AUBURN, Wash. - Flamethrowintexan was assigned 123 pounds for Sunday's $40,000 Independence Day Handicap at Emerald Downs, and even though his trainer, Jim Penney, figures it's too much weight for the 4-year-old's first stakes try against older horses, Flamethrowintexan looks up to the task.
The weight won't keep fans from making Flamethrowintexan an overwhelming choice in the 1 1/16-mile stakes, especially since he will face only three challengers.
EDMONTON, Alberta - Bleu Royale, a wire-to-wire winner for $25,000 last time out, seeks a second straight victory in Sunday's $32,000 optional claiming feature at 6 1/2 furlongs at Northlands Park.
Chris McGregor received the return mount on Bleu Royale, who will face four other 3-year-olds.
Bleu Royale, trained by Stuart Simon, started the season with a close second-place finish in an allowance dash.
VANCOUVER, British Columbia - The $40,000 Jim Coleman Province Handicap, which goes as the seventh race at Hastings Sunday, should help sort out who the leaders are in the local 3-year-old division. The 1 1/16-mile feature drew eight horses.
No Sox Fox and Spaghetti Mouse are both coming off of stakes wins and should receive some support. But this will be the first time No Sox Fox goes around three turns, and Spaghetti Mouse could have a hard time getting a good trip leaving from post 8.
CHICAGO - The long-distance turf horses in the Stars and Stripes Handicap are getting long in the tooth.
Rochester is 9, Revved Up 7, and Epicentre 6, and the play might be 5-year-old Cloudy's Knight, who only got good last season and has more upside than his aged rivals.
CHICAGO - Looking down from a different era on this age of early retirements, of brilliant 2-year-olds burned out at 3, stands Rochester, who turned 9 in January and hasn't lost a step. Rochester runs Sunday at Arlington as the junior member of an old-timer tag team that forgot to exit the main stage when they were expected to step aside.
"Nine?" said trainer Steve Hobby of Rochester. "He's a youngster, isn't he?"
ALTOONA, Iowa - Two-year-olds takes center stage in a pair of $50,000 five-furlong stakes at Prairie Meadows on Sunday afternoon.
Sunday is day three of the four-day Iowa Festival of Racing. The festival features two stakes races per day worth a total of more than $1.1 million.
The Prairie Gold Juvenile, which drew a field of eight, presents an interesting handicapping challenge.
ELMONT, N.Y. - Oratory, the winner who would have been favored to win Monday's Dwyer Stakes at Belmont Park, suffered a condylar fracture to his right foreleg during a workout Friday morning at Belmont and is out for the year.
Oratory was scheduled to undergo surgery Saturday morning, at which time Dr. Stephen Selway will likely insert a couple of screws to stabilize the bone.
ELMONT, N.Y. - As he navigated his way through mud puddles on the Belmont Park backside Thursday morning, trainer James Toner looked up to the heavens and wondered why it wasn't raining some more.
"We didn't get as much rain as they said we would,'' Toner said. "Needless to say we'll be doing our rain dance between now and Saturday.''
ELMONT, N.Y. - In addition to a pair of graded stakes, Saturday's 10-race card at Belmont Park features the return to the races of the multiple Grade 1 winner Stellar Jayne.
Stellar Jayne was one of six fillies and mares entered in the $65,000 Misty Gallore, an overnight stakes for fillies and mares at 7 1/2 furlongs over the main track.
