OCEANPORT, N.J. - Weather permitting, Whenthedoveflies will look to rebound from her only career loss in nine races at five furlongs when she headlines the $55,000 Klassy Briefcase Stakes for fillies and mares Saturday at Monmouth Park.
Trainer Kirk Ziadie will not run her on anything but a firm turf course.
She caught a yielding course for the Calder Turf Sprint Handicap on July 10 and faded badly in a race she had won the year before. Ziadie won't put her in that position again.
Coming off a victory in the Grade 2 Riva Ridge Handicap, Fire Slam outclassed the opposition in last year's Don Bernhardt Stakes at Ellis Park and proved a game winner. This year, with Fire Slam returning from more than a seven-month layoff and facing an accomplished group of sprinters, the outcome is more in doubt.
Leading trainer Cole Norman can pull a Louisiana-California sprint stakes double this weekend. His bid begins Saturday at Louisiana Downs, when he sends out That Tat and Grand Bank against Rodeo's Castle in the $50,000 Island Whirl Handicap.
Sunday, the Norman action shifts to Del Mar, where he will start Top Commander in the Grade 1 Bing Crosby Breeders' Cup.
SHAKOPEE, Minn. - Can she bring it home for mama?
That's the question trainer David Van Winkle and co-owner Connie Phillips will ask of probable favorite Oh You Again when she faces eight other Minnesota-bred 3-year-old fillies in the $60,000 Minnesota Oaks, one of two Saturday stakes at Canterbury Park.
A winner in all three of her career appearances, Oh You Again seeks to emulate her dam, Sweet Sum, who captured the Minnesota Oaks in 1993. The event was held at Ak-Sar-Ben that season as a result of Canterbury Downs being closed.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario - Woodbine Entertainment Group and The Cordish Company, a Baltimore-based developer, have unveiled plans for a $310 million entertainment district on the Woodbine property.
David Willmot, Woodbine's chairman and chief executive officer, and David Cordish of The Cordish Company jointly announced the project at a news conference Thursday.
Penn National Gaming Inc., the racing and casino company that owns Penn National Race Course in Pennsylvania and Charles Town Races in West Virginia, had net income of 14 cents per share in the second quarter of 2005, compared with net income of 24 cents per share in the second quarter of 2004, according to financial statements released Thursday.
Penn National, which owns 10 casino-style gambling facilities, including a casino at Charles Town, had total revenue of
MIAMI - The good news for the connections of Nightmare Affair and Mister Fotis is that there will be no Woke Up Dreamins or Toscanis in Saturday's 6 1/2-furlong Groomstick Handicap at Calder. The bad news is the reason for the competition being much softer: The race will be worth only $75,000, compared with the $500,000 in prize money those two locally based speedsters competed for when they last matched strides, in the Grade 2 Smile Sprint Handicap here three weeks earlier.
Madame Music and Whiteface, who won their maidens with identical Beyer Speed Figures in their turf debuts last time out, will undoubtedly attract the most attention from bettors in the $60,000 Tippett, a 5 1/2-furlong turf stakes for 2-year-old fillies at Colonial Downs.
Madame Music beat nine rivals going six furlongs at Belmont Park, and Whiteface easily defeated 11 fillies in a 5 1/2-furlong race at Colonial. Each got a 70 Beyer.
A trio of horses coming off long layoffs could have a major impact in Saturday's $100,000 Sussex Handicap at Delaware Park.
Mr O'Brien, a two-time Grade 2 stakes winner last season, and Control Tower, part of an entry from trainer H. Graham Motion's barn, have both been idle since last October. Motion's other horse, Change Course, has been off since March.
Attempting to gauge how those horses will run first time back is the key handicapping challenge for the Sussex, a 1 1/16-mile race on turf.