SAN MATEO, Calif. - Will closing day at Bay Meadows mark the end of a big week for Steppin Charlie?
A 5-year-old gelding, Steppin Charlie won the third leg of the California Marketing Starter Allowance series at 1 3/8 miles Monday. On Sunday, he'll bid for a repeat at the distance against eight rivals in the closing-day feature, a $25,000 optional claimer.
His trainer, Alex Paszkeicz, does not usually bring his runners back this quickly; he is 1 for 7 when returning in one week.
Hollywood Park has made only minor changes to the stakes schedule for the upcoming fall meeting, which runs from Nov. 9 to Dec. 19. It's the first meeting since the Bay Meadows Land Company bought the track from Churchill Downs Inc. earlier this year.
Hollywood Park will run 20 stakes, including six Grade 1 races. The meeting is one week shorter than last year, but the same stakes are being offered.
Four Grade 1 stakes will be run over Hollywood's newly renovated turf course.
The purse for Sunland Park's richest race, the WinStar Derby, has been increased to $600,000 for its fourth running on April 1. Last year, the 1 1/8-mile race was worth $500,000. The purse boost is one of the most notable changes to Sunland's stakes schedule, which comprises 51 races for Thoroughbreds and Quarter Horses at the New Mexico track, located near El Paso, Texas.
STICKNEY, Ill. - Hawthorne's main track has undergone a change for the better in the last few racing days, going from a dry, tiring surface that was difficult for many horses to handle, to something much more recognizable. By Friday afternoon, in fact, the Hawthorne dirt was downright speedy, with horses in sprint races consistently clocking half-mile fractions in less than 45 seconds.
MIAMI - Flying Circle, who has proven at least up to this point in her career to be a better sprinter than router, shortens up to six furlongs and returns to the main track to head a well-matched field of eight 3-year-old fillies in Sunday's $40,000 Lady Sonata Stakes.
First-time stakes winners will emerge from both divisions of Sunday's $40,000 Hoosier Silver Cup at Hoosier Park. The races are for 2-year-olds at six furlongs.
Trainer Joseph Davis sends out Ewell, the only winner in a field of five in the open division of the Hoosier Silver Cup. Ewell won his maiden here Sept. 4 by 4 3/4 lengths but was a well-beaten fourth in the Hillsdale Stakes on Oct. 1, when he was facing two of the best Indiana-bred 2-year-olds, Father Art and Randall. Leading rider Rodney Prescott has the mount.
Shelby Dee, a winner the one time she ran against fillies, will return to racing against her own gender in the $10,000 KTA Futurity at The Woodlands in Kansas City, Kan.
The 5 1/2-furlong race for 2-year-old fillies is restricted to the offspring of eligible stallions.
VANCOUVER, British Columbia - Lord Nelson is the horse to beat in the $100,000 Premier's at Hastings on Sunday, but he could be vulnerable.
The 1 3/8-mile fixture drew 11 3-year-olds and up, including British Columbia Derby winner Spaghetti Mouse and Blowin in the Wind, who will try and repeat his win in the 2004 Premier's.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario - Not all that much has gone right here this year for Mike Mareina, the private trainer for Kuehne Racing.
But Mareina could have found his ace in the hole with Golf Trip, who is a strong contender in the field of 13 Canadian-bred 2-year-olds for Sunday's $250,000 Cup and Saucer, a 1 1/16-mile turf stakes at Woodbine.
"It has been a rough meet on us," acknowledged Mareina, who had saddled 5 winners from his first 51 starters at the meeting. "But I'm very pleased with where I am coming to this race."