POMONA, Calif. - Don Juan Con is so wickedly fast that it is reasonable to wonder how he will manage the turns on Fairplex Park's five-furlong track.
The question is crucial to the 6 1/2-furlong, $60,000 Beau Brummel Stakes on Wednesday, when racing resumes at the Los Angeles County Fair. If handles the turns, the Beau Brummel could be over early. Five others will chase, including late-runner Say Tomorrow and improving maiden The Thought Occurs.
CHICAGO - Shaun Bridgmohan is five racing days away from the end of his first season at Arlington Park. But it has been many weeks since there was any suspense to the jockeys' race here this season.
Through Sunday, Bridgmohan had won 125 races from 545 starters, 46 more victories than the second-leading rider here, Chris Emigh. Bridgmohan, who drove here from New York the week before this meet began in May, said it was possible he could return next season.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario - Green Line and Riva's Tribute will both get some class relief in Wednesday's Woodbine feature, a $62,500 allowance/optional claimer at 6 1/2 furlongs on the grass.
Green Line, a classy 6-year-old sent out by trainer Reade Baker, managed to finish fourth behind Redattore and Irish Warrior in the Grade 2 Citation Handicap at Hollywood in 2003. His last win came 18 starts ago, however, in a 7 1/2-furlong handicap in May 2003 in his native England.
EDMONTON, Alberta - Beau Brass, a 5-year-old owned by Edmonton businessman Tom White, became the first double winner of the $100,000 Speed to Spare since Arctic Laur's back-to-back scores in 1992 and 1993 when he beat the mare Raylene by a nose at Northlands Park last Saturday.
Beau Brass ended a streak of "seconditis" through three consecutive stakes by emerging from a stretch battle with Raylene after pacesetters Deputy Country and Illusive Force were overtaken in the backstretch of the 1 3/8-mile Speed to Spare for older horses.
Negotiations among Churchill Downs Inc., Louisiana Downs, and the Louisiana Horsemen's Benevolent and Protective Association continued Monday, with no announcement concerning specific plans to hold a meet at Louisiana Downs as a substitute for the Fair Grounds season wiped out by Hurricane Katrina.
POMONA, Calif. - Has the Fairplex Park jockey colony undergone a power shift? Or was opening weekend of the Los Angeles County Fair merely a bump in the road for the track's all-time leading rider?
Either way, if Martin Pedroza wins his seventh consecutive riding title, it will not be in a walkover like last year when he won a record 51 races. In the first three days of the 2004 meet, Pedroza won 10 races from 25 mounts. But after winning 4 of 10 on Friday, opening day of 2005, Pedroza went 0 for 20, counting being blanked on Saturday and Sunday.
SAN MATEO, Calif. - The San Mateo Planning Commission last week approved a plan by the owners of Bay Meadows to build residential, retail, and office space where the racetrack currently stands. The next step in the long process is approval by the San Mateo City Council, which meets to review the plan Sept. 19.
Beau Watch ($17.40) stalked the pace to the stretch before rallying to score an easy 6 1/2-length victory in the $40,000 Central Iowa Stakes for fillies and mares at Prairie Meadows.
Beau Watch, under Alex Birzer, who won half the races on the 10-race card, stopped the clock in 1:43.84 for 1 1/16 miles. Candybedandy held second by a half-length over Valliant Dancer.
A three-quarter-length win by favorite Melanyhasthepapers ($7.80) in the $60,000 Phil D. Shepherd Stakes was the record 53rd Fairplex Park stakes victory for jockey David Flores.
Melanyhasthepapers won the 1 1/16-mile Shepherd in 1:44.42. Intelligent Male finished second, two lengths in front of R. Baggio.
Melanyhasthepapers is trained by Alfredo Marquez.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario - Lemon Maid, one of the top 3-year-old fillies on the grounds, has gone to the farm in Ocala, Fla., and will not see action again this season.
"She came out of her last race with a little chip in her ankle," said Malcolm Pierce, who trains Lemon Maid for the Live Oak Plantation of Charlotte Weber. "We played around with it a little bit, but were afraid we would do more damage if she went on. They're going to clean up that ankle down there, and we will have a nice 4-year-old."
