Doug's Shadow, winner of the Amadevil Handicap on Aug. 13, may rate a slight edge in a full field of 10 entered in the $10,000-added Labor Day Handicap at 6 1/2 furlongs at Columbus.
Doug's Shadow won this race in 2003 and has been a consistent performer this year in a light campaign, winning 2 of his 6 starts. Trainer Julie Larmon has Yuri Yaranga named to ride Doug's Shadow from post 2 under top weight of 122 pounds.
The entry of The K B Kid and Timetobook looms a short-priced favorite against seven 2-year-old rivals in the $40,000 Prairie Meadows Freshman at six furlongs.
Both halves of the Todd Hoffrogge-trained entry are very capable of winning the Freshman. The K B Kid has the best credentials in the field, having won all four of his starts, including three straight stakes wins. In his most recent start, The K B Kid scored a 3 3/4-length victory in the $55,000 Northern Lights Futurity against Minnesota-breds at Canterbury on Aug. 21.
A star is born? It's possible.
Royal Saint will get tested for class Monday at Louisiana Downs, when he makes his stakes debut in the $50,000 Prelude. The 1 1/16-mile race is the track's prep for its Grade 2, $750,000 Super Derby on Oct. 1.
Premier Dance, already a winner of the Middleground Stakes at Lone Star Park and most recently the Minstrel Stakes at Louisiana Downs, will attempt to make it three in a row in Monday night's Lafayette Stakes at Evangeline Downs.
He squares off against five rivals, including an entry, in the track's $100,000 traditional Labor Day feature for 2-year-olds going six furlongs.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. - Churchill Downs Inc. officials announced Friday that the company will not conduct its 2005-06 race meeting at the Fair Grounds in New Orleans in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, but contingency plans are in the works for a possible abbreviated meet at Louisiana Downs.
DEL MAR, Calif. - Expectations were high when Grade 1-placed Three Valleys dropped into a second-condition allowance for his July 24 comeback at a mile on turf. Pounded to 3-5, he did not switch leads, was fully extended, and only inched clear in deep stretch.
The margin was three-quarters of a length. Many expected more.
DEL MAR, Calif. - A surface switch this summer may turn out to be the key to changing House of Fortune's luck.
A multiple stakes winner, House of Fortune is in the midst of a seven-race losing streak, dating back to the Grade 2 Hollywood Breeders' Cup Oaks on dirt at Hollywood Park in June 2004.
But on Sunday, House of Fortune, 4, will make her second start on turf in the $125,000 Solana Beach Handicap at Del Mar. The race comes six weeks after House of Fortune finished a close second in her grass debut.
DEL MAR, Calif. - Much to his distress, trainer Richard Mandella has become an expert on the 3-year-old multiple stakes winner Willow O Wisp.
The Mandella-trained Osidy was beaten two lengths by Willow O Wisp in the Grade 3 Cinema Breeders' Cup Handicap at Hollywood Park on June 26. In the Grade 2 La Jolla Handicap at Del Mar on Aug. 13, Mandella's El Roblar was third behind Willow O Wisp.
"I'm sick of him," Mandella said of Willow O Wisp. "I kept thinking he was not that good. He's pretty freaking good."
