NORTH RANDALL, Ohio - There are three undercard stakes on Saturday's Ohio Derby Day program at Thistledown, topped by the 38th running of the $75,000 Cleveland Gold Cup. The Gold Cup is the top race of the year for Ohio-bred 3-year-olds and will be run at 1 1/8 miles.
The other stakes are the $40,000 Scarlet Carnation Stakes for fillies and mares and the $40,000 Isi Newborn Memorial Stakes for 3-year-olds and up. Both are at six furlongs.
The group of 3-year-old fillies scheduled to gather at Delaware Park for Saturday's $75,000 Denise Rhudy Memorial Stakes need no introductions. Seven of the nine have already faced each other at least once in stakes competition this season.
Based on head-to-head results in New York, Maryland, and Florida, the fillies My Typhoon and Dynamite Lass are the most formidable threats in the Rhudy, scheduled for 1 1/8 miles on turf.
EAST BOSTON, Mass. - A Massachusetts-bred horse - Senor Ladd - has a legitimate chance to be named New England horse of the year next week when the region's turf writers and horsemen gather on Thursday for the 2004 awards dinner.
Senor Ladd was named New England's top 3-year-old, sprinter and New England-bred in the New England Turf Writers vote last November for divisional champions. The members also voted on the James B. Moseley Horse of the Year Award, but the results will first be announced at Thursday's banquet at the Danversport Yacht Club.
Trainer Bill Mott and jockey Heberto Castillo Jr., who combined to win last weekend's My Juliet Stakes with Ebony Breeze, will be back at Philadelphia Park on Saturday attempting to win another stakes.
Castillo, 2 for 3 riding at Philly Park this year, will ride the Mott-trained My Lordship, a 4-year-old filly who is among six serious contenders in the $100,000 Dr. James Penny Memorial Handicap.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. - The filly and mare turf division isn't the most glamorous or exciting in North American racing. But it often provides well-matched fields and an attractive brand of racing, and that should prove the case once again Saturday at Churchill Downs.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario - Trainer Mark Casse is perennially a successful trainer of 2-year-olds, but he hasn't had much representation on that front thus far this season.
"I didn't bring them up from Florida until later this year, because I had so many 3-year-olds," said Casse. "We've been a little slow to get going; we're just a little behind. But, I've got some really good 2-year-olds."
One of the most prestigious races at Keeneland, the $500,000 Spinster Stakes, has a new signature sponsor. The Grade 1 filly-mare race will be known as the Juddmonte Spinster when it is run Oct. 9 at the Lexington, Ky., track.
Juddmonte, which encompasses six farms in England and Ireland and three in the United States, including one in Lexington, replaces Overbrook Farm as the Spinster sponsor. Juddmonte becomes the third sponsor of the Spinster, following Three Chimneys (1996-2000) and Overbrook (2001-04).
INGLEWOOD, Calif. - Opinions can change rapidly in horse racing.
After trainer Doug O'Neill watched Andujar, at the time trained by Julio Canani, dust four rivals by 10 1/2 lengths in an entry-level allowance race on April 28, he thought to himself, "Who did she beat?"
A few weeks later, when O'Neill and owner Paul Reddam were approached about buying Andujar, O'Neill looked at the race a different way. "It was more like how well she did it," O'Neill said.
That opinion has not changed in the last six weeks.
NORTH RANDALL, Ohio - For the first time in many years, a locally owned horse, Magna Graduate, has been made the morning-line favorite for Ohio's premier race, Saturday's Grade 2, $350,000 Ohio Derby.
In his last three races, Magna Graduate has been competitive in graded stakes in Kentucky, Illinois, and Texas, and comes into the Ohio Derby with three wins from 10 starts and earnings of just under $250,000. He was purchased privately last fall by Elisabeth Alexander, one of Ohio's top owners and breeders.
