ETOBICOKE, Ontario - A Bit O'Gold has become accustomed to being the center of attention in the Catherine Day Phillips shed row.
But following last weekend's racing action, the 4-year-old A Bit O'Gold finds himself upstaged by his younger stablemate Jambalaya, the winner of the Grade 3,$111,900 at Saratoga on Sunday.
WINNIPEG, Manitoba - Total gross receipts at Tuesday's Canadian Thoroughbred Horse Society Manitoba yearling sale increased to $111,100 from $93,200 in 2004.
The number of horses sold also increased, from 23 to 30, while the average price dropped 8.6 percent, from $4,052 in 2004 to $3,703 this year.
The sales-topper, a bay gelding by Jambalaya Jazz out of the restricted-stakes-placed mare Marcy Jo Ann, was bought by Dave Champion for $13,000.
Anderson-trained Speers exacta
SASKATOON, Saskatchewan - Celtic Dance goes in search of her third straight victory when she faces the province's top older fillies and mares in Friday's $6,000 City Centre Bingo Handicap at Marquis Downs.
A winner of the Graceful Klinchit in her latest start, which came at 1 1/16 miles, Celtic Dance cuts back in distance to a mile. She looms the favorite in the field of six for the City Centre.
Celtic Dance had been on the fringes of this division but became a handful as they stretched out in distance.
The head of the Louisiana Horsemen's Benevolent and Protective Association, the major Thoroughbred horsemen's group in the state, has proposed an alternative plan to the one informally introduced by Churchill Downs Inc. concerning a replacement meet at Louisiana Downs for the upcoming Fair Grounds racing season.
CHICAGO - Perfect Drift, who won the Washington Park Handicap at Arlington before finishing second in the Pacific Classic, will make his next start Sept. 24 in the Hawthorne Gold Cup.
"That's the spot we're going to use to go into the Breeders' Cup if all goes well," trainer Murray Johnson said Tuesday morning.
CHICAGO - Even when Take D'Tour was going two turns on turf this summer at Arlington Park, her trainer, Tony Granitz, had his eye on a different kind of race.
"I ran her long three times, and I'd been wanting to run her a one-turn mile, the way she'd trained on dirt," said Granitz.
That chance came Aug. 19, and Take D'Tour was all that Granitz had hoped for, maybe even a little bit more. She battled on a hot pace, put away the other speed, and drew off to an eight-length win in an entry-level allowance, getting her mile in 1:35.60.
OCEANPORT, N.J. - The pace should be brisk in the $38,000 allowance race feature Thursday at Monmouth Park. Slam Bammy, Bound for Victory, Punch the Odds, and Attila's Storm have abundant early speed. Each member of that quartet has shown he needs to control the pace to be most effective.
With a fierce early battle in the offing, Jay's Suave could be sitting pretty in the second-level allowance at six furlongs.
MIAMI - There were stars aplenty on last Saturday's 14-race Juvenile Showcase card at Calder.
Forest Danz remained undefeated and untested after sprinting away to a 12-length victory in the $50,000 .
Bettarun Fast likewise kept his perfect record intact with yet another powerful performance over the turf, leading a one-two finish for trainer Kathleen O'Connell with an easy win in the Catcharisingstar Stakes.
With some Kentucky horsemen still not entering their horses at Turfway, the Kentucky Horse Racing Authority voted unanimously Tuesday in Lexington to issue warnings, rather than fines and suspensions, to trainers whose horses test positive for non-steroidal anti-inflammatory agents, or NSAIDs, over the next 60 days. The change came in response to trainer complaints about new raceday medication rules that were scheduled to go into effect on Wednesday.
Society Selection, the winner of the Grade 1 Test and Grade 1 Alabama stakes last year, will be ridden this Sunday in the Grade 1, $300,000 Ruffian Handicap at Belmont Park by Javier Castellano, trainer Allen Jerkens said Tuesday.
Castellano, who finished third in the jockey standings at the just-concluded Saratoga meet, will replace Eibar Coa, who has ridden Society Selection in her past three races, including a fourth-place finish in the Go for Wand Stakes at Belmont on July 30, her last start.
