AUBURN, Wash. - Emerald Downs will conclude its ninth season with a special Monday program that gets under way at 5 p.m.
The 90-day meet will end with an 11-race card that drew 104 entries, the most horses to enter a single program at the entire meeting. The record number includes five trained by Frank Lucarelli and three trained by Tim McCanna, who have been in a seesaw battle for leading trainer throughout the meeting. Prior to Saturday's races, Lucarelli held the lead by a 51-48 margin.
The Woodlands in Kansas City, Kansas, which last year experienced one of its strongest meets, will open for 30 days of mixed racing for Thoroughbreds and Quarter Horses on Monday. The meet will run on a Friday-through-Tuesday basis through Oct. 31.
The Woodlands features separate horse racing and greyhound facilities on the same property, and last year handle on its live horse races rose 103 percent over the corresponding meet, to $196,984 a day. Attendance was up 22 percent, to 1,400 a day.
Foolininthemeadow, an easy winner in the Temptress Stakes here last month, faces five Michigan-bred 2-year-old fillies in Monday's $50,000 Sickle's Image Stakes at Great Lakes Downs.
Foolininthemeadow, owned by Roycester Moore and trained by Karl Waters, has easily won both of her career starts. Four of the five fillies from the Temptress are back to try her again in the six-furlong Sickle's Image. Mary Doser will once again ride the Meadow Prayer filly, who drew post 5 and is the morning-line favorite at 4-5.
Trainer Mark Shuman got his wish when Saturday's $148,500 John D. Schapiro Memorial Breeders' Cup was moved from the turf to the main track at Pimlico.
Shuman's horse, Lusty Latin, is winless in four lifetime starts on grass but had won two of his last three starts going 1 1/8 miles on dirt, both at Saratoga.
Private Lap ($2.80), one of only three horses left in the field after eight runners scratched when the $91,000 Sussex Handicap was moved from turf to a sloppy main track, cruised to an 11-length victory at Delaware Park.
The 5-year-old Private Lap, beaten 32 lengths by Ghostzapper last time out in the Grade 3 Iselin Handicap, ran 1 1/16 miles in 1:43.91.
Knight of Darkness earned his first stakes victory when he drew off to a 7 1/4-length win over Bola Soup in the $60,000 City Zip Stakes at Monmouth Park.
Ridden patiently by Eibar Coa, Knight of Darkness ($5) sat off a speed battle involving Little Red Rocket, Beat the Traffic, and Bola Soup. When Coa asked him to move approaching the quarter pole, Knight of Darkness responded and blew right past Bola Soup to win for the fifth time in 15 lifetime starts. He covered six furlongs over a muddy track in 1:09.76.
NORTH RANDALL, Ohio - A $3.80 win mutuel doesn't often appear very attractive, but Noon Win made the price look generous at Thistledown when she won her third straight stakes.
On paper, the 2-year-old Noon Win stood out over her six Ohio-bred rivals in the $40,000 Emerald Necklace, and she controlled the race from start to finish with a front-running 2 1/2-length win under Huber Villa-Gomez. She covered the six furlongs in 1:13.58 over a fast track.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario - Paiota Falls ($3.90) shrugged off two challengers in the stretch to win her stakes debut at Woodbine in the $144,147 La Lorgnette, a 1 1/16-mile race for 3-year-old fillies.
Paiota Falls got away slowly under jockey Heberto Castillo Jr. before rushing up to set moderate fractions of 23.91 and 47.71 seconds. Touchnow and My Vintage Port stalked throughout, and Touchnow was virtually on even terms with Paiota Falls in midstretch, but Paiota Falls fought back and won by a neck in a final time of 1:45.14.
Perhaps it's true that you can't teach an old dog new tricks. But at Mountaineer Race Track, a veteran trainer might be able to get an older horse to recapture his best form at a distance he once relished.
Dale Baird, approaching 9,000 wins for his career, has the entry of Horrible Evening and Kasparov lined up for Tuesday night's $75,000 Fall Handicap, a 1 1/8-mile stakes for 3-year-olds and up.
