ETOBICOKE, Ontario - Honolua Storm, a bang-up second in the Grade 3 Seagram Cup here July 30, heads a field of five stakes-caliber horses in an intriguing allowance feature on Friday's program. The allowance is worth $87,900 and will be run over 1 1/16 miles.
Honolua Storm closed from just off the pace in the 1 1/16-mile Seagram, but fell three-quarter lengths shy of catching the mare One for Rose.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - The presence of Bellamy Road in Saturday's Grade 1, $1 million Travers provides several of his opponents' riders with a dilemma: How long do you wait before you go after him?
Bellamy Road is certainly the main speed of the race, and his front-running cause was aided when he drew the rail for Saturday's Travers, the marquee race of this 36-day meet. As expected, seven horses entered the Travers when post positions were drawn Wednesday morning in the Saratoga paddock.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - Last year, trainer Nick Zito won the Travers with Birdstone coming off a 12-week layoff and a victory in the Belmont Stakes. Now, Zito is going to try something even more challenging.
Zito confirmed Tuesday morning that would make his highly anticipated return to the races in Saturday's $1 million Travers Stakes rather than the $250,000 King's Bishop. The Travers is run at 1 1/4 miles whereas the King's Bishop is contested at seven furlongs.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - Trainer Neil Howard and owner William Farish were tempted to run their exciting 3-year-old filly prospect here earlier this summer in the Grade 1 Test Stakes. Instead, they exercised patience and opted to give her a little more experience before unveiling her against stakes company in Thursday's $75,000 Victory Ride Stakes at Saratoga.
DEL MAR, Calif. - The best horse in the barn of most trainers is euphemistically referred as the big horse, but at Laura de Seroux's barn, it has a more literal translation.
The big horse in the de Seroux barn isn't the best horse, but he is, in fact, big. , an imposing 5-year-old son of Mr. Greeley, stands some 17-1 hands, and has to tip the scale at well over 1,200 pounds. He is by a sprint sire, and is a half-brother to the champion sprinter Orientate, but nothing about him says six furlongs.
CHICAGO - The Summer Festival of Racing with its modestly higher purses has ended, Arlington Million Day has passed, and the meet is supposed to be waning. But entries this week have been strong, and horseplayers clamoring for full, bettable fields are advised to tune into Arlington Park on Thursday.
Excluding also-eligibles, 82 horses were entered on the nine-race card, including three races with 12-horse fields. The late pick four has three 12-horse fields and a nine-horse field, and if betting value can't worm its way out of this sequence, it might not even exist anymore.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario - Talented European import Saint Etienne figures to toy with her eight rivals in Thursday's Woodbine feature, a six-furlong turf allowance for nonwinners of three.
Saint Etienne won a six-furlong handicap under a staggering 136 pounds in June at Newbury for trainer Andrew Balding. After coming up empty in a Group 3 stakes July 8 at York, she reappeared with Lasix in the Grade 3 Royal North Handicap here Aug. 1.
AUBURN, Wash. - An evenly matched field of seven 2-year-olds, including three fillies, will square off at 5 1/2 furlongs in Thursday's best race at Emerald Downs.
All entrants will be eligible to be claimed for $18,000 to $20,000, and the claiming price points out one of the fillies, Danny's Dragonlady, as the probable favorite. Danny's Dragonlady, a daughter of Free at Last from the barn of trainer Doris Harwood, won her debut here
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - In the last three summers, trainer Todd Pletcher has won 86 races at Saratoga. The most coveted prize on this track's calendar, however, has eluded him.
Saturday, Pletcher will take a third straight crack at the $1 million Travers Stakes when he sends out Flower Alley against Bellamy Road, Roman Ruler, and four other quality 3-year-olds in the 136th Midsummer Derby.
Shreveport to Albany. That was the flight Happy Ticket was to be on Wednesday morning to travel from her Louisiana Downs base to Saratoga Race Course to run in the Grade 1, $250,000 Ballerina on Sunday.
"Everything is all scheduled for go," Andrew Leggio, who trains Happy Ticket, said on Tuesday.
Leggio said that Happy Ticket's flight, which was to originate in California, was to stop in Shreveport and pick her up at about 9 a.m. Central. From there, the plane will stop in Kentucky, then head to Albany, N.Y.
