ETOBICOKE, Ontario - Blonde Executive, Canada's champion sprinter of 2004, has been retired to the breeding shed.
A homebred 4-year-old filly owned by Bruno Brothers Farm and trained by Radlie Loney, Blonde Executive had her last campaign cut short in October and did not return to the racetrack until June.
Blonde Executive's preparations appeared to be proceeding well when she drilled four furlongs in 47.80 seconds here July 23, but that work turned out to be the last of her career.
FORT ERIE, Ontario - Roman Romance, a stakes-winning mare from the barn of John Simms, towers over her opponents in the Golden Horseshoe, the second of a pair of $30,000, 1 1/16-mile Cup races here Sunday.
The Cup races are restricted to horses that have had at least two previous starts at the meet. The Golden Horseshoe is for fillies and mares, and the Peace Bridge is for male runners.
Roman Romance, 7, is a winner of eight races and $510,982. Her four opponents on Sunday include a maiden and two one-time winners.
AUBURN, Wash. - Poker Brad is out of the Aug. 21 running of the Grade 3, $250,000 Longacres Mile after being injured in a workout here on Tuesday, according to trainer Tim McCanna.
McCanna said that Poker Brad, a 7-year-old with career earnings of $424,790, pulled up badly after working a half-mile in 47.80 seconds in preparation for the Mile.
"He took a bad step after he crossed the wire and hyperextended his right front," said McCanna. "It's a soft-tissue injury, but it is hard to say exactly what it is quite yet. I know it's bad enough that he'll be out a long time.
ARLINGTON HEIGHTS, Ill. - During the middle of rainy Wednesday training hours there was a man in a nondescript untucked polo shirt standing alone at the edge of a local trainer's Arlington barn. Through Ron McAnally you could trace a lot of history.
History keeps coming up this summer. This is the 20th anniversary of the Miracle Million, when the old Arlington Park went up in flames and came down in rubble, and they still ran the race three weeks later.
ARLINGTON HEIGHTS, Ill. - Jimmy Toner scratched Wonder Again from the Diana Handicap at Saratoga in large part because the mare was assigned a far outside post. Toner was hoping for a better draw for Saturday's Grade 1 Beverly D. at Arlington, but as luck would have it, Wonder Again again drew the outside post in a field of 10.
So when a steady rain started falling Thursday morning at Arlington, Toner was glad to hear some good news.
"Finally, something's going right," Toner said with a laugh.
ARLINGTON HEIGHTS, Ill. - You'd think the horse that finished first in the 2004 Arlington Million might be the big name in Saturday's race, but Powerscourt has returned to Arlington Park from trainer Aidan O'Brien's Ballydoyle training center in Ireland draped in doubt.
ARLINGTON HEIGHTS, Ill. - International competition in Thoroughbred racing is pretty much taken for granted these days. The Japan Cup, the Breeders' Cup, the Dubai World Cup, and another handful of major events have all become regular melting pots for horses from around the globe.
But it wasn't always this way. In fact, until the Arlington Million moved from drawing board toward reality 25 years ago, the scope of international competition was limited to an invitational race that since has become defunct: the Washington D.C. International at Laurel Park.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - The decision by trainer Graham Motion to run Better Talk Now in Saturday's Arlington Million, may have taken the prerace favorite out of the $500,000 Sword Dancer Invitational at Belmont Park, but at least one trainer doesn't think it affects the outcome of the Grade 1 race.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - The dominoes that began to fall on Thursday when the connections of Better Talk Now decided they would rather run in the Arlington Million than Saratoga's Sword Dancer eventually impacted jockey Chantal Sutherland. Ramon Dominguez, who was to ride Better Talk Now at Saratoga, replaced Sutherland on Vangelis in the Sword Dancer. But Sutherland still has a chance to shine in a nationally televised stakes race on Saturday at Saratoga, when she rides likely favorite Smokume in the Grade 2, $200,000 Alfred G. Vanderbilt Handicap for sprinters.
