Remington Park closed out its 32-date Quarter Horse meet June 5, and a schedule of mostly night racing helped the track post an increase in average daily attendance and handle over the same meet in 2004.
Attendance averaged 1,904 patrons a card, up 3.4 percent from last meet. Handle on Remington Park's races averaged $397,055 a program, an increase of 70 percent that was fueled by significant growth in betting on the track's races at sites around the country.
Dash on a Mission, winner of the Grade 1, $175,000 Ford Juvenile Challenge Championship, returns from a spring layoff in the trials to the Grade 1 Bayer Legend California Juvenile Challenge at Los Alamitos on Friday night.
The 3-year-olds with the 10 fastest times from the two trials qualify for the 400-yard finals on July 1.
Fastest qualifier Line Seven heads a competitive Grade 1, $139,700 Retama Park Derby, and the undefeated This Candys Red Hot tops the Grade 1, $328,725 Retama Park Futurity on closing weekend of the Retama Park Quarter Horse season.
The derby is on Saturday, and the futurity will be held on Sunday.
Fastest qualifier Strawfly Romance will have a tough test against Sunland Fall Futurity winner Cowboys N Injuns in the Grade 3, $42,840 Bayer Legend New Mexico Derby at Ruidoso Downs on Sunday afternoon.
Strawfly Romance topped the qualifiers from three trials on June 2 with a neck win over second-fastest qualifier Go Fly West, who was making his second start. Strawfly Romance raced the 400 yards in 19.662 seconds.
Strawfly Romance has a fourth in the Grade 1 Texas Classic Futurity and a fifth in the Sunland Fall Futurity.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario - The Queen's Plate is quickly approaching, with the 146th running of the $1 million showpiece for Canadian-bred 3-year-olds set for Sunday, June 26.
And there was Queen's Plate news on several fronts here Wednesday, as nominees Three in the Bag, Granique, and Stag Nation all worked over the "good" main track, and Enough Is Enough and Dave the Knave were officially declared to be out of the running.
VANCOUVER, British Columbia - Chris Loseth, the all-time leading rider in victories and stakes wins at Hastings, has retired. Loseth made the surprise announcement midway through Sunday's card.
"I woke up Sunday morning and just decided that this was the last day I'm going to ride," he said. "I normally pull two or three pounds in my whirlpool at home, and when I got into the pool Sunday morning, I felt good about it being the last time."
WINNIPEG, Manitoba - Rim Dancer, a 10-year-old gelding owned by his trainer, Clint Willson, appears to the class of Friday's featured eighth race for $8,000 claimers at 7 1/2 furlongs.
After racing only twice during 2004, Rim Dancer began this year by beating a field of $5,000 claimers with a strong stretch rally.
In his next start, Rim Dancer, a British Columbia-bred son of Three Martinis, finished third against $10,000 claimers.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. - Second of June has been withdrawn from Saturday's Stephen Foster Handicap because of an ankle injury that will keep the 4-year-old colt out of action at least into the fall.
Trainer Bill Cesare said Tuesday at Churchill Downs that Second of June came up lame shortly after he returned from training Monday. The eventual diagnosis was an osselet, or a painful calcium deposit, in Second of June's left hind ankle.
INGLEWOOD, Calif. - The upset win by McCann's Mojave Saturday in the $75,000 Ack Ack Handicap gives trainer Paddy Gallagher live contenders in both Grade 1 races July 3 at Hollywood Park - McCann's Mojave in the seven-furlong Triple Bend Handicap and Three Degrees in the American Oaks.
"Those races are a ways away, but both horses came out of their races in great shape," Gallagher said Tuesday. McCann's Mojave won for the sixth time in 11 starts, and was making his first start since being transferred to Gallagher from Leonard Dorfman.
INGLEWOOD, Calif. - The reeling West Coast handicap division could be replenished Saturday at Hollywood Park, where a modest group of older horses - led by Ace Blue and Borrego - will contest the Grade 2 Californian.
Meanwhile, two nominees to the $250,000 Californian follow a path of less resistance by running Thursday in a $58,000 allowance. take on three others in a 1 1/16-mile race with multiple conditions. It is a classified allowance, nonwinners-of-three-other-than, and $100,000 claiming race rolled into one.
