ELMONT, N.Y. - Sleeping makes her stakes debut Sunday in the Grade 3, $100,000 Astarita at Belmont Park, and trainer Gary Contessa is brimming with confidence. Sleeping faces five rivals in the 6 1/2-furlong race for 2-year-old fillies.
is unbeaten in two starts. She broke sharply in her debut at Saratoga and went on to a front-running victory. Her second start, at Monmouth Park, showed "another dimension," Contessa said.
BOSSIER CITY, La. - Trainer Cole Norman expected to have a better gauge on how Shaky Town might handle turf before running the horse on the surface for the first time Sunday in the $125,000 Harrah's Louisiana Downs Breeders' Cup Handicap at Louisiana Downs.
But his plans ran into a force of nature named Hurricane Rita.
"We didn't get to work on the turf last week because of the rain," said Norman.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario - Handicappers who had written off Strut the Stage before the Grade 2 Niagara Breeders' Cup Handicap on Sept. 5 got a rude awakening when he finished a game second.
Strut the Stage will try to string two big efforts together Sunday at Woodbine in the Grade 2, $328,500 Sky Classic Handicap. A 1 3/8-mile turf race, the Sky Classic is a prep for the $2 million Pattison Canadian International here Oct. 23.
ELMONT, N.Y. - It took less than a New York minute for the realization to set in that Afleet Alex can actually make the Breeders' Cup Classic.
In his first workout since undergoing surgery two months ago to repair a fractured left front cannon bone, Preakness and Belmont Stakes winner Afleet Alex went five furlongs in 59.85 seconds Friday morning over Belmont Park's main track. It was the fastest of eight works at the distance.
VANCOUVER, British Columbia - Lukin Awesome heads a full field of 11 2-year-olds in the $100,000 Jack Diamond Futurity at Hastings Sunday. While Lukin Awesome is the lone stakes winner in the 6 1/2-furlong feature, restricted to 2-year-old colts and geldings that were foaled in Canada, the race appears to be wide open.
AUBURN, Wash. - Sabertooth and Mr. Makah will hook up at 1 1/16 miles in the $50,000 Muckleshoot Tribal Classic, the highlight of Sunday's third annual Washington Cup Day program. The Classic is one of seven stakes on the day, all for Washington-breds.
Also entered in the field of five are The Great Face, Skyrider, and Best Game in Town.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. - Todd Pletcher, the leading trainer in North America this year with more than $13 million in purse earnings going into this weekend, said he is expanding his stable into Kentucky this fall and will have as many as 26 horses ready to compete at the upcoming Keeneland and Churchill Downs fall meets.
BOSSIER CITY, La. - Trainer Larry Rivelli said on Friday that if there were a Breeders' Cup Championship race for Nicole's Dream later this month, she would be in it. So how good does that make Nicole's Dream, among the nation's best turf sprinters, look on Sunday, when she starts for a purse of $40,000 in the Majorette Handicap at Louisiana Downs?
MIAMI - Running Lass and In Summation will attempt an unprecedented double sweep of the Florida Stallion Stakes when they start in the $400,000 My Dear Girl and In Reality Stakes on Oct. 15. The task will not be an easy one for either 2-year-old, though, with talented invaders expected to ship to town for both series finales.
Following three top-level stakes last weekend, capped by the Hawthorne Gold Cup, the next stakes race at Hawthorne is not scheduled until Oct. 15. With allowances like the eighth race on Sunday filling race cards, the absence of stakes might not be badly missed.
Sunday's eighth race, a $32,000, second-level allowance, drew a full field of 12, including two horses, Kirkendahl and Wise Diplomat, who began their careers in Southern California. The six-furlong race runs through them.
