WINNIPEG, Manitoba - Last year Iwoodificould began the season here by winning an allowance race, the Free Press Stakes, and a 7 1/2-furlong allowance prep for the Wheat City Stakes.
This year Iwouldificould has won an allowance race, the Free Press, and looks to complete an early-season hat trick in Friday's seventh race, a 7 1/2-furlong allowance that will likely be used by most as a prep for the one-mile Wheat City on Aug. 1.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. - Everybody else can talk about the future for Kitten's Joy. All that Dale Romans wants, however, is to get the turf star past his next start, the Aug. 13 Arlington Million.
"I'm refusing to look past that," said Romans. "Let's get through the Million, then we can talk."
LOUISVILLE, Ky. - Racing secretary Doug Bredar theorizes that entries at Churchill Downs have been filling so well toward the end of the spring meet "because horsemen realize they're not going to have the opportunity to run for this kind of money much longer."
INGLEWOOD, Calif. - Bad luck in recent years has made trainer Craig Dollase anxious about Saturday's $750,000 Hollywood Gold Cup.
Three times in the last four years Dollase has had a starter in the Gold Cup, Hollywood Park's most prestigious race. He has yet to win, and twice has had experiences bordering on nightmare.
In 2001, Futural finished first, but was disqualified and placed third for causing interference in the stretch. A year later, Momentum finished second by a nose to Sky Jack. Last year, Dollase ran the longshot Royal Moro, who finished fifth.
INGLEWOOD, Calif. - Mudweiser could be on his way to a stakes at Del Mar if he succeeds in an allowance race for statebreds at Hollywood Park on Thursday.
Mudweiser has only four rivals in the $51,000 allowance race over 1 1/16 miles, and trainer Rafael Becerra thinks that Mudweiser can win his second consecutive start.
"If he can perform on Thursday, he could be any kind of horse," Becerra said.
, a 3-year-old gelding by Mud Route, beat statebred maidens by two lengths over 6 1/2 furlongs on June 10. The race was his first victory in five starts.
ELMONT, N.Y. - Orpington, who nearly two months ago finished a close fourth in one of the tougher second-level turf allowance races of the meet, looms the one to beat when he returns in Thursday's featured eighth race at Belmont Park.
The 1 1/16-mile allowance, which drew a field of eight that includes one main-track-only, is scheduled for the inner turf course, where the field breaks directly onto the clubhouse turn. Orpington drew nicely in post 2, which will enable his rider, John Velazquez, to save ground in the early going.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario - Bold Little Lass goes from Ontario-sired allowance competition to an open preliminary allowance in Thursday's Woodbine headliner, a 1 1/16-mile event for fillies and mares, but she could make the grade.
A 4-year-old trained by Jim Smith, Bold Little Lass was winless in 11 starts in 2004, but her eight in-the-money placings enabled her to earn $80,390 on the year.
AUBURN, Wash. - Thiscatskrafty, who has run second in each of his last four starts, has a good chance to move up a notch when he takes on five rivals in Thursday's 6 1/2-furlong feature at Emerald Downs, which is for $7,500 starter allowance company.
The 5-year-old Thiscatskrafty began his string of runner-up finishes against $12,500 claimers at Bay Meadows on April 18, when he was claimed by trainer Frank Lucarelli. He again ran second against allowance company in his final Bay Meadows outing on
CHICAGO - It would've been understandable if last weekend at Prairie Meadows a racing fan stared around confused, thinking this must be Chicago, for Prairie Meadows's midsummer frenzy of stakes racing looked like Arlington Park west.
Chicago-based horses won five of the eight stakes offered during the four-day Iowa Festival of Racing; two more Chicagoans lost as favorites, and a third finished a surprising second in the Iowa Derby.
Score one for the visiting team.
OCEANPORT, N.J. - Doctor Voodoo gets back to basics Thursday at Monmouth Park in the second of two divisions of the $44,000 allowance feature.
In the eighth race, Doctor Voodoo faces allowance company for the first time since August. The 3-year-old Doctor Voodoo has run in six stakes since then with mixed success going long and short, turf and dirt.
The winner of last year's Rockhill Native Stakes at Monmouth, Doctor Voodoo has not been competitive in three starts this year. Thursday's race will be a return to fundamentals: six furlongs on the main track.
