WINNIPEG, Manitoba - Ola Docura and Ericka's Lass, the one-two finishers in the Canada Stakes here July 1, meet again at Assiniboia in Friday's featured one-mile allowance prep for the Winnipeg Sun Stakes.
The $40,000 Winnipeg Sun, a 1 1/16-mile race for fillies and mares, will be run July 31.
In the one-mile Canada Day, Ola Docura rallied to overtake Ericka's Lass in late stretch after Ericka's Lass had made the lead with just under a half-mile to race.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario - It may be the year of the rooster according to the Chinese zodiac, but it's the year of the "bug" here at Woodbine.
Heading into Wednesday night's races, with a touch more than one-third of the meeting in the books, apprentice riders Emma Wilson and Corey Fraser are running one-two. Wilson had won 54 races, Fraser 47.
The last apprentice jockey to win a riding title here was Mickey Walls, in 1991. Never have apprentices finished one-two, and never has a woman topped the Woodbine rider standings at year's end.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario - Bob Tiller, one of Woodbine's hotter trainers, will be looking to continue his winning ways Friday when he sends out Versionofthetruth in the feature, a seven-furlong allowance for Ontario-sired fillies and mares.
Versionofthetruth prevailed as a 6-1 overlay when she made her debut against $50,000 maidens at six furlongs June 2. Two weeks later, Tiller ran her in a seven-furlong Ontario-sired allowance, where she finished second after a three-wide trip.
MIAMI - There were several outstanding performances turned in at Calder's $1.9 million Summit of Speed program on Sunday, not the least of which was Madcap Escapade's easy 5 1/4-length victory over the previously undefeated Happy Ticket in the $500,000 Princess Rooney Handicap.
BOSSIER CITY, La. - St. Roch, stakes-placed earlier this year and also last season as a juvenile, returns to action in Friday's allowance feature at Louisiana Downs seeking his third career win. A field of seven will go seven furlongs in the nonwinners-of-two other-than affair on the main track, restricted to Louisiana-breds.
The finals for the D.S. "Shine" Young Futurity on July 30 were set last Saturday night at Evangeline Downs, with the top four finishers from each of the three trials qualifying. The "Shine" will be part of Louisiana Legends Night, a program dedicated to horses bred in Louisiana.
Vals Fortune, the millionaire Quarter Horse who set a track record at Delta Downs the last time he raced at the track, is among those considered possible for the Grade 3, $100,000 Louisiana Classic Stakes on Sunday at Delta.
The Classic is one of seven Louisiana-bred stakes for Quarter Horses that will make up the final card of the meet. The richest stakes on the program is the Grade 2, $336,150 Lee Berwick Futurity.
For some stables - as with baseball's postseason - the top of the rotation is king, especially when the stakes are at their highest.
Such logic is not lost on Leroy Hellman. A veteran trainer at Fairmount Park, Hellman ranks seventh in wins with 21 this meet and is third in earnings with $213,846. The reason: a fearsome foursome that includes the track's top older female in horse of the year candidate Lady Riss and two of the track's best males, Matched and Canyon de Oro. Denoun N Deverb, a 3-year-old filly, rounds out the quartet.
Fast Talkin Val became the Texas representative for the Grade 1, $300,000 MBNA America Challenge Championship for Quarter Horses at Los Alamitos on Nov. 5 after he won the Grade 1, $107,190 MBNA Texas Challenge Championship last Saturday night at Sam Houston.
Fast Talkin Val ($6.60) covered 440 yards in 21.53 seconds. Gilbert Ortiz rode the horse for trainer Heath Taylor, who ranks second in the nation in wins among Quarter Horse trainers in 2005. Taylor said Fast Talkin Val could start at Los Alamitos before the MBNA America.
