ETOBICOKE, Ontario - Sheer Enchantment seeks her second victory at the $62,500 allowance/optional claiming level Friday at Woodbine in a 1 1/16-mile grass race for fillies and mares.
Sheer Enchantment had a productive 3-year-old campaign last year, finishing third in the Wonder Where Stakes and fifth in the Flaming Page Stakes. She won her third outing this year convincingly, closing wide from well off moderate fractions to prevail by nearly five lengths in an Ontario-sired allowance.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. - Surely nothing can happen over the next couple of months that would keep Stevie Wonderboy from being named the 2-year-old champion of 2005. Nonetheless, a handful of remaining stakes across North America could alter the outlook for the Kentucky Derby next spring, most notably the Remsen Stakes, the Ken-tucky Jockey Club Stakes, and the Hollywood Futurity.
First came Paz Ciudadana, and now More Than Promised. Trainer Steve Asmussen's dominance of turf races for fillies and mares in the region has been overwhelming, with those two runners alone winning a combined six stakes since May.
More Than Promised won her second straight stakes on Oct. 21 at Remington Park, when she rolled to an eye-catching 8 1/4- length score in a division of the track's $40,000 Oaks. Prior to that race, she won the $75,000 DeBartolo Memorial at Louisiana Downs on Oct. 1 and an allowance at Arlington Park.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario - Nick Nosowenko has only one serious complaint as he nears the end of his first full season as a trainer.
"We've had 'seconditis' all year," said Nosowenko, who has won with three of his 44 starters while finishing second 11 times and third on seven occasions.
The cure could lie with Tamara, the author of one of those victories and three second-place finishes, who will be looking to give Nosowenko, 44, his first stakes win as a trainer here in Saturday's $135,375 Ontario Fashion Handicap at Woodbine.
EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. - Defrere the Smile exceeded the early expectations of trainer Alan Seewald, winning his first race by nine lengths.
"At first, he didn't show that type of ability," Seewald said. "He got better and better as we got closer to racing him. He ran even better than I thought he'd run."
Defrere the Smile can elevate expectations again on Friday night at The Meadowlands in his stakes debut in the colt-and-gelding division of the New Jersey Futurity.
STICKNEY, Ill. - Trainer Mike Dini has won 15 races all season, actually not a bad year for his low-key racing stable. In fact, Dini is known to many horse people in the Midwest as much for his horse-hauling business as his training. But Dini and his owner, John Orecchio, have come up with a very nice sprinter named Wild Tale, a horse claimed for just $25,000 in September 2004 and who now operates at the graded stakes level. On Breeders' Cup Day at Belmont Park, Wild Tale almost overcame serious early trouble, finishing a fast-closing third in the $250,000 Sport Page Handicap.
Teller Cartel rose to the top of Quarter Horse racing with an upset win in the $1.9 million All American Futurity at Ruidoso Downs on Sept. 5. His position may be tenuous, at best.
Friday at Los Alamitos, Teller Cartel starts as the favorite in the $1,145,000 Golden State Million Futurity at 400 yards. He may not be trainer Paul Jones's best chance.
Jones speaks highly of Teller Cartel, but is also tipping In Dispute, who set the fourth fastest qualifying time in trials on Oct. 21.
Zia has passed the halfway point of its inaugural season, and handle on its mixed cards of Thoroughbred and Quarter Horse races has averaged about $234,000 a day, according to officials at the Hobbs, N.M., track. Purses to date have averaged $167,000 a program, a figure that does not include the $1.2 million that will be distributed Sunday during the track's New Mexico Cup.
Trainer Jeff Radosevich and jockey Scott Spieth are each having career seasons.
Radosevich ranks 14th by wins in the national standings, with 127 winners from 570 starts. Radosevich keeps busy by caring for approximately 70 horses at Thistledown, Mountaineer, and on a local farm.
Before becoming a trainer in December 1993, Radosevich was a jockey for 16 years. He was Thistledown's winningest rider in 1988.
