OCEANPORT, N.J. - Leading rider Joe Bravo fractured his collarbone in a seventh-race spill Thursday at Monmouth Park, according to Dr. Angelo Chinnici, the track's medical director.
"He has a fractured left clavicle," said Chinnici. "He was complaining of shortness of breath, but we were able to rule out a punctured lung, which is common with a clavicle fracture.
"He'll now have X-rays on his upper and lower back and we should know more definitively either later tonight or by the morning."
Maidens rarely are favored in stakes races, but Nolan's Cat probably will defy that trend Saturday at Ellis Park. Despite never having won in six career starts, Nolan's Cat figures to be favored over 10 other 3-year-olds in the $75,000 Regaey Island Stakes at the Henderson, Ky., track.
With Patience is far more accomplished going two turns on turf than she is sprinting. But the few times the 6-year-old With Patience has been asked to shorten up, she has proven capable.
An easy winner going 1 1/16 miles three weeks ago, With Patience will cut back to 5 1/2 furlongs for Saturday's $60,000 Somethingroyal Stakes for Virginia-bred fillies and mares at Colonial Downs.
Out of her 28 lifetime starts, With Patience, owned and trained by Elizabeth Merryman, has sprinted on grass only four times, winning twice and finishing third the other two times.
It's impossible to safely eliminate any of the eight 3-year-old sprinters in the $55,000 Oh Say Stakes at Delaware Park.
In their last three starts, every horse has run at least one Beyer between 87 and 94.
The field's lone stakes winner, Diamond Wildcat, has been a disappointment since taking the Horatius at Laurel Park in March, finishing fourth at even money and 7-2 odds in two sprint stakes.
Pointsman, a Michael Dickinson-trained colt who has won his last two starts, and the Scott Lake entry of Euro Code and Golden Exploit could vie for favoritism.
The $50,000 GTOBA Juvenile Filly Dash at Calder appears to be a rematch between Running Lass and Madison North, third and fourth in the Cassidy Stakes two weeks ago. Except, there's a twist.
The five-furlong race is scheduled for the turf, a surface on which none of the 13 2-year-old fillies entered in the race has run. To make matters even tougher on bettors, neither of the two favorites is particularly bred for the grass.
The biggest handicapping question surrounding Saturday's $40,000-added Fairfield Stakes at the Solano County Fair may be which filly will complete the exacta with Lunachick.
Lunachick appears a prohibitive favorite in the six-furlong race for 3-year-old fillies. Her lowest career Beyer Speed Figure is higher than the highest Beyer of two of her rivals, and her second-lowest Beyer is higher than the highest Beyer of the other four.
DM Shicago, winner of the All American Futurity, will be challenged by fellow millionaire Ocean Runaway in a strong Grade 1, $407,958 Rainbow Derby on Saturday afternoon at Ruidoso Downs.
DM Shicago, the 2004 champion 2-year-old gelding, is after his third straight Grade 1 victory at the New Mexico mountain track after concluding his juvenile season with a victory there in the $2 million All American Futurity and returning from a winter's rest to win the $273,935 Ruidoso Derby. He has made each of his eight career starts at Ruidoso, with four wins and $1,194,098 in earnings.
BOSSIER CITY, La. - Kourtneysfirst, a sharp maiden winner at odds-on here July 14, takes her act to another level Saturday in the $50,000 Southern Belle Stakes. Restricted to 2-year-old fillies bred in Louisiana, the 5 1/2-furlong Southern Belle drew a field of six.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario - Trainer Reade Baker had been looking forward to running Raylene in Saturday's $100,000 Belle Mahone, a 1 1/16-mile race for fillies and mares.
But the Belle Mahone is not part of Woodbine's guaranteed stakes schedule. And when the Belle Mahone attracted just four entrants, the race was history.
Raylene has raced just once this season, finishing five lengths behind One for Rose when third in the Matron, and Baker now will be looking toward Monmouth Park for the mare's next outing.
FORT ERIE, Ontario - After two years with no wins, trainer Desmond Maynard will be seeking his 10th win of the year on Saturday when he saddles Shoreman in the sixth race at Fort Erie.
Maynard was licensed in 1998 while he was at Woodbine. He moved his operation here this spring after being blanked the past two seasons at the Toronto track.
"It was awful, very bad," said Maynard. "I had few stalls. But I did some freelance galloping. That's what saved me."