Presidentialaffair, a 6-year-old gelding who will be ridden by Stewart Elliott, will be challenged by multiple stakes winners Cherokee's Boy and Aggadan. Cherokee's Boy, who will be ridden by Travis Dunkelberger, was cross-entered in the Sprint, but is expected to run in the Classic.
