Devon Rules is the winningest horse of the inaugural Zia Park meet, and on Saturday he will be looking for his fifth straight win when he takes a significant step up in class for the $50,000 Lea County.
A six-furlong race for 3-year-olds and up, the Lea County has drawn a field of 12, including multiple stakes winners Leaving on My Mind and Cajun Pepper and the stakes-placed Semaphore Man.
He was horse of the meet during the 2002-03 Turf Paradise stand, but Free Corona hasn't run since May 2003. Still, Free Corona will carry high weight of 123 pounds in Saturday's $40,000 Walter R. Cluer Handicap. A 7 1/2-furlong turf event named in honor of Turf Paradise's founder, the Cluer lured a full field of 10 and one also-eligible.
Catchmeinyourdreams, the even-money morning-line favorite in the Grade 1, $300,000 MBNA America Challenge Championship on Saturday, is in position to make a third straight championship title run because of meticulous care of the gelding's fragile feet by trainer Chris O'Dell.
The MBNA America Challenge Championship, for Quarter Horses at 440 yards at Los Alamitos, is the headline stakes on a 13-race card featuring five Grade 1 events, all season-ending divisional events in the MBNA America Racing Challenge series.
Trainer John Locke appears to have both ends of the pace spectrum covered with his entry of Fly Slama Jama and Oncearoundtwice in the $40,000 Buffalo Bayou at Sam Houston Race Park.
A competitive field of 12 will go in the 1 1/16-mile turf race for 3-year-olds and up, including Middleweight, Crowned King, and Charming Socialite.
Tommy Panache heads a field of nine Ohio-bred 2-year-olds in the $40,000 Ohio Freshman Stakes at Beulah Park.
Tommy Panache is the only stakes winner entered in the mile and 70-yard Freshman and one of only three winners in the field.
In his career debut on Sept. 4, Tommy Panache stalked the pace to the stretch and rallied to score a three-quarters of a length victory in the six-furlong Loyalty Stakes at Thistledown. Tommy Panache's only other start came just more than a month later at Keeneland, when he finished ninth against allowance company.
An ESPN commentator, Jeannine Edwards, will be a special guest of Hoosier Park on Saturday when the Anderson, Ind., track offers its fifth annual Ladies Night, featuring the Female Jockey Challenge.
Edwards will host a handicapping seminar before the races and provide commentary and interviews from the winner's circle during the six-race series of challenge races. A dozen riders from the region will be competing in the challenge.
EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. - Time could be running out for the 4-year-old filly Diavla in the $60,000 Honey Bee Stakes on Saturday night at The Meadowlands Racetrack.
The question of whether to race or breed Diavla next season is still unresolved for owners Bobby Hurley and Tom Perri. That adds a bit of urgency for trainer Kelly Breen.
"You try to win every race you run, but we're really trying to get a stakes win for her and I think she's got it in her," Breen said. "This is a perfect spot."
Bright Gold lost her last four starts in 2004 and her first race this season, perhaps an indication it was time to think about retirement for the 5-year-old mare. In search of a wake-up call, trainer Mary Eppler tried returning Bright Gold to the turf, even though the mare was 0 for 5 lifetime on the surface.
CHICAGO - A temporary disconnect late this week in Chicago: The calendar reads November, and the thermometer reads 70 degrees. It feels right that the Saturday feature at Hawthorne will be run on the grass course.
Surely with winter coming sometime, turf racing cannot be long for the circuit, but 10 fillies and mares were entered in the $40,000 Yo Tambien, a 1 1/16-mile grass race. It's a familiar bunch, too, horses that have faced each other time and time again in Chicago grass races the last couple seasons.
FORT ERIE, Ontario - The 104-day Fort Erie meet ended Tuesday with a gain in total handle despite a decrease in ontrack handle.
The total all-sources average daily handle of $913,998 was an increase of 11 percent from last year's average of $824,084 per day during a shortened 81-day meet.
Betting offtrack increased 18 percent, to $791,021 from $670,694 per day in 2004, primarily because the Fort Erie signal was taken this year in California and by New York City OTB. Ontrack wagering declined to $122,977, a 20 percent drop from $153,390 per day in 2004.
