ARCADIA, Calif. - Geronimo may be bound for Hong Kong if he wins Saturday's $100,000 Morvich Handicap at Santa Anita.
A win in the Grade 3 Morvich over about 6 1/2 furlongs on the hillside turf course is vital to ensure that Geronimo will be invited to the $1.28 million Hong Kong Sprint over a straightaway five furlongs on turf at Sha Tin Racecourse on Dec. 12. A loss on Saturday may hurt his chances.
LEXINGTON, Ky. - Trainer Laura de Seroux will be watching her future and her past Saturday. She will saddle Total Impact, the Grade 1 Hollywood Gold Cup winner, in the Grade 3 Fayette at Keeneland. Then a few hours later, she will watch the Breeders' Cup on television to see how Azeri, the champion mare she once trained, performs in the Classic at Lone Star Park.
PHOENIX - The invaders appear to hold the strongest hands in Saturday's $40,000 Saguaro at Turf Paradise. The six-furlong event for 3-year-olds goes as the fourth race on an eight-race card, shortened from its normal slate of races because of the Breeders' Cup. First post is 9:55 a.m., with two races run before the Lone Star Breeders' Cup program begins. Race 3 will pick up at 3 p.m., after the BC card has concluded.
STICKNEY, Ill. - King Magic had to make the transition three races ago. Shaitan is making the jump on Saturday. Both are Illinois-breds who have run out of statebred restricted allowance conditions, and are trying to prove they fit with open company. They're among the turf horses entered in Hawthorne's featured eighth race Saturday, a third-level allowance with a $35,000 claiming option and a full field of 12.
There is no margin for error in a five-furlong turf sprint, so when Timeless Dreamer was bumped hard at the start last out in the $50,000 Wild Flower Stakes, it put her at a distinct disadvantage. She recovered and rallied for fourth in the race, but might have been closer to winner Nicole's Dream with a little more racing luck.
Trainer Chuck Turco will be hoping things go well at the start on Saturday, when Timeless Dreamer again will go five furlongs on turf in the $40,000 Majorette Handicap at Louisiana Downs.
SAN MATEO, Calif. - For the second time in less than a year, a horse trained by William E. Morey set a track record.
On Wednesday, the Morey-trained Trickey Trevor broke Mr. Doubledown's Bay Meadows track record for five furlongs, holding off You Crack Me Up by a nose as he clocked 56.01 seconds on a wet-fast track after fractions of 21.41 and 43.93. Mr. Doubledown, a multiple stakes winner, set the old record of 56.44 seconds on a sloppy track on March 9, 2000.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario - David Bell, Woodbine's hottest stakes trainer, will run long-winded dirt specialist Fisher Pond on the grass in Saturday's $108,000 Chief Bearhart.
Fisher Pond, owned by Eugene and Laura Melnyk, won the 1 1/2-mile Lawrence Realization Handicap over a sloppy track at Belmont in 2002. He also placed in two Grade 3's that year, the Gallant Fox and the Red Smith.
VANCOUVER, British Columbia - Avalanche Bay figures to be tough to beat in Saturday's feature race at Hastings, a 1 1/16-mile allowance race for 3-year-old fillies who haven't won a sweepstakes in 2004.
A full field of 10 fillies will line up, but half of them are coming out of the $50,000 optional race won by Avalanche Bay on Oct. 11, and she figures to get a perfect stalking trip behind a hotly contested pace.
One Fast Trick will attempt to be the first horse in Oregon racing history to pick up a $100,000 paycheck for a single race Saturday at Portland Meadows.
A 2-year-old Quarter Horse filly, One Fast Trick will be the sentimental favorite in the $29,000 Northwest Open Futurity at 400 yards. A victory would complete a sweep of the Oregon Quarter Horse Triple Crown and would bring a $100,000 bonus.
In April, One Fast Trick made a strong move with 100 yards to go to win the Portland Meadows Futurity. She then scored in the Firecracker Futurity at Grants Pass on July 4.
Richard Migliore, who was thrown from his mount in the starting gate before Thursday's fourth race at Aqueduct, was not injured, according to his agent, Drew Mollica.
Migliore was removed from the track by stretcher and taken to North Shore University Hospital.
Mollica said X-rays taken of the rider's right arm, which he broke in a spill in 1999, were negative.