FORT ERIE, Ontario - Tyrone Harding is once again gaining prominence as a rider at Fort Erie.
As the Fort's racing week begins Saturday, Harding, a native of Trinidad, is fifth in the jockey standings with 15 wins, one behind Chris Griffith in fourth.
At the top of the standings are Chad Beckon and Francine Villeneuve with 31 wins each. Neil Poznansky is third with 21 victories.
Boston is a college town with more than a dozen prestigious universities concentrated in the area. So it figures that apprentice jockey Anne Sanguinetti - a 24-year-old Californian with degrees in economics and Spanish from Pepperdine University - would come to this bastion of academia to further her education at Suffolk Downs.
"Ever since I was a little kid, I've told everyone that I would make my living with horses," said Sanguinetti. "I stayed in school because mostly I was a nerd and I just loved it."
INGLEWOOD, Calif. - A week after Dark Beauty overcame a troubled trip to win a $50,000 claiming race for 3-year-old fillies, she returns as a top contender in a $51,000 allowance race for California-breds on Friday evening at Hollywood Park.
Trained by Barry Abrams, Dark Beauty has drawn the rail in a one-mile turf race, the seventh race. By Bertrando, Dark Beauty will be attempting to win the third race of her career.
INGLEWOOD, Calif. - A week after Dark Beauty overcame a troubled trip to win a $50,000 claiming race for 3-year-old fillies, she returns as a top contender in a $51,000 allowance race for California-breds on Friday evening at Hollywood Park.
Trained by Barry Abrams, Dark Beauty has drawn the rail in a one-mile turf race, the seventh race. By Bertrando, Dark Beauty will be attempting to win the third race of her career.
INGLEWOOD, Calif. - Churchill Downs Inc., which has been negotiating for months to sell Hollywood Park, is close to a deal with Stockbridge Capital Partners, the owner of Bay Meadows racetrack in northern California, according to a published report.
The report, in the Los Angeles Business Journal, said that Stockbridge has bid $275 million for the 240-acre property.
On Wednesday, Hollywood Park president Rick Baedeker declined to comment on the possibility, but one insider suggested that an agreement could be reached within a week.
INGLEWOOD, Calif. - Supah Blitz, the winner of four stakes in the last year, will miss the $750,000 Hollywood Gold Cup at Hollywood Park on July 9 because of a splint bone injury, trainer Doug O'Neill said Wednesday.
The injury robs the Gold Cup of one of its more established candidates. The race lacks a nationally prominent standout.
ELMONT, N.Y. - Laurafina rewarded her backers with a win price of $29.40 in a maiden race in May. Bettors who used Laurafina on the bottom of their exactas with heavy favorite Melhor Ainda in the Grade 3 Sands Point won $29.60.
On Friday at Belmont Park, Laurafina's price will plummet significantly when she meets six other fillies and mares in the $46,000 feature, a first-level allowance race at one mile on turf.
Post time for the first race on Friday's twilight card is 3 p.m.
ELMONT, N.Y. - Spun Sugar has more to achieve before she can be compared to her stablemate, Ashado, last year's champion 3-year-old filly. But Spun Sugar has the opportunity to do something that Ashado couldn't - win Saturday's $300,000 Mother Goose at Belmont Park.
Spun Sugar, a winner of the Grade 2 Black-Eyed Susan in her last start, will make her Grade 1 debut in the Mother Goose. Last year, Ashado finished second as the favorite in the Mother Goose.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. - The Klein family of Louisville has enjoyed so much success in nearly 20 years of owning racehorses that, trainer Steve Flint said, "it would take me an hour to remember all the horses' names."
As the former longtime assistant to his father, trainer Bernie Flint, and the private trainer for the Kleins in recent years, Steve Flint has given many a leg up to a jockey wearing the Kleins' familiar lime-and-black silks. Bernie Flint trained for the Kleins - Bertram, his wife Elaine. and their son Richard - from 1988 until Steve took over in September 2001.
Ned Allard, like several trainers with 3-year-old grass horses, has been weighing his options for Saturday.
He has two $500,000 stakes choices on the same afternoon: the Grade 3 Kent Breeders' Cup Stakes at Delaware Park and the Colonial Turf Cup at Colonial Downs in Virginia.
Allard cross-entered the front-running Jersey Derby winner, Touched by Madness, in both, and on Wednesday he said he was leaning toward the Colonial Turf Cup.
