OZONE PARK, N.Y. - The opportunities to run on the grass this year in New York are dwindling, so it's no surprise that Wednesday's lone turf race on the card drew an overflow field.
Ten horses drew into the body of the first-level allowance race, with three horses on the also-eligible list. Three additional horses were entered main-track-only in the allowance, a 1 1/8-mile race for 3-year-olds and older that goes as the eighth on the card.
Wednesday's card features a $36,875 pick six carryover.
ALBANY, Calif. - New racing secretary Sean Greely received a rude introduction to racing reality in northern California for his opening-day card at Golden Gate Fields on Wednesday.
Plans to open the meeting with a stakes race had to be altered when not enough older fillies and mares entered the Star Ball Handicap, forcing the race to be postponed.
"We'll try to bring it back Sunday and close nominations Thursday at noon," Greely said after receiving only eight nominees, including one supplemental addition. He said he wasn't surprised when the race had to be postponed.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario - Wisdomisgold and Archie's Gal will both try to get 1 1/16 miles on Wednesday at Woodbine in the South Ocean Stakes, a $134,500 race for Ontario-sired 2-year-old fillies.
Wisdomisgold won her maiden in her fourth outing, in the six-furlong Juvenile Stakes at Fort Erie in September. She was also a distant third in the Nandi, and is coming off a closing second-place finish under Patrick Husbands in the Victorian Queen, another restricted six-furlong stakes.
STICKNEY, Ill. - There are a couple of decent Chicago-based 2-year-old fillies pointing for the Showtime Deb Stakes here at Hawthorne on Saturday, one of six Illinois-bred stakes races scheduled for the card. You could forgive their connections for lacking confidence.
A plane headed from New York to Chicago on Thursday will carry Toll Taker, who could be the heaviest favorite in any of the Saturday stakes. Toll Taker has won three in a row, a streak that culminated Oct. 17 with an easy win in the Grade 3 Astarita at Belmont.
MIAMI - Just about everyone seems to have conceded the turf championship to Kitten's Joy despite his second-place finish to Better Talk Now in the Breeders' Cup Turf. But H. Graham Motion, who trains Better Talk Now, doesn't quite understand why that should be, and he isn't giving up hope that his horse may still be able to curry favor with the voters before the season ends.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario - The temperature may be dropping, but trainer Bob Tiller's barn is hot heading into the last five weeks of the meeting.
Tiller sent out Winter Garden to take Saturday's $137,750 Ontario Fashion and Simply Lovely to capture Sunday's $165,900 Fanfreluche.
Last year, Tiller was the leading trainer in races won and money won, and his 15 stakes wins also were tops in that category here.
This year, Tiller has won 13 stakes at the meeting, placing him in a tie for first with Mark Frostad.
Fast early fractions hurt the chances of Summerland, and Accurate was the beneficiary in the $125,000 division of the New York Stallion Stakes at Aqueduct.
Accurate, under Norberto Arroyo, was a neck winner over Summerland. It was another four lengths back to Distinctive Trick in third in the six-furlong race for 2-year-old sons of New York stallions.
Penny's Fortune and Seeking the Heart turned Sunday's $62,725 Audrey Skirball-Kenis Stakes at Hollywood Park into their own private match race, running one-two for virtually the entire 1 1/8-mile turf race. The two ran side by side the length of the straight, with Penny's Fortune holding off Seeking the Heart for a half-length score.
Sweet Win, the 5-2 favorite, finished another half-length back in third, a nose in front of Belle Ange in the field of seven 3-year-old fillies.
Whilly, who ran in three top stakes in Italy before arriving in the United States last spring, scored his first stakes win in the $63,325 Bien Bien Stakes at Hollywood Park.
The victory gave trainer Doug O'Neill a one-two sweep in the restricted race, with Perfect Moon finishing second. Whilly ($8.60) finished a mile on turf in 1:36.23.
The restricted Bien Bien marked Whilly's third start in the United States. He finished third in the Grade 3 Cinema Breeders' Cup Handicap in June and eighth in the Grade 2 Oak Tree Derby last month at Santa Anita.
INGLEWOOD, Calif. - Blackdoun, who finished seventh in the Breeders' Cup Mile after winning three stakes at Del Mar in the summer, is bound for the $500,000 Hollywood Derby on turf on Nov. 28.
Trainer Julio Canani said one concern is the derby distance of 1 1/4 miles, which is a furlong farther than Blackdoun ran in winning the Del Mar Derby on Sept. 6.
"I don't know how far he'll go," Canani said.
In the BC Mile, Blackdoun had trouble on the final turn. He closed from 13th to finish seventh, 4 1/4 lengths behind upset winner Singletary.
