ALTOONA, Iowa - Defending champion and track-record-holder Coach Jimi Lee heads a wide-open running of the $125,000 Iowa Sprint Handicap at Prairie Meadows on Monday afternoon.
In addition to the six-furlong Sprint, Monday's card also includes the $100,000 Saylorville Stakes for fillies and mares at six furlongs. Monday is the fourth and final day of the Iowa Festival of Racing.
MIAMI - Some trainers with horses entered in Monday's $100,000 Mecke Handicap at Calder, such as David Fawkes, Bill White, and Ralph Biszantz, are probably hoping for rain. Some, like David Brownlee and Victor Falzone, are likely praying for a little dry spell. Others, like Ralph Ziadie, probably don't care either way.
The Mecke is carded at 1 1/8 miles on the turf, although grass racing has been almost nonexistent here over the last several weeks during what has been another typical south Florida rainy season.
FORT ERIE, Ontario - Ready and Alluring was no match for Gold Strike but was much the best of the others in the Labatt Woodbine Oaks on June 12.
And with Gold Strike having run third last Sunday in the Queen's Plate and not running on Monday, Ready and Alluring will be an odds-on choice and the probable winner of the $250,000 Labatt Bison City.
The 1 1/16-mile Bison City, which follows the 1 1/8-mile Oaks as the second leg of the triple tiara for Canadian-bred 3-year-old fillies, attracted a field of six. All carry 121 pounds.
Any time the top Massach-usetts-bred horses get together for a stakes, it's going to be a family affair. In Monday's $40,000 Last Dance Stakes at Suffolk Downs, the field will include three horses trained by Lori Lockhart for her father and daughter, two pairs of equine half-brothers, and one big favorite in Jini's Jet.
Jini's Jet, a 7-year-old trained by Karl Grusmark, crossed the 20-win mark with his victory in the Rise Jim Stakes on May 30, adding another $24,000 to his six-figure bankroll. A win today will move him past $400,000 in earnings.
Kentucky-based trainer Darrin Miller has a solid threat in each of the turf stakes on Monday's rare afternoon program at Mountaineer Race Track.
Gin and Sin is lightly weighted at 109 pounds in the Coca-Cola Independence Day Stakes for older horses. He will try to make amends for his loss as the favorite in this same race last year.
Miller also has Modena Bay, a sharp 7-year-old mare seeking her first stakes victory in the United States, in the co-featured Firecracker Stakes for fillies and mares.
Once upon a time, A Huevo and Shake You Down were graded stakes winners. The two old-timers, whose recent form has gone sour, surprisingly turn up among the entries in the $55,000 Mo Bay, a six-furlong overnight stakes at Delaware Park.
The 9-year-old A Huevo wasn't competitive in either of his last two starts, the Grade 1 De Francis Memorial Dash at Pimlico or the Grade 3 Fred Hooper at Calder, and has been idle since December. He now drops in class and returns to a track where he is 4 for 4 in his career.
New York-bred filly and mare sprinters will be in the spotlight in a pair of $50,000 stakes on the holiday card at Finger Lakes.
Bombay Dreams, who blew away six rivals in her first race over the track to improve her record to 5 for 7, heads a field of 14 3-year-old fillies in the 25th running of the six-furlong Niagara.
Keeslr, a Steve Asmussen-trained 4-year-old, goes for her fourth consecutive victory in the six-furlong Arctic Queen for older females.
High Dice continues his comeback from more than a one-year layoff and just might be in the right position to score his first victory since 2003 when he faces seven others in Monday's $15,000 State Fair Board Handicap at a mile and 70 yards.
High Dice, 10, has been a solid competitor in the Nebraska stakes ranks for years, and among his 18 career victories are two in this race - in 2001 and 2003.
Miss Smart Strike, a well-traveled New York-bred, returns to the state in which she has scored 3 of her 4 career wins for Monday's Tellike Handicap at Evangeline Downs in Opelousas, La.
The six-furlong Tellike was rescheduled from May 20 after racing operations were suspended from May 12 to June 29 in order to overhaul the racing surface. The Tellike drew a field of 10 and carries a $50,000 purse.
Waupaca is a usually a front-runner, but he can stalk. Trainer Donnie Von Hemel will leave the pace decisions to E.J. Perrodin on Saturday when the jockey rides Waupaca in the $50,000 Independence Handicap.
"I think when you leg [Perrodin] up at Louisiana Downs on the turf, you don't say anything," said Von Hemel. "You just leg him up."
Perrodin's success on the local course has been well documented through the years, and already this meet he has won 3 of the 7 grass stakes. He also won last year's Independence, aboard Sea Dub.