ARCADIA, Calif. - Special Ring is unlikely to start in the $250,000 Oak Tree Breeders' Cup Mile at Santa Anita on Oct. 9, and will be trained up to a start in the $1 million Breeders' Cup Mile at Lone Star Park on Oct. 30.
That's the strategy that trainer Julio Canani said he would present to owner Jack Preston this weekend.
Canani fears that the 21-day gap between the two stakes is too close for Special Ring to be at his best for the BC Mile.
Easily the most important span of racing in Kentucky this fall takes place next weekend at Keeneland Race Course, where seven graded stakes, most of them likely to produce starters for the Breeders' Cup, will be run.
"FallStars Weekend" is what Keeneland officials call the three-day weekend that opens the 17-day fall meet at the Lexington, Ky., track. Because of the timing of the Breeders' Cup, which this year will be run Oct. 30 at Lone Star Park, the meet is front-loaded with those major stakes.
MIAMI - Love That Moon finished third behind Model Home in the Forty One Carat Stakes and third to Swift Replica in the Sea Emperor Stakes this summer, but he could avenge both losses when the three meet again in Sunday's $40,000 Reappeal Stakes at Calder.
Love That Moon has yet to return to the form that saw him win three straight stakes here last summer and fall, including the Jack Dudley Sprint Handicap. The 6 1/2-furlong Reappeal would be a perfect prep for a defense of his title in the Jack Dudley, to be run Nov. 13.
Charles Town racetrack has closed for live racing for the second time in three weeks after drainage problems with the track's racing surface reemerged.
Eric Schippers, a spokesman for Charles Town's parent company, Penn National Gaming, said the track is expected to be closed until Friday, the day before Charles Town is scheduled to hold its annual statebred stakes day, the West Virginia Breeders Classics.
"Our first priority is to ensure the safety of the track for the jockeys and horses," Schippers said.
California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger signed legislation Thursday that will aid the Los Angeles County Fair in gaining financing to expand its racetrack at Fairplex Park from five furlongs to one-mile in circumference.
George Bradvica, equine manager of the Los Angeles County Fair, said the bill would divert a portion of the state's share of the takeout to pay for construction projects to expand the racetrack. The earliest the property would be expanded would be 2006, Bradvica said.
STICKNEY, Ill. - Stormybdanc-ing has teased, flirted, and brushed right up against a second-level allowance win, but as close she's come, Stormy-bdancing has lost eight in a row since she won an entry-level allowance in late summer 2003.
If you could trust her to break through, Stormybdancing could be the play Sunday at Hawthorne in the co-featured ninth race. The ninth is for second-level allowance fillies at one mile on turf; the fifth is a dirt route run under the same conditions. The two races share something else: They're both bent toward the inscrutable.
GRAND PRAIRIE, Texas - Trainer Bret Calhoun believes Janeian is a different mare than she was last year - and last year she was very good. This year, he says, she is better.
Calhoun's theory will be battle-tested Sunday, when takes on Aud, Due to Win Again, and Cherylville Slew in the $100,000 Yellow Rose Breeders' Cup at Lone Star Park.
A 1 1/8-mile turf race for fillies and mares, the Yellow Rose will share a card with the $100,000 Middleground Breeders' Cup. The Middleground is for 2-year-olds, and it will be televised on ESPN.
GRAND PRAIRIE, Texas - Ready Ruler has so much talent that he jumped at the wire in his last race and still won. If he eliminates the jumping, as his trainer, Steve Asmussen, believes he will, he could be tough in the $100,000 Middle-ground Breeders' Cup at Lone Star Park on Sunday.
The one-mile race for 2-year-olds is one of two stakes on the program, and it will be telecast on ESPN between 5-6 p.m. Central. The race is a prep for the $1.5 million Breeders' Cup Juvenile, which will be run at Lone Star on Oct. 30.
VANCOUVER, British Columbia - Many people considered trainer Ed Thompson lucky when he purchased Delightful Dance for a song and developed her into a stakes winner in the mid 1980's. They gave him a little more credit when he did it again with Reve Du, a $2,500 yearling purchase who earned $229,396.
When it happened again with Funboy, $271,361, it was pretty clear Thompson wasn't just lucky, he obviously has a good eye for a young horse. Add Name for Norm to the list, another $2,500 purchase who banked more than $278,000, and you get the picture.
SAN MATEO, Calif. - Six tough-as-nails sprinters line up for Sunday's $55,000-added Big Jag Handicap at Bay Meadows.
A six-furlong race, the Big Jag will have four stakes winners, including defending champion My Captain. Attack Force, who hasn't been worse than second in his past five starts, and Jagged Ice, who has three wins and a second in his past four starts, will also run.
