GRAND PRAIRIE, Texas - Our Love, who beat up on male rivals in her last start, will return to racing with fillies and mares Saturday in the $50,000 Miller Lite Stakes at Lone Star Park.
She should go favored in the five-furlong turf race on the strength of her 4 3/4-length allowance score against males, her stellar grass record, and her pedigree. Our Love is a full sister to Leslie's Love, a winner of more than $600,000 who captured the Miller Lite in 2002.
Beau's Town is on the comeback trail and could be seen before the close of the Louisiana Downs meet, his owner, Dave Hulkewicz, said Thursday. The multiple-stakes-winning sprinter is scheduled to return to the Louisiana Downs barn of trainer Cole Norman on July 15, and could be ready to run as early as September.
Beau's Town has won eight stakes in his career, with his biggest scores coming in the Grade 2 Bing Crosby Breeders' Cup at Del Mar and the Grade 3 Count Fleet Sprint Handicap at Oaklawn. Overall, he has won 12 of 21 starts and $611,930.
Until this year, Quarter Horse trainer Mike Joiner had not spent a summer at Los Alamitos since 1984. The way things have gone in recent weeks, Joiner is wishing he had come back a lot sooner.
Saturday, Joiner has two finalists in the $1,145,000 Ed Burke Memorial Million Futurity over 350 yards at Los Alamitos - Fishers Tale and Identity Theft. Remarkably, they are the only two horses he sent to California from his 50-strong stable in Ruidoso, N.M.
The Straw Man goes for his fifth win of the year and second straight at Lincoln when he heads a field of six going one mile in the $15,000-guaranteed State Fair Derby.
A winner of nearly $60,000 this year, The Straw Man captured the Fonner Park Special and the Nebraska Derby in Grand Island this spring. After finishing third, beaten a head, in the six-furlong Journal Star Stakes here May 22, The Straw Man scored by three lengths in the State Fair Breeders' Stakes going a mile. Dennis Collins will ride from post 3.
Switch Lanes will attempt to stretch her winning streak to four when she starts as the 124-pound highweight against five other Iowa-bred fillies and mares in Saturday's $70,000 Hawkeyes Handicap at Prairie Meadows.
Switch Lanes has been one of the most successful claims ever made at Prairie Meadows. Owner Maggi Moss and trainer Dick Clark dropped a slip for $25,000 last
July 3 on the then 5-year-old Switch Lanes. Since then, Switch Lanes has recorded 5 wins - 3 of which have come in stakes - and 3 second-place finishes in 8 starts, good for over $175,000 in earnings.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario - A Queen's Plate victory would add some serious zest to anyone's family reunion.
That will be the assignment here Sunday for Get Down, who will run for trainer Nancy Triola in the $1 million showpiece for Canadian-bred 3-year-olds.
Triola, along with her husband and assistant, Bob, and their daughter, 8 1/2-month old Danielle, can be found on the Woodbine backstretch every morning. In the afternoon, their stage shifts to nearby Gardiner Farm, where the stable's reserves are in waiting.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario - Trainer Malcolm Pierce seeks his second straight victory in the $106,400 Hill 'n' Dale Stakes Saturday at Woodbine, sending out Lemon Maid and Charming Ruckus in the four-horse race for 3-year-old fillies.
The owner of each of the first three finishers in the 1 1/16-mile race receives a 2005 season to one of three Hill 'n' Dale stallions in Kentucky - Theatrical, El Corredor, and Stormy Atlantic.
Pierce won the inaugural Hill 'n' Dale last year with My Lordship, who, like Lemon Maid, is owned by Live Oak Plantation.
WINNIPEG, Manitoba - A full field of 12 3-year-old colts and geldings foaled in Manitoba has been entered for Saturday's $40,000 Manitoba Stakes at one mile.
Your Excellence, winner of the restricted Frank Arnason Sire Stakes and CTHS Sales Stakes last year, has raced three times this year, all against first-level allowance company here. In his first start of the year, on May 7, Your Excellence finished third, beaten 1 1/4 lengths as the 8-5 favorite. Your Excellence then finished second, 16 lengths behind subsequent Golden Boy Stakes winner Prime Time T.V. on May 22.
SASKATOON, Saskatchewan - Double Time had been dominant at Marquis Downs, having been named the province's horse of the year for the last two years, but he is still seeking his first win of the year in Saturday's Early's Top Seeded Handicap for older horses. The seven entrants in the Early's Top Seeded compete for a $6,000 purse over six furlongs.
