ELMONT, N.Y. - Trainer Graham Motion, coming off a solid Saratoga meet with two graded stakes wins, will try to keep the ball rolling on Saturday at Belmont Park in the Grade 1, $500,000 Man o' War.
Motion will run Better Talk Now in the Man o' War at 1 3/8 miles on the turf. In his last start, Better Talk Now became a Grade 1 winner in the Sword Dancer Invitational at Saratoga on Aug. 14.
The 19th annual Maryland Million, expanded to include a turf sprint this year, highlights the fall meeting, which begins Thursday at Pimlico Race Course.
Last year, when the event for the offspring of Maryland-based stallions was held at Laurel Park, a track-record $6.6 million was wagered.
Pimlico will be the site of the Maryland Million for the eighth time on Saturday, Oct. 9, because Laurel's turf course, undergoing renovations, might not be ready for the three $100,000 races scheduled for the grass.
Hall of Fame jockey Gary Stevens, who collapsed in the jockeys' room on Monday after riding Laura's Lucky Boy to a third-place finish in the Del Mar Derby, was treated at Scripps La Jolla Hospital for dehydration Monday night but was back at the track on Tuesday morning.
CHICAGO - Salty Sailor has been riding a wave, reaching peak form early this summer and holding it through the entire Arlington season. He gets one more shot, in Thursday's featured sixth race, before the meet ends and Chicago racing moves on to Hawthorne later this month.
The move makes Thursday is from dirt to turf, a surface on which he has never raced.
"I don't know if he'll like it or not," said trainer Michelle Boyce.
AUBURN, Wash. - Bella Rubia shoots for her third straight win on Thursday, in a field of five 3-year-old fillies in the feature at Emerald Downs, a 6 1/2-furlong race for $25,000 claimers.
Bella Rubia graduated in her second start, running six furlongs in 1:11.80 on a muddy track to win by a head in $16,000 maiden company. Coming back against $15,000 claimers on Aug. 28, she improved her six-furlong clocking to 1:10 and again won by a head.
Malika's Gold was a dominant winner of the $100,000 last Saturday night at Retama Park, and with the victory established herself as one of the early favorites for a stakes on opening night of the Breeders' Cup meet at Lone Star Park.
Malika's Gold is being pointed for the $100,000 Silver Spur Breeders' Cup, a one-mile dirt race Oct. 1.
In the La Senorita, which was run on turf, Malika's Gold won by 1 1/4 lengths over stakes winner Ready to Live.
AUBURN, Wash. - My Creed required six starts to earn his maiden win in a grass race last March at Golden Gate Fields, but since then he has done very little wrong.
My Creed, a 3-year-old son of Beau Genius trained by Bob Hess Sr., came back to finish third in a pair of allowance races on the grass. Switched to dirt, he won an allowance race at Pleasanton in July and followed by winning last month's 1 1/16-mile J.F. Lyttle Memorial Handicap at Santa Rosa.
SHAKOPEE, Minn. - Kissoon Thoroughbreds captured both divisions of the $45,000 MTA Stallion Auction Stakes on the meet's closing day. The Auction Stakes were restricted to progeny of stallions whose service was sold at the 1999 MTA Stallion Service Auction.
Scott Stevens guided Vasant to a narrow victory in the $43,909 Laddie Stakes at 6 1/2 furlongs over a drying-out track listed as good. Vasant bested stablemate Sahab by a half-length in 1:18.39. Gopher This One finished another four lengths behind in third.
Vasant returned $5.80 as the second wagering choice.
