ARLINGTON HEIGHTS, Ill. - The horse named Dubliner is a Brazilian. And if you think that's puzzling, try coming up with a winner in Arlington's featured race on Friday.
Only six were entered in the Friday feature, carded at 1 1/8 miles on turf for third-level allowance horses or $62,500 claimers. But six is enough - enough, at least, to tingle the brain.
She Says It Best, a seven-length winner of the Aug. 20 Fisher Debutante at Ellis Park, will be gunning for her fourth victory in five career starts when she starts as the likely favorite Saturday in the $100,000 Bassinet Stakes at River Downs.
Vickie Foley, trainer of She Says It Best, said the two-week span between the Debutante and Bassinet is not a major concern, nor is the turnback from seven to six furlongs.
MIAMI - Fans of racing for 2-year-olds will be hard pressed to find a more attractive program than Saturday's Juvenile Showcase at Calder, a 14-race card consisting exclusively of 2-year-old races.
The unique Labor Day weekend program will be highlighted by the middle legs of the Florida Stallion Stakes, the $125,000 Affirmed Stakes and its filly counterpart, the $125,000 Susan's Girl Stakes. Both races will be run at seven furlongs.
OCEANPORT, N.J. - One filly has untapped potential; the other has the edge in experience. Together, Unobstructed View and Fantast give trainer Todd Pletcher a solid duo for the $100,000 Sorority Stakes on Saturday at Monmouth Park.
A six-furlong race, the Sorority is the top 2-year-old filly stakes of the season and highlights the holiday weekend on the Jersey Shore.
Unobstructed View has trained all summer at Monmouth. She has made only one start, on Aug. 4, when she won her maiden at Saratoga.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario - The entry of Financingavailable and Sweet Problem could pack a powerful one-two punch for trainer Lorne Richards in Friday's Woodbine feature, a $100,000 optional claimer for fillies and mares.
Financingavailable, a stakes performer on the grass, was sold by trainer Mark Casse to owner K.K. Sangara and Richards in the summer of 2004. In her first start for her new connections, she was a close second to Blonde Executive in the La Prevoyante Stakes after dueling up front with that rival throughout the one-mile turf race.
EDMONTON, Alberta - Some unheralded 2-year-old fillies will have their time in the spotlight Friday when a field of eight battles it out in a maiden special weight offering at Northlands Park.
The division's top flight will meet here Saturday afternoon in the 12th running of the $50,000 Bird of Pay, with nine nominated to that 6 1/2-furlong race.
Meanwhile, Friday's group will be sprinting six furlongs, each in quest of her first victory.
AUBURN, Wash. - Strollin Slew, a bang-up third to Secret Corsage and Karis Macaw in the $100,000 Emerald Breeders' Cup Distaff on Longacres Mile Day, Aug. 21, dips into the $40,000 optional claiming ranks to take on seven rivals in Friday's one-mile feature at Emerald Downs.
BOSSIER CITY, La. - Friday's allowance feature, for nonwinners of a race "other than" since the meeting began, drew seven fillies and mares, most of whom are trying to jump-start once-promising careers. The 1 1/16-mile affair on the main track carries a $29,000 purse, with another $6,900 available to the Louisiana-breds Young Emotions and Gypsy Pole E Style.
Counterfeit Gold and Hosanna Hit will head the large fields expected Saturday night for two of Retama Park's richest stakes, the $100,000 El Joven and the $100,000 La Senorita. The races are for 2-year-olds at one mile on turf, with the El Joven for colts and geldings and the La Senorita for fillies. The races will be part of the second richest card of the meet, behind Texas Hall of Fame Day on Oct. 1.
