AUBURN, Wash. - Among the more interesting races yet to be decided at the current Emerald Downs meeting is the one for leading trainer.
With 14 days of the 101-day meeting left coming into this week, Tim McCanna and Frank Lucarelli were in a flat-footed tie for first with 43 wins apiece, and Jim Penney was just one win back with 42.
With less than a week to go before the Grade 2, $750,000 Super Derby and some 52 horses nominated to that signature event at Louisiana Downs, pinning down who will be in the field is difficult.
Smokescreen is a definite; he is set to fly into town for the Oct. 1 race on Tuesday. The status of Nolan's Cat was pending a workout over the weekend, while locals Royal Saint and Silver Haze are a go. Among possibles are A.P. Arrow, Magna Graduate, and Key Issues.
Dance With Ravens was reinstated as the winner of the June 5 when the Ontario Racing Commission on Thursday reversed a decision by the Woodbine stewards.
Dance With Ravens had finished first by a neck in the Plate Trial under jockey Todd Kabel but was disqualified following an inquiry initiated by the stewards, who ruled Dance With Ravens had interfered with the sixth-place finisher, Atanas, approximately a sixteenth of a mile into the race. Atanas did stumble at that point but his rider, Rui Pimentel, did not lodge a claim of foul.
STICKNEY, Ill. - They said at Hawthorne Race Course in the fall that they will produce big, bettable fields. And so far, they have.
Friday's opening day card brought out 104 entries, an average of 10.4 per race. Saturday, the total number was 98 for a 10-race program, and when Sunday's card was drawn early Friday afternoon, 80 horses were entered in nine races, an average of 9.5 per race.
Discreetly Irish has won the Manhattan three years in a row, and on Sunday at The Woodlands will be favored to win the six-furlong stakes for the fourth straight time. The Manhattan shares a card with the Sunflower Stakes, both races for 3-year-olds and up bred in Kansas.
The stakes doubleheader serves to usher in the 20-race stakes schedule at The Woodlands, the Kansas City, Kan., track that opened its meet Saturday.
VANCOUVER, British Columbia - Steady Smiler has earned $257,843 for his owner and trainer Robert Maybin - the hard way. A lot of his earnings have come from picking up minor awards in stakes races. But when he drops into races that do not include the best horses at Hastings, he's one tough customer.
Steady Smiler figures to be favored over four others in Sunday's feature race, a $50,000 optional race at 1 1/16 miles that goes as the ninth race.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario - Bright N Golden will try to extend his unbeaten streak to three races Sunday at Woodbine in the $132,750 Swynford Stakes. The seven-furlong event has lured just three other 2-year-olds, including Ballado Dancer, who should be the speed of the race.
Trainer Frank Passero Jr. was taking an edge when he ran Bright N Golden for $40,000 first-time out Aug. 18. Bright N Golden won that five-furlong sprint by a half-length over Vicar's Song, who came back to win his maiden easily.
OCEANPORT, N.J. - Career Oriented tries to complete a perfect season at Monmouth Park on Sunday in the $60,000 Mongo Queen Stakes, a six-furlong race for 3-year-old fillies that goes as the co-feature on closing day of the meet.
The New Jersey Thoroughbred circuit shifts to The Meadowlands Racetrack on Sept. 30.
Returning to the main track after two unsuccessful experiments on turf, Summer Rainbow scored a two-length victory in a high-priced optional claimer at Delaware Park last Sunday.
Given that Summer Rainbow is now 6 for 15 on dirt - including a 4-for-5 record on Delaware's main track - and 0 for 2 on turf, it seems obvious where she will next race.
