ETOBICOKE, Ontario - Hong Kong Dancer, one of the more talented 3-year-old fillies at Woodbine, faces older rivals while returning from a layoff in Thursday's headliner, a $62,500 optional claimer.
Hong Kong Dancer captured her first two starts by a combined total of nearly 15 lengths in the spring. She won her May 1 debut with authority, running six furlongs in a quick 1:09.60 and earning a Beyer Figure of 85 in a $50,000 optional maiden race.
SAN MATEO, Calif. - Sometimes when a horse runs a race that is too good as far as handicappers are concerned, there's a call for caution the next time the horse runs.
Such may be the case Thursday when Carthage runs for trainer Art Sherman for the first time in the feature race at Bay Meadows, a $32,000 optional claimer at six furlongs.
Carthage ran a dull race here in June, earning only a 47 Beyer. He didn't run again until Sept. 1 at Del Mar when Sherman claimed him for $32,000. In the Sept. 1 race, he won by 5 1/2 lengths and recorded a career-best 104 Beyer.
MIAMI - "The big horse came back to life."
That in a nutshell was how trainer Rudy Wolfendale described Sunday's impressive victory by his "big horse," Love That Moon, in the $40,000 Reappeal Stakes. The win was the first for Love That Moon in five starts this season, and his first since he captured the Jack Dudley Sprint Handicap nearly 11 months earlier.
CHICAGO - Trainer Mickey Goldfine has seen some turf stakes horses, both as his own boss and working alongside his father, the former trainer Lou Goldfine. But by late summer, Goldfine probably would have settled for any kind of victory, forget about a stakes horse. He had a filly named Atlantic Frost whose season (five races, five losses) had gone much like Goldfine's own (two wins as of early September).
Father Confessor, who has won his last two starts by a combined total of 10 1/4 lengths, will attempt to extend his win streak Thursday night in the eighth race at Delta Downs in Vinton, La. The entry-level allowance will be run over five furlongs and has a purse of $16,500.
The richest race on the card, worth $28,500, is the seventh, a one-mile conditioned allowance for Louisiana-breds. Battle Prince will move back to the statebred ranks after finishing second last out in a non-restricted six-furlong race that went faster than par at Evangeline Downs.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario - Perfect Soul, who will be looking to close out his career with a bang in Saturday's Shadwell Turf Mile at Keeneland and the Oct. 30 Breeders' Cup Mile at Lone Star Park, worked five furlongs on the training track turf course here at Woodbine on Tuesday morning.
Assistant trainer Rachel Halden was in the irons as Perfect Soul, who had the course all to himself, was clocked in 1:00.
The clockers caught Perfect Soul going his opening quarter in 23.60 seconds, three furlongs in 35.80, and half-mile in 48.40. The horse galloped out six furlongs in 1:15.
ELMONT, N.Y. - A year ago, confusion reigned in Camp Funny Cide when it came to plotting out a fall campaign. In one five-day span, the plan changed three times. Ultimately, Funny Cide wound up in the Breeders' Cup Classic, a race for which he was ill prepared and finished ninth.
Entering Saturday's at Belmont Park, the plan was a lot clearer for Funny Cide. Win and head to Lone Star Park for the $4 million Breeders' Cup Classic on Oct. 30. Lose and it was Empire Classic here in October, followed by the Clark Handicap at Churchill Downs in November.
LEXINGTON, Ky. - The New York Racing Association has reached an agreement with ABC on exclusive television rights to the Belmont Stakes, the final leg of the Triple Crown, beginning in 2006, the association and ABC announced on Monday.
The agreement will return the Belmont Stakes to ABC, which broadcast all three races of the Triple Crown from 1986 to 2000. ABC was outbid for the rights to the Triple Crown by NBC, which paid $51.5 million for a five-year deal through 2005.
ARCADIA, Calif. - Much of this past weekend's Breeders' Cup prep races at Santa Anita's Oak Tree meeting must be viewed through the prism of expectations, because the same performance can be viewed differently depending on what was expected.
ARCADIA, Calif. - A week later than planned, Musical Chimes will try to earn her way to the Breeders' Cup with a start against males in Saturday's $250,000 Oak Tree Breeders' Cup Mile.
Last week, trainer Neil Drysdale said he intended to supplement Musical Chimes to Sunday's $250,000 Lady's Secret Breeders' Cup Handicap on the main track, a plan that was derailed when Musical Chimes filled up with mucus.
The Grade 2 Oak Tree BC Mile, run on turf, is the next option. It will cost $5,000 to supplement Musical Chimes to the race.
