INGLEWOOD, Calif. - The Grade 1 Matriarch on Nov. 28 may be the last hurrah for stakes winners Intercontinental and Etoile Montante. Trainer Bobby Frankel said both Juddmonte Farms-owned fillies are likely to be retired after running in the one-mile Matriarch for fillies and mares.
"They're milers, and there aren't many races for them other than the Matriarch," Frankel said. "All the Grade 1's are a mile and an eighth and farther."
MIAMI - Oh, how far Calder's Florida Million Day has come in just three short years.
What started out as a nice little sequel to the track's cornerstone event, the Festival of the Sun, has in short order become a major event of its own. This year it has grown from six to eight stakes and attracted Florida-breds from all over the country, including six who will be coming to town from Southern California.
MIAMI - There were 75 horses entered for the eight stakes that make up Saturday's Florida Million Day program. But the one name conspicuous by its absence from that list was B. B. Best, the speedy juvenile who recently captured the In Reality division of the Florida Stallion Stakes for trainer Eddie Plesa Jr.
Plesa had nominated B. B. Best for Saturday's $150,000 Jack Price Juvenile, a seven-furlong dash, but said he really never intended to run the colt in that race.
CHICAGO - So it's not Ali-Frazier, not Red Sox-Yankees, but a mild showdown looms in the High Alexander Stakes at Hawthorne Race Course.
Last fall, Wiggins won this race (then called the Robert F. Carey) by two lengths over Scooter Roach, but in the spring, Scooter Roach beat Wiggins by a half-length here in the Milwaukee Avenue Handicap. The two best older Illinois-bred route horses going will renew their rivalry Saturday, when Hawthorne hosts six $100,000-added statebred-restricted stakes races.
The inaugural Quarter Horse meet at Louisiana Downs is setting records before its first race is run.
When the meet opens Thursday afternoon, it will offer the richest per-day purses ever for a Quarter Horse meet, with more than $4.4 million being paid in purses over the 20 days, not including money paid into futurities and derbies by horsemen.
The season runs through Dec. 12 on a Thursday-through-Sunday schedule, with a first post time of noon Central.
ALBANY, Calif. - Thursday's Golden Gate Fields feature is at the unusual distance of 4 1/2 furlongs on the turf.
Unforgetabull, who has won her past two starts and four of her most recent five, will likely be favored again, as she has in her past four starts, when she takes on a full field in the $32,000 claimer for fillies and mares 3 years old and up. Eleven signed up for the event, with Miss Masten on the also-eligible list.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. - Churchill Downs has banned 15 jockeys for the balance of the fall meet for refusing to be named on horses Wednesday in a dispute over health insurance coverage.
Among the jockeys who will not be permitted to ride through Nov. 27, closing day at the Churchill meet, are the current national victory leader, Rafael Bejarano, as well as Robby Albarado, Mark Guidry, Calvin Borel, and Willie Martinez.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. - A late scratch of the stronger half of a favored entry in the first race at Churchill Downs on Sunday left some bettors with little time to cancel or alter their wagers, sparking a discussion among the stewards regarding wagering rules in Kentucky and whether they need to be changed.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. - With championship honors in the 2-year-old division seemingly still up for grabs, trainer Todd Pletcher will give Proud Accolade a chance to claim the prize by running him in the Grade 1, $200,000 Hollywood Futurity on Dec. 18.
The futurity, run at 1 1/16 miles at Hollywood Park, is also supposed to include Breeders' Cup Juvenile winner Wilko and the undefeated Declan's Moon, the Del Mar Futurity winner who skipped the Breeders' Cup.