It's Claiming Crown prep day at Arlington on Friday, at least for Lord of the Game, who is considered the early favorite for the $150,000 Claiming Crown Jewel at Canterbury Park on July 16.
Winner of the Grade 3 Hanshin Handicap, is the class of the ninth race, a $14,000 starter allowance at a mile on turf for horses that have raced for a claiming price of $10,000 or less in 2004-2005 - provided he handles the surface. Not once in his seven-race career has he tried the grass.
BOSSIER CITY, La. - The recent trend of generous prices here - Saturday's card was filled with longshot winners - could continue in Friday's entry-level allowance feature. An evenly matched group of 12 fillies and mares run 7 1/2 furlongs on the turf.
, third in the Fantasia Stakes in her last start, makes her grass debut Friday and may be a slight favorite.
, a maiden winner over the turf last summer, has valuable experience over the surface and will be making her first start of the year. She is trained by John Gelner and will be ridden by Don Simington.
A pair of upstate vs. downstate battles are threatening to escalate into civil war after the Hawthorne-based National Jockey Club quietly put the kibosh on a piece of legislation that would have netted Fairmount Park about $150,000 in much-needed revenue.
Dime superfectas have proved themselves a success, as action on the wager continues to improve each week. Payoffs on last weekend's cards ranged from a season-low $4.76 to a healthy $214.72 for the 10-cent wager. The pools on superfectas have averaged right around half of what is wagered into the trifecta pool each race, but at 10 cents per combination, the number of patrons playing the new wager is obviously much higher.
A barn at Prairie Meadows remained quarantined Wednesday pending the results of tests to determine whether a horse who had been stabled in the barn has the equine herpes virus.
Monday afternoon, an unraced 3-year-old trained by Paul Pearson was transported to Iowa State University and placed in isolation after displaying a high temperature and other possible signs of the virus.
Steve Asmussen, who leads all trainers in North America in wins in 2005, said he will send a division of horses to Remington Park for the first time in years, provided he is granted stalls. Stall applications are due June 14.
Remington is scheduled to race 66 dates for Thoroughbreds this year, from Aug. 5 to Nov. 28.
MIAMI - The Belmont Stakes commands most of the racing world's attention this week, but not necessarily here at Calder, where jockey Eddie Castro's feat of winning 14 races in a two-day span, including a record nine on last Saturday's card, is still the talk of the town.
Castro's nine winners set a North American record for most victories by a jockey on a single program. The late Chris Antley won nine races on Oct. 31, 1987, but did so at two different racetracks, Aqueduct in the afternoon and The Meadowlands at night.
OCEANPORT, N.J. - Halos Sailing Sain, a promising 3-year-old, will turn up somewhere at Monmouth Park this weekend. Trainer Joe Orseno entered Halos Sailing Sain in a six-furlong allowance race on Friday, but he is not a lock for that spot. Orseno also nominated Halos Sailing Sain to Monmouth's $60,000 Coronado's Quest Stakes for 3-year-olds going six furlongs on Saturday.
Another option for Halos Sailing Sain would be an allowance race Saturday restricted to 3-year-olds; Halos Sailing Sain would face older runners on Friday.
ELMONT, N.Y. - If Eddie Plesa had followed the normal drill, he would be running Stolen Prayer back in the first leg of the Florida Stallion Stakes series for 2-year-old fillies. But Plesa believes Stolen Prayer could be better than that, which is why she will be running against five rivals in Thursday's $75,000 Fashion Stakes at Belmont Park.
"I think she could be something out of the ordinary," said Plesa, the trainer and part owner of Stolen Prayer.
ELMONT, N.Y. - One of the fastest 2-year-olds on the East Coast, the Dance Master colt Master of Disaster, heads a field of six who were entered on Tuesday for the Grade 3, $100,000 Flash Stakes on Friday at Belmont Park.
The five-furlong Flash shares the spotlight on Friday with the Grade 3, $100,000 Hill Prince Stakes for 3-year-old grass horses. The Hill Prince drew a field of 11, including Rey de Cafe, who captured the American Turf at Churchill Downs on May 6.
