Multiple-stakes-placed Marketable leads a field of nine Ohio-bred 2-year-old fillies, all seeking their first stakes victory, in the $40,000 Glacial Princess Stakes at Beulah Park.
Marketable rallied to finish third in the 1 1/16-mile John W. Galbreath at Thistledown on Oct. 9, making her the only member of the mile and 70-yard Glacial Princess field to be stakes placed around two turns. Four of the fillies are maidens and the other five, including Marketable, have only a maiden win.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario - Kerrobert and March With Me, both possibilities for next year's Queen's Plate, are among the contenders in Saturday's $137,500 Display Stakes at Woodbine.
The 1 1/16-mile Display is one of two 2-year-old stakes on the card, along with the $104,000 Sunny's Halo, a 6 1/2-furlong sprint for Canadian-breds.
CHICAGO - In winter racing at Hawthorne, sharp form can take a horse further than inherent class, which is one reason Coping looks so good in the featured sixth race here Saturday.
Coping was one of seven horses entered in the feature, a third-level allowance with a $35,000 claiming option carded for 1 1/16 miles on dirt. Coping has five wins and doesn't qualify under the race's allowance condition, so he and two others, Road Town and He's Hammered, run for the tag.
Water Cannon, the sharpest 3-year-old based in Maryland during the spring, returns from a five-month layoff to face the sizzling shipper Play Bingo in Saturday's $100,000 Northern Dancer Stakes at Pimlico.
A 1 1/8-mile race, the Northern Dancer is restricted to Maryland-bred 3-year-olds.
Jayhawk Janet, an easy winner in her last three starts, and Lets Just Do It, coming off an impressive stakes victory, head a full field of fillies and mares in the $50,000 Autumn Stakes at Charles Town.
A 4-year-old, Jayhawk Janet is 2 for 2 at the seven-furlong distance of the Autumn and will be making her stakes debut.
Lets Just Do It returned from a two-month layoff to win the seven-furlong City of Ranson by two lengths in early October and will be making her first start since then.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. - Everyone should do so poorly. Perfect Drift hasn't won a race this year, but even if he falls short again Friday in the Clark Handicap at Churchill Downs, he could still go over the million-dollar earnings mark for the year by posting yet another second-place finish.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. - Eurosilver is moving by leaps and bounds into the Clark Handicap on Friday at Churchill Downs. The colt is jumping into so many new categories that not even his trainer, Carl Nafzger, knows what to expect.
is a 3-year-old who will be facing older rivals for the first time in his career. He is making his second start following a lengthy layoff. He is making his first start around two turns in nearly 14 months. And he is stepping up into Grade 2 company after last competing in an ungraded race.
INGLEWOOD, Calif. - After a more thorough scouting of the competition, trainer Bobby Frankel reversed course on Wednesday and entered Cajun Beat for Friday's $150,000 Hollywood Turf Express at Hollywood Park.
The presence of Cajun Beat, the 2003 Breeders' Cup Sprint winner, adds depth to an already intriguing 5 1/2-furlong race.
Frankel's decision was partially based on the absence of Kentucky stakes winner Battle Won, who was considered a candidate for the Turf Express but will instead start in a sprint in Hong Kong in December.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. - Trainer Kiaran McLaughlin would prefer not to run two of his best horses against each other, but the conditions of Friday's $150,000 Top Flight Handicap at Aqueduct fit Bending Strings and Roar Emotion so well he can't leave either one in the barn.
Now, it's up to handicappers to figure out which one suits the Grade 2, one-mile race the best.
"If you told me to pick one or the other I couldn't. Both are doing great," McLaughlin said.
NEW ORLEANS - Monkey Hill, a grassy mound in the Audubon Zoo, is the highest spot in the city of New Orleans. Its namesake, a 3-year-old chestnut colt owned by Marc and Jill Winston, will attempt to climb a notch through the allowance ranks Friday at Fair Grounds in the feature race, a $30,000 six-furlong sprint for 3-year-olds and up.
Marc Winston used to play on Monkey Hill when he was a kid.
"It's a famous spot in New Orleans at the zoo, where they built an artificial hill so the kids of New Orleans would know what a hill looked like," said Winston.
