EAST BOSTON, Mass. - If there was a tough-guy award for a Suffolk Downs backstretch worker, it would probably have to go to a gal. Trainer Lynette Bush saddled Beautiful Lassie to victory Wednesday, only three weeks after suffering a broken leg when kicked by a horse.
The accident occurred while Bush, who also works as a pony girl, was leading a young horse in a post parade and he spun around her pony and kicked her left leg. Bush suffered compound fractures of her tibia and fibula.
MIAMI - After getting a taste of older horses for the first time in the Miami Mile Breeders' Cup, the 3-year-old Wire Bound returns against his own age group and should get back on the winning track in Saturday's $40,000 Sir Omni Stakes on the Calder turf. The 1 1/16-mile Sir Omni serves as a prep for the Grade 3 Calder Derby on Oct. 23.
When Private Horde and Mountain General last met, they finished one-two in the Grade 2 Alfred G. Vanderbilt at Saratoga last year. They meet again on Saturday for far less money and prestige in the $75,000 Marfa Stakes at Turfway Park.
Neither has reached his top form of last year, winning only allowances in 2004. Private Horde, who won the 2003 Vanderbilt by five lengths over Mountain General in the slop, has 1 win in 6 starts this year. Mountain General is 1 for 7.
CHICAGO - The featured 10th race on Saturday at Hawthorne Race Course is a second-level turf allowance for 3-year-olds and up, but you might as well think of it as a proving ground for Hawthorne Derby hopefuls.
Ten horses entered the 1 1/8-mile race, and seven of them are 3-year-olds - no coincidence, since the Grade 3 Hawthorne Derby is Oct. 16, making this a perfect prep race.
"Yeah, we're kind of pointing him toward the Hawthorne Derby, if things work out," said Jodie Sinclair, trainer of Lord Carmen, one of the 3-year-olds.
ALTOONA, Iowa - The three main contenders in Saturday's $75,000 Prairie Meadows Derby all have questions to answer.
Knox, the 2-1 morning-line favorite, must prove he is as good on the dirt as he is on the turf; Polish Rifle, the class of the field, must overcome a 7 1/2-month layoff; and Thermostat, an open-length winner in each of his last two starts, will be tested for class in the 1 1/16-mile derby, which drew a field of six 3-year-olds.
OCEANPORT, N.J. - Bruce Alexander, one of the top-percentage trainers at Fort Erie and Woodbine this summer, has relocated to New Jersey for The Meadowlands meet that begins Oct. 1.
Alexander isn't waiting for opening night to take the local plunge. He entered Emerald Earrings in the $60,000 Without Feathers Stakes at Monmouth Park on Saturday.
VANCOUVER, British Columbia - Palace Rose appears to have the best chance of upsetting the powerful Dave Forster-trained four-horse entry in the British Columbia Breeders' Cup Oaks Saturday at Hastings.
Palace Rose, a daughter of Mecke, comes into the Oaks off of a game win in a $40,000 starter allowance on the turf at Del Mar Aug. 25. And it was the manner in which she won that prompted trainer John Snow to purchase her and ship her to Hastings for the Oaks.
Medium Rare can tie a record set by top Oklahoma-bred sprinter Highland Ice if he wins his fourth consecutive Oklahoma Classics Day Sprint at Remington Park on Saturday night. The six-furlong race is one of seven statebred stakes on a card worth $315,000, making for one of the richest nights of the meet.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario - Trainer Mike Mareina has been a going concern here since relocating from the Texas-Louisiana circuit in the spring of 2003, particularly on the 2-year-old front.
And while Mareina has yet to saddle a stakes winner here, that could well change in Saturday's $136,000 Swynford, as he has What's Up Dude and Olympia Fields on call for the seven-furlong feature.
"I'm going to enter both of them and take a look," said Mareina, who trains both horses for Kuehne Racing.