SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - Trainer Tom Bush has a strong hand to play in the Saratoga Dew on Thursday at Saratoga.
Bush will saddle two of the leading contenders - Fait Accompli, last year's inaugural Saratoga Dew winner, and Judy Soda, a multiple allowance winner in open company - in the stakes for New York-bred fillies and mares. They will start side by side in posts 7 and 8, respectively, in the nine-horse field going 1 1/8 miles.
DEL MAR, Calif. - Brother Derek is a California-bred, which makes him eligible to the $100,000 I'm Smokin Stakes on Monday. He will be entered in that race. But Brother Derek worked so well at Del Mar on Tuesday morning that his trainer, Dan Hendricks, said he will also enter Brother Derek in the Grade 2, $250,000 Del Mar Futurity next Wednesday, closing day of the Del Mar meeting.
DEL MAR, Calif. - Owner John Amerman will be in the winner's circle following Thursday's $80,000 Adoration Handicap at Del Mar. The only question is whether he will present the trophy to another owner, or merely move the trophy from one hand to another.
CHICAGO - It is getting to be the time of year in Chicago, and many other racing jurisdictions, when an entry-level allowance race for horses 3 years old and upward brings out refugees from maiden claimers, claimers, and every other imaginable kind of race.
Such is not the case, however, in the featured eighth race on Thursday at Arlington Park. This entry-level allowance, at one mile on dirt, drew a field of eight, and there are some serious racehorses in it.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario - Seaside Retreat, an impressive debut winner on the dirt, should take to the turf like a duck to water in Thursday's Woodbine headliner. A field of seven 2-year-olds will line up in the seven-furlong allowance, which is the prep for the Grade 2 Summer Stakes on Sept. 18.
River Downs will be the site Sunday of a benefit for jockey Gary Birzer, who is paralyzed from the waist down after injuring his neck and spinal cord in a July 20 spill at Mountaineer Park.
There will be a live auction for a saddle towel from Kentucky Derby winner Giacomo signed by his trainer, John Shirreffs, and jockey, Mike Smith, as well as a halter worn by Storm Cat, the prominent sire.
OCEANPORT, N.J. - Bachelor's Gulch is a handy horse to have around the Mark Hennig barn at Monmouth Park.
Owned by Lee Lewis, the 3-year-old Bachelor's Gulch has proved himself equally adept on turf or on the main track in four races on the Jersey Shore this summer.
"Every time he wins, the owner asks, 'What are going to do with him now?' " said assistant trainer Rob Rader. "Does he like the dirt or the grass better? I have no idea."
Royal Saint has breezed through his conditions this meet at Louisiana Downs, and on Monday he will attempt to give his trainer, Cole Norman, a fourth win in the $50,000 Prelude Stakes. The 1 1/16-mile race for 3-year-olds is the local prep for the Grade 2, $750,000 Super Derby.
Norman won last year's Prelude with South Africa, and also captured the race in 1999 with Brassy Wells and in 1998 with Code Six.
"This is our fourth Prelude we're going after, and I think this is my best shot," said Norman.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario - Gold Strike, who followed up her convincing win in the Labatt Woodbine Oaks with a valiant third-place finish in the Queen's Plate, will not race again this season.
Given a brief freshening following the June 26 Queen's Plate, Gold Strike had been aiming for the $125,000 La Lorgnette, a 1 1/16-mile stakes for 3-year-old fillies on Sept. 24 at Woodbine. But she pulled a muscle in a workout after the Plate, trainer Reade Baker said, and the injury has not fully healed.
Historic Fair Grounds Race Course, located in the heart of New Orleans, was not spared the heavy damage inflicted by Hurricane Katrina.
The Fair Grounds property was inundated with water, and a section of the roof in the grandstand was lifted off by the storm's powerful winds. The area around the grandstand and offtrack betting and video poker building was strewn with debris, and there appeared to be other damage to the grandstand.
