ETOBICOKE, Ontario - Classic Stamp led a local sweep of the top three spots in last year's Canadian Handicap, defeating a group that included four shippers from south of the border.
On Sunday, Classic Stamp will be looking to defend her title in the Grade 2, $336,000 Canadian, a 1 1/8-mile turf race.
The Canadian lured a competitive field of nine, including three U.S. invaders, and Classic Stamp will be looking to end a seven-race drought that dates back to last year's Canadian.
ARLINGTON HEIGHTS, Ill. - The Futurity at Arlington Park once was the richest horse race in the country. Just last week, Bill Thayer, a longtime Arlington employee, dug out a photocopy of the program from Futurity Day, 1965: Buckpasser was marked a short-priced winner.
ARLINGTON HEIGHTS, Ill. - Anyone who regularly has studied form and bet on horse races has engaged in handicapping-in-retrospect. It's the practice of going back through the Racing Form after a race (a miscalculation typically has occurred) to figure out what in the world happened.
Handicappers-in retrospect might look back at Sunday's Arlington-Washington Lassie and say there was an obvious winner. For those forced to look ahead to the race, however, the Lassie seems about as clear as mud.
WINNIPEG, Manitoba - Last year, the filly Gold Strike was a runaway winner of the Buffalo Stakes. A filly is likely to win it again in Sunday's running of the $40,000 Buffalo here at Assiniboia Downs.
It appears that the three fillies entered in the one-mile race for 2-year-olds bred in Manitoba have a decided advantage over their lone male counterpart.
ELMONT, N.Y. - A drop into restricted company, the prospect of a fast pace, and a return to Belmont Park could help get back in the winner's circle when she faces seven New York-bred filly and mare sprinters in Sunday's $100,000 Schenectady Handicap.
Keesler had reeled off four consecutive wins before she ran in the Proud Puppy Stakes at Finger Lakes, in which she had to check and alter course in the stretch. She re-rallied to finish third.
ELMONT, N.Y. - Trainer Richard Schosberg went into last month's West Point Handicap feeling very confident in his chances with Sicilian Boy. But when blew the first turn, he forced another horse into Sicilian Boy, who ended up tearing a suspensory ligament and is out indefinitely.
POMONA, Calif. - Bengal Lore, the favorite Sunday in the $120,000 Barretts Juvenile, was in tough the very first time he started.
"He ran against two of the best colts in the California," said Ted West, who trains the 2-year-old with his son, Ted H. West.
Bengal Lore finished third behind What a Song and Stevie Wonderboy in his debut, and three races later won a fast Del Mar maiden race that stamps him as the favorite Sunday at Fairplex Park.
POMONA, Calif. - Jockeys and racing officials at Fairplex Park are reviewing procedures for riders returning to the jockeys' room after a race, following an altercation Thursday involving rider Martin Pedroza and a trackside patron.
A fight erupted as Pedroza was returning to the jockeys' room after race 9. At Fairplex, jockeys typically dismount in front of the winner's circle and return to the jockeys' room by walking along the outer rail to a gate opposite the furlong pole at the top of the stretch, where they walk through the paddock and back to the room.
SAN MATEO, Calif. - The seven 2-year-old colts in the second race Sunday at Bay Meadows will be trying something new - running two turns on the turf.
Only one runner in 7 1/2-furlong maiden race, Sweet Roberto, has tried two turns before, fading badly to fifth after engaging in a pace duel in a one-mile maiden race on the main track at Del Mar on Aug. 25.
Only one runner, Two Trails, has set foot on the grass, and that was in a half-mile turf work Wednesday.
One runner, Ocean Melody, makes his debut as he ships north for trainer Neil Drysdale.