J.D.'s Blue Bayou has mastered sprinting, and on Sunday at Louisiana Downs he will attempt to conquer a different frontier: Two turns and turf.
The task comes in the $75,000 A. L. "Red" Erwin, for 3-year-old Louisiana-breds at about a mile on turf. J.D.'s Blue Bayou has finished fourth in his one career start on the grass, but he could go favored Sunday on the strength of his record of three stakes wins, all of which have come at six furlongs.
MIAMI - A $40,000 overnight stakes for 3-year-olds in the middle of the summer at Calder is not supposed to draw a multiple graded stakes-placed horse and a member of the field from the Preakness Stakes. But that will be the case on Sunday when B. B. Best and Hal's Image face six rivals going a mile under allowance conditions in the American Dreamer Stakes.
Bolted Heart was gone a year and 13 days, but judging by his two return races at the northern California fairs this summer, you wouldn't know it. That's because the 4-year-old has managed to come right back to top form, and despite moving to a longer trip and to turf for just the second time, he looms the horse to beat in Sunday's $30,000 feature at the Bay Meadows Fair, an entry-level allowance at 7 1/2 furlongs on turf. The race lured a field of 11 and goes as the ninth on a 10-race card.
SHAKOPEE, Minn. - What started as a tearful goodbye has become perhaps the most anticipated day of racing at the Canterbury Park meet.
On Sunday, the Minnesota Festival of Champions, a series of nine stakes restricted to Minnesota-breds - seven for Thoroughbreds and two for Quarter Horses - will be run for the 11th time. Purses for the nine stakes total $320,000.
The major contenders in the $45,000 Vivacious Handicap at River Downs - and there are many - can be divided into three camps: those who prefer turf, those who prefer dirt, and those who perform equally well on both surfaces.
The Vivacious, for Ohio-bred fillies and mares, is scheduled for 1 1/16 miles on the turf, but if recent wet weather persists, the Vivacious is in danger of being switched to the main track.
AUBURN, Wash. - Trainer Art Sherman first claimed Desert Boom for $25,000 in July 2004 at Del Mar, then lost him out of a win for the same price a month later.
That might have been the end of a short but sweet relationship, but Sherman had not had quite enough of it. At the suggestion of owner Bob Bone, Sherman spent $32,000 to reacquire Desert Boom in November, and neither trainer nor owner has had cause to regret the purchase. In eight subsequent starts, Desert Boom has won six times while collecting more than half of his career earnings, which now total $474,420.
VANCOUVER, British Columbia - Trainer Robbie Anderson is hoping for a rarity to occur at Hastings on Sunday. Anderson trains Regal Red and her half-brother Commodore Craig. Both have excellent shots at winning stakes races on the Sunday card. Regal Red will likely be favored in the Cover Girl Handicap and Commodore Craig is a serious contender in the Hastings Speed.
"It would be nice to see a brother-sister double," said Anderson. "It's not very often that you get a brother and sister that have legitimate chances running in stakes on the same day."
AUBURN, Wash. - Adreamisborn will attempt to become the third horse to win back-to-back renewals of the Grade 3, $250,000 Longacres Mile when he heads a field of 11 Sunday in the 70th edition of the Northwest's most prestigious race.
Adreamisborn, who won last year's Mile by a length over Demon Warlock, will be trying to match the feat achieved by Trooper Seven in 1980-81 and Simply Majestic in 1988-89.
WINNIPEG, Manitoba - For the second time this year, trainer Ardell Sayler will send out a strong contingent in a 2-year-old stakes at Assiniboia Downs. In July, Sayler sent out four of the seven fillies in the Debutante Stakes. On Sunday, Sayler will saddle three of the eight colts and geldings entered in the restricted North Dakota Stallion Stakes.
All three of Sayler's entrants - Bib Overalls, Barnstorm, and Catch Me Talkin - will race with Lasix for the first time. They are drawn in the outside three post positions in the six-furlong race.
