The ongoing jockey controversy at Churchill Downs has led Team Valor to reach across the Atlantic Ocean to get British standout Kieren Fallon to ride their contenders in upcoming stakes at Churchill.
Fallon will ride River Belle in the $150,000 Mrs. Revere Stakes on Saturday and Shadowland in the $150,000 Commonwealth Turf on Sunday. In his latest overseas voyage, Fallon rode Ouija Board to victory in the Breeders' Cup Filly and Mare Turf.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. - Allowance races traditionally serve as stepping-stones to stakes. Friday's featured ninth race at Churchill Downs, a three-other-than allowance with an optional claiming price of $80,000, is the other way around. Three of the eight entrants won stakes in their last start, and four others raced in a stakes at some point this year.
The depth and quality is in great part the result of a $60,400 purse. All the recent stakes winners ran for less money in winning their last race.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. - Country Be Gold will return to familiar stomping grounds when he runs in Saturday's $100,000 Stuyvesant Handicap at Aqueduct.
Country Be Gold, a 7-year-old, was previously stabled in New York with trainer Steve Kappes. The horse has been with trainer Reynaldo Nobles since July 2003 and has raced primarily at Delaware Park, where Nobles is currently stabled.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. - No matter what the calendar tells us, by the looks of Friday's card at Aqueduct, winter can't be too far off in New York.
There are four maiden races - two for New York-breds, one for claimers, and an open race. The other five races are not particularly compelling, either.
The feature is an optional claimer for male sprinters who appear to be past their prime. Six horses were entered in the six-furlong race. Each runner, with the exception of One N Three, is eligible to be claimed for $75,000.
INGLEWOOD, Calif. - Now that the initial euphoria of winning the Breeders' Cup Mile has worn off, the wisdom of running Singletary back in the Grade 1, $400,000 Citation Handicap on Nov. 27 has been viewed through the prism of realism by trainer Don Chatlos. Realistically, he doesn't see it happening.
"It's unlikely," Chatlos said Wednesday morning at Hollywood Park. "He's just gone back to the track. He's just jogging right now. The Citation is a mile and sixteenth, and that extra sixteenth concerns me. I don't want to jeopardize next year by having something happen now."
INGLEWOOD, Calif. - Sprinting on turf has proven a tonic for Spring Festival, who has won two straight since moving from dirt routes. Now, she has to hope that the nighttime is the right time, too. In an attempt to win her third consecutive race, Spring Festival will headline the featured second race on the second and final Friday night program of the fall meeting at Hollywood Park.
Post time is 7:05 p.m Pacific.
Great Canadian Gaming Corp. has completed purchase of 100 percent of Hastings Entertainment Inc., the operating company that manages Hastings Racecourse, Great Canadian announced Monday.
Great Canadian, in partnership with the Wall Financial Corp., bought Hastings Entertainment from Woodbine Entertainment Corp. for $20.1 million last April, forming a subsidiary in which Great Canadian owned 60 percent. Wall Financial has now received $18.8 million for its 40 percent share, on top of the $5.2 million it initially invested.
ALBANY, Calif. - Rider Iggy Puglisi has joined the jockey colony at Golden Gate Fields.
Puglisi arrived Tuesday night from Southern California and finished second aboard Divine Mark in the first race of the meeting Wednesday.
Puglisi's mounts have earned more than $14 million in a career that began in 1990, when the native of Argentina began his U.S. career at Playfair in Washington.
"I felt like I wanted to ride more," said Puglisi, who had had only 274 mounts this year entering Wednesday's card.
PORTLAND, Wash. - One Fast Cowgirl paid a modest $8 to win Saturday's $19,280 Janet Wineberg Stakes, but that was only because she was coupled in the wagering with two others from trainer Ben Root's barn.
"If she hadn't been coupled with the other two, I bet she would have been 50-1," said Root. "I know I never would have bet on her."
