LEXINGTON, Ky. - Patrick Biancone has customized what he calls "the good horse circuit." Little wonder, then, that when Keeneland opens its fall meet this weekend with a flurry of spectacular stakes action, Biancone will be an integral part of the mix, looking to make his mark before moving on to the next town.
That next town - for Biancone and many of the other top trainers in American racing - happens to be Grand Prairie, Texas, where the 21st Breeders' Cup championships will be held Oct. 30.
ARCADIA, Calif. - The second half of the first daily double is merely a prelude to the weekday pick six in Southern California. So when only five horses entered the richest race on the Thursday card at Santa Anita, the racing office buried the two-other-than allowance as the second race on the card.
Might as well. Five-horse fields rarely produce the type of surprise winners that cause large pick-six payoffs or carryovers, and most bettors probably agree that either should win race 2 on Thursday.
ARCADIA, Calif. - Trainer Nick Hines is rapidly discovering the challenge of working with owner Jim McIngvale. After During scratched from the Grade 2 Goodwood Handicap on Saturday, the ambitious plan was to train him up to the Breeders' Cup Classic. Then McIngvale had another idea - why not try him in a sprint?
"He told me [Monday] he had a dream that this horse would win the Ancient Title," Hines said. "It's his decision. Do I think [During] is a six-furlong horse? No. If the horse wins, I give him the majority of the credit."
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).
