ELMONT, N.Y. - Don't adjust your binoculars, because that green color under the horses' hooves is supposed to be there.
Yes, for the first time in nearly two weeks, turf racing is back at Belmont Park Thursday - weather permitting, of course.
"It's going to be a little bit off, but I'm very optimistic we'll be able to bang around on it for a while again," said track superintendent John Passero.
LEXINGTON, Ky. - The race that Unbridled Sidney ran on closing weekend of the Churchill Downs spring meet had fans gawking and rivals gasping. Front-runners who refuse to rate through sizzling fractions invariably come back to the pack, but once in a blue moon, they just keep on keeping on.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario - Trainer Mike Doyle pulled off a 53-1 shocker last Sunday when he sent out Pyramid Park to win his maiden on the grass in the Cup and Saucer Stakes.
In Thursday's Woodbine feature, a turf allowance for fillies and mares, Doyle will run Nomistakeaboutit, who won't be anywhere near 53-1 - or the 22-1 that was her price in the Sept. 25 Flaming Page Stakes. She rallied from far off a hot pace in that 1 1/2-mile marathon and wound up second to a runaway winner, Noble Stella, who is nominated to Sunday's Grade 1 E.P. Taylor Stakes.
ELMONT, N.Y. - While jockey Richard Migliore is looking forward to Breeders' Cup Day on Oct. 29, he is equally enthused about this Saturday's New York Showcase program at Belmont. Migliore, a New York native himself, said he believes he is sitting on several top contenders in the seven stakes for statebreds worth $1 million in purses.
Migliore rides Parkhimonbroad-way (Sleepy Hollow), My Interpreta-tion (Maid of the Mist), Kate Winslet (Ticonderoga), Chestertown Slew (Mohawk), Seeking the Ante (Iroquois), Papua (Hudson), and S. Cherry Legacy (Empire Classic).
ARCADIA, Calif. - It turns out that Candy Factory, pointing for the California Cup, had a legitimate excuse when her four-race win streak came to a screeching halt Oct. 7 at Santa Anita. Winner of the $125,000 Solana Beach Handicap on Sept. 4 at Del Mar, Candy Factory had emerged as the leading California-bred turf filly until she finished last as the 8-5 favorite in an overnight stakes.
"Her blood was out of whack; she was fighting off a virus," trainer Mike Machowsky said. "I knew something was amiss. Her red count was low."
ALBANY, Calif. - The bluebloods will be out in force in Thursday's Golden Gate Fields feature. Three of the five 2-year-old fillies entered in first-level allowance race at six furlongs were sold for $160,000 or more. The other two, while sold for more modest prices, have shown plenty of ability.
Brahms Allegro, who won her debut Oct. 1 at Bay Meadows, was a $450,000 yearling purchase by Stonestreet Stables at Keeneland in September 2004.
Golden Rainbow earned a career-best Beyer Speed Figure of 103 in an allowance win in his last start, and the triple-digit number could send him off as the favorite Friday night in the $150,000 Oklahoma Derby at Remington Park.
was one of 10 to pass through the entry box on Tuesday for the 1 1/8-mile race.
CHICAGO - Regulars on the Chicago circuit know that come fall the entry-level allowance condition begins opening up to all comers. A horse that might be a claimer - either open or conditioned - during the summer at Arlington can find a winnable allowance spot at the Hawthorne fall meet.
That's why none of the seven horses entered in the nominally featured third race on Thursday at Hawthorne should quickly be discounted. The race is for entry-level Illinois-bred fillies and mares at 1 1/16 miles on dirt.
ELMONT, N.Y. - Though there isn't a sign in or around Belmont Park acknowledging that the 22nd Breeders' Cup World Thoroughbred Championships will be held here on Oct. 29, there were plenty of signs on three of Belmont's tracks Monday morning that North America's richest day of Thoroughbred racing is fast approaching.
