GRAND PRAIRIE, Texas - It's starting to look a lot like the Breeders' Cup is coming to Lone Star Park. The track is making progress on the installation of 38,000 temporary seats for the World Thoroughbred Championships, which will be held at the Dallas-area track on Oct. 30. The expected crowd for Breeders' Cup Day is 50,000.
VANCOUVER, British Columbia - All indicators point to a successful yearling and mixed sale, sponsored by the British Columbia division of the Canadian Thoroughbred Horse Society.
The sale, which begins at 2 p.m. Tuesday, will be held at the Thunderbird Show Park in Langley, a suburb of Vancouver. There is also a barbecue and a yearling parade at Thunderbird beginning at 4 p.m. Monday.
Dixie Jacobson, president of the local CTHS, can only be categorized as an optimist, but even more so going into this year's sale.
AUBURN, Wash. - The two best Beyer Speed Figures recorded by Slewicide Cruise at this meeting were the 95 that he earned when he finished fourth in the 1 1/8-mile Mt. Rainier Breeders' Cup Handicap in July and the 97 he earned when he just missed in the five-furlong Washington Owners' Handicap on Longacres Mile Day.
MIAMI - Marina de Chavon and Swift Replica, a couple of stakes winners in 2003 who had been unable to find the winner's circle this season, turned things around in back-to-back victories Thursday at Calder.
Both Marina de Chavon and Swift Replica came into Thursday's program winless in four previous starts this year. Marina de Chavon's last tally had come via a disqualification in the Brave Raj Stakes on Sept. 20, 2003. Swift Replica's shutout streak was even longer. His last win came in the the Linear Stakes over the local turf course in June 2003.
SAN MATEO, Calif. - Sunday's $55,000-added Carmel Handicap at is one of two remaining stakes races at Bay Meadows for 3-year-old fillies. The final one is the Oct. 9 Palo Alto, which like the Carmel is on the turf.
Many of the seven in the race are entered to take advantage of the dwindling opportunities at the meet for 3-year-old fillies.
"You don't have many chances to run against straight 3-year-old company unless you run for $25,000 claiming," said trainer Chuck Jenda, who will run Lost Bride in the one-mile Carmel.
POMONA, Calif. - While trainer A.C. Avila will focus his attention on Letra de Cambio in the $60,000 E.B. Johnston Stakes on Sunday at Fairplex Park, he remains miffed at the circumstances surrounding his final winner at Del Mar. In the first race Sept. 4, the odds dropped on the Avila-trained Que Borges from 6-1 to 4-1 during the running of the race. Avila said he wagered $1,000 on the gelding an hour before the race.
"I was happy with what I had - he was 10-1 before a late scratch, then 6-1 after the scratch," Avila said.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario - Barring any last-minute changes of heart, there will be no European presence in the Grade 1 Atto Mile here next Sunday.
Nine Europeans were nominated to the Atto Mile, a $1 million turf race for 3-year-olds and upward that is one of the highlights of the Woodbine meeting.
But the connections of Passing Glance, who had been scheduled to arrive from England on Saturday, sent their regrets Friday morning, and then Aidan O'Brien, who had three nominees, let it be known that he would not be participating.
WINNIPEG, Manitoba - Victory Thrill goes for her fourth win in a row in Sunday's $40,000 Assiniboia Oaks for 3-year-old fillies at 1 1/16 miles.
Trained by Bert Blake, Victory Thrill has recorded all three of her wins around two turns. Victory Thrill won a first-level allowance race on July 17 before taking the Jack Hardy Stakes on Aug. 2. She then narrowly defeated Ericka's Lass in an allowance prep for the Oaks on Aug. 21.
CHICAGO - Trainer Christine Janks came out of the gate running this summer at Arlington, but her stable still has something left for the finish. After a mid-summer lull, Janks has won 10 races in less than three weeks, giving her 23 for the meet, just six fewer than leading trainer Frank Kirby.
