Ben Huffman will return to Fair Grounds after all.
Huffman, who said in August that he would not return for a second year as racing secretary at the New Orleans track, said Thursday that officials with the track's soon-to-be owner, Churchill Downs Inc., have persuaded him to return.
"We were able to resolve some of the travel and family issues that initially led me to say I was giving up the job," said Huffman, 35.
LEXINGTON, Ky. - Racing as it was meant to be, my fedora. When Keeneland opens Friday for its fall meet, the overriding theme will be far more relevant to horsemen and horseplayers living in the 21st century than to nostalgia buffs.
Reduced takeout on multiple-race wagers, jackpot guarantees, a high-tech system of tracking races, and a futuristic surface on its training track are just some of the upgrades in place for a 17-day meet that, as always, will showcase some of the most important racing in North America this fall.
Three months ago, by a nose in the $500,000 Smile Sprint Handicap at Calder. Friday, the two sprinters meet again in the Grade 3, $250,000 Phoenix Breeders' Cup at Keeneland and, again, little separates them.
Although less money is up for grabs, the stakes are no less high. Their performances Friday - and those of the other nine starters in the field - could determine whether they warrant running in the Breeders' Cup Sprint at Lone Star Park Oct. 30.
The test for Champali earning a Breeders' Cup start is clear. "He is going to have to win," trainer Greg Foley said.
LEXINGTON, Ky. - Rafael Bejarano has accomplished a whole lot since he last rode at Keeneland, where he won with just 7 of 86 mounts at the spring meet in April.
Bejarano notched the first Grade 1 win of his career, the Stephen Foster at Churchill Downs on June 12. He rode in his first Triple Crown race, the Preakness on May 15. He won the
riding title at the Churchill spring meet, unseating perennial champion Pat Day. He won another riding title at Ellis Park, another at Turfway Park, and set a record at Kentucky Downs for winners in a meet.
ARCADIA, Calif. - Saintly Persuasion had a right to get tired when she finished third in the Piedra Foundation Handicap at Del Mar on Sept. 2. The race marked her first start in more than 10 months, and she led through a decent pace before fading in the final sixteenth.
The experience from that race could lead to a win for Saintly Persuasion in a $48,000 allowance race at Santa Anita on Friday. Run as the seventh race on an eighth-race program, the allowance is run over 1 1/16 miles. First post is 2:30 p.m. Pacific.
EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. - Balto Star, a Grade 1 turf stakes winner, shifts back to the main track Friday night for the Grade 2, $500,000 Meadowlands Breeders' Cup Stakes.
The 1 1/8-mile Cup, The Meadowlands's signature event, drew eight runners and is the highlight event of the six-week meet. It tops an 11-race card that gets under way at 7:30 p.m.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario - Financingavailable, who gave favored Blonde Executive a run for her money in the La Prevoyante Stakes, will be strongly backed in Friday's eighth race at Woodbine.
The seven-furlong turf allowance for Ontario-sired 3-year-old fillies drew 16 horses, 14 of whom made it into the body of the race.
SAN MATEO, Calif. - Sean Greely, the Monmouth and Meadowlands racing secretary from 2000-2003 and also a former racing secretary at Hialeah, has been appointed the racing secretary at Golden Gate Fields for its meet, which begins next month.
Greely's first day on the job was Monday, and he's been busy introducing himself to northern California horsemen.
Greely, 41, has been involved in racing his entire life. He is the son of longtime racing official and Keeneland president William Greely and the brother of Kevin Greely, the current racing secretary in Dubai.
Jockey Larry Taylor already won one sprint stakes race over the weekend at Lone Star Park, and he will be hunting bigger game Friday when he travels to Keeneland to ride Gold Storm in the Grade 3, $250,000 Phoenix Breeders' Cup. The race is one of the most important in Taylor's career, because with a good effort, Gold Storm will be pointed for the $1 million Breeders' Cup Sprint at the horse's home track of Lone Star Park.
ARCADIA, Calif. - Trainer Don Chatlos Jr. is almost 40, but he once wore a Chicago Bears jersey on a day his colt Singletary won at Santa Anita. A football jersey is something a college student might wear, but Chatlos decided to wear the jersey in honor of his colt and the colt's namesake, Mike Singletary, the former Chicago Bears linebacker who played in Chatlos's hometown.
Saturday, the Bears jersey will stay in the closet. Chatlos promises to be a sharp dresser when Singletary starts in the $250,000 Oak Tree Breeders' Cup Mile at Santa Anita.
