Phone Affair and Keep This Cat, each a stakes winner early in the meeting, will square off Saturday night at Evangeline Downs in the $50,000 Matron Handicap to decide who is the meet's top filly or mare. Four others have been entered in the one-mile headliner.
and Keep This Cat were both assigned 116 pounds for the Matron, and bettors may have a difficult time separating the two.
Catchmeinyourdreams, a Grade 1 winner at 400 and 440 yards, meets Prankster CF, who is riding a five-race winning streak at 870 yards, in the Grade 2, $71,370 MBNA America California Challenge Championship at 440 yards on Saturday night at Los Alamitos in Southern California.
The winner will receive an invitation to the Grade 1, $350,000 MBNA America Challenge Championship on Nov. 5 at Los Alamitos with the home-track advantage against the other nine horses that qualify in different regions.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario - Entries were taken Thursday for the six $125,000 yearling sales stakes that will be run on Sunday's program. But, with three horses entered in more than one yearling sales event, the actual fields will not be confirmed until wagering on the card opens at approximately 12 p.m.
"There'll be a few who'll be doing a bit of guessing, who's going to go where," said trainer Danny Vella, who could find himself in that group.
FORT ERIE, Ontario - Lenny the Lender, a Fort Erie regular, will be entered in two turf stakes on the holiday weekend at Woodbine, the $125,000 Halton at 1 1/8 miles on Sunday and the Grade 2, $300,000 Niagara at 1 1/2 miles on Monday.
Lenny the Lender, 9, has not won in his last 18 starts. His last score was on Oct. 31, 2002.
He has, however, made good money for his owner-trainer, Dick Jukosky, during that stretch by finishing second in a number of turf stakes.
SASKATOON, Saskatchewan - Excessively Sweet goes in search of her third straight stakes victory to kick off her career in Saturday's $22,500 Prairie Lily Sales Stakes at Marquis Downs. The seven-furlong race is for graduates of the 2004 Prairie Lily yearling sale.
Excessively Sweet, the first runner from the sire You've Got Action's first crop, has never been behind a runner at any call. She faces eight rivals Saturday in the meet's richest race.
WINNIPEG, Manitoba - Trainer Carl Anderson sends out the uncoupled trio of Lord Shogun, Albarino, and Nugrayontheblock against five rivals at Assiniboia Downs in Saturday's $40,000 R.J. Speers for 3-year-olds and upward at 1 1/16 miles.
Lord Shogun has won two of his last three races, including the allowance prep for the R.J. Speers on Aug. 19. A 6-year-old son of Maudlin, Lord Shogun appears to be a horse who needs the lead. The two times this year he didn't make the lead, he finished seventh in the Wheat City Stakes and sixth in the Free Press Stakes.
DEL MAR, Calif. - Pussycat Doll was a top contender for the Grade 1 Las Virgenes Stakes last winter at Santa Anita when trainer Bob Baffert pulled her out of the race because he was concerned over the wet-fast conditions.
He wound up doing more than that in the following days, taking Pussycat Doll out of training entirely.
"She wasn't doing that well, and I turned her out," Baffert said.
DEL MAR, Calif. - Tucked Away, the upset winner of the Grade 2 Clement Hirsch Handicap at Del Mar last month, was seriously injured during a turf workout on Wednesday. Tucked Away suffered cracked sesamoids in her right foreleg, according to trainer Paddy Gallagher.
There is fear that the injury is life-threatening, but Gallagher said every effort was being made to save Tucked Away as a broodmare.
"Both sesamoids are cracked," Gallagher said. "We're getting a couple of vets to see what they think is best."
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - Because of a soaked turf course on Wednesday morning, Saratoga officials decided to scratch both steeplechases races on the card - an allowance race and the Grade 1 New York Turf Writers Cup Steeplechase Handicap. The remnants of Hurricane Katrina dumped about 1 1/2 inches of rain on the area overnight.
