ARCADIA, Calif. - Bound for a stakes next month, Tempting Date will try the hillside turf course at Santa Anita for the first time on Friday in a $42,000 allowance race for fillies and mares.
If she runs well, trainer Jeff Mullins and owners Adam and Paul Lewis are hoping to start Tempting Date in the $150,000 California Cup Distaff for statebreds over the same about 6 1/2 furlongs on the hillside turf course on Nov. 6.
"We thought we'd try it and see how she does," Mullins said.
EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. - The water-logged Meadowlands Racetrack hopes to resume racing Friday night with the $55,000 Queen Lib Handicap the featured event.
The track has not run a complete card since last Friday. Persistent rains hit the New York metropolitan area over the weekend and continued into Wednesday, creating uneven patches in the racing surface. The track ran only one race Saturday night and three Tuesday afternoon before canceling the Wednesday and Thursday night cards.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario - Stakes winners Touchnow, Roving Angel, and Higher World are all possibilities in Friday's Woodbine feature, an allowance for fillies and mares that has an $80,000 claiming option.
Touchnow competed in all three legs of the 2004 Canadian triple tiara, winning the Bison City Stakes at Fort Erie, running second in the Woodbine Oaks, and finishing seventh on the grass in the Wonder Where Stakes.
AUBURN, Wash. - With She's All Silk attacking from the front and Musical Wine coming from behind, trainer Pat Mullens figures to be live regardless of pace considerations in Friday's allowance feature at Emerald Downs. The six-furlong race has drawn a field of six 2-year-old fillies.
EDMONTON, Alberta - Vancouver invader Slewpast, with four stakes victories this season, is topweighted at 121 pounds as she takes on six other 3-year-old fillies in the Chariot Chaser here at Northlands Park Friday.
Trained by Robert Anderson, Slewpast was also a runner-up in a fifth Hastings stakes and drops back to 6 1/2 furlongs after three successive 1 1/16-mile outings.
ELMONT, N.Y. - More than six inches of rain has fallen on Long Island since Saturday and more is forecast through Friday. That makes it highly unlikely this Saturday's Grade 3, $100,000 Athenia Handicap at Belmont Park will remain on the turf as scheduled.
A transfer to dirt would suit trainer Todd Pletcher just fine. Pletcher entered Bohemian Lady as a main-track-only entrant, and she would be tough to beat if she goes.
MIAMI - Trainer Marty Wolfson was still accepting congratulations early this week for Sunday's gutsy victory by Pampered Princess in Keeneland's Grade 1 , a performance that could propel the locally based mare into the Breeders' Cup Distaff.
"We've had our share of major stakes wins over the years, but this one ranks right up with the biggest races we've ever won," said Wolfson, who trains Pampered Princess for owner Martin Cherry. "She's a wonderful filly and it was also a great win for Eddie and his career."
ETOBICOKE, Ontario - Ambitious Cat, who has improved by leaps and bounds this season, is on target for the Grade 1, $1 million E.P. Taylor Stakes.
The E.P. Taylor, a 1 1/4-mile turf race, will be run here Oct. 23 along with the Grade 1 Canadian International and the Grade 2 Nearctic.
With exercise rider Mark Solomon in the irons, Ambitious Cat had her final major tune-up here Wednesday morning over a good turf training course.
Northern Scene, who in his first start against Texas-breds won the $100,000 Texas Hall of Fame Stakes earlier this month at Retama Park, will remain in the statebred stakes ranks for his next start, said his trainer, Morris Nicks.
Northern Scene is being pointed for the $50,000 Richard King at Sam Houston Race Park on Nov. 19. The race will be run over 1 1/8 miles on turf, and is part of the Texas Champions Day card at Sam Houston.
Louisiana Downs closed out its meet Sunday, but there will still be action in the stable area this weekend, with 468 horses cataloged to an annual auction put on by the Louisiana Breeders Sales Company.
Yearlings will go in the ring Saturday, while a session for broodmares, horses of racing age and weanlings will be held Sunday.
There are 253 yearlings cataloged to sell, and among the sires represented are Afternoon Deelites, Clever Trick, Doneraile Court, Kimberlite Pipe, Kipper Kelly, and Leestown.
