DM Shicago, winner of the All American Futurity on Monday, may make his next start in the trials to the Grade 1, $1 million Texas Classic Futurity at Sam Houston Race Park on Oct. 14.
"We'll X-ray him all over, and if everything is fine we may go for the Texas Classic," trainer Carl Draper said Tuesday. In the All American DM Shicago earned $1 million and set a stakes record of 21 seconds for the 440 yards.
The Texas Classic Futurity finals are on Oct. 29.
Leading trainer Paul Jones will send out the 2002 world champion, Whosleavingwho, and Meteoric in the Grade 1, $100,000 Go Man Go Handicap on Saturday night at Los Alamitos.
Whosleavingwho and Meteoric each prepared for their fall stakes campaigns with 350-yard allowance victories at Los Alamitos. On July 29, Whosleavingwho won a nose decision in 17.41 seconds, and on Aug. 15 Meteoric scored a half-length victory in 17.60 seconds after being bumped at the start.
"Both horses came out of their races really well," Jones said. "Whosleavingwho looks as good as he ever has."
Total handle for the Evangeline Downs meeting that concluded Monday showed a healthy increase from a year ago. This season was the final one for Thoroughbreds at the Carencro, La., facility, as the 2005 season, which begins next April, will be the first at the new location in nearby Opelousas, where the slots portion of the racino has been operating since December.
COLUMBUS, Neb. - The race for leading rider at Columbus will come down to the closing weekend with a four- or five-way stretch run.
Filmer Munaylla, sidelined by a broken bone in his lower leg, still holds the lead with 32 wins, but it seems likely that any of four riders still active are in reach of the title. Jerry Carkeek opens the weekend with 25 wins, Armando Martinez is next with 24, and Dennis Collins has 23 with just 27 races left in the meet. Dan Beck, who last week posted doubles on four days, is next with 19 wins.
COLLINSVILLE, Ill. - Trainers Jimmy Zook and Ralph Martinez have several things in common. Both have around 100 horses and train exclusively for one owner. But their operations are opposites philosophically, with Martinez and his boss, Lou O'Brien, more concerned with grinding out victories in claiming races than chasing stakes money.
"They have a certain criteria for claiming horses, and they've gotten very good at what they do," says Zook of the Martinez-O'Brien barn.
It's Faulkner time at Thistledown. With 108 days of the 187-day racing season completed, the father-son trainers are first and third in the standings, with son Rodney Faulkner leading with 52 winners from 244 starts and father Joe Faulkner third with 42 winners from 244 starters. Jerry Hollendorfer is second with 45 of 116.
The Faulkners came here in 2001, and a third member of the family, Randy, also trained here for two seasons. Another son, Ricky, is a blacksmith on the Texas circuit.
MIAMI - Trainer David Vivian is still waiting for the growth spurt that would make his 2-year-old filly Aclassysassylassy almost as big as the competition she's facing in the Florida Stallion Stakes. Until then, Vivian will have to be content watching his little dynamo beat up on her more physically imposing rivals, as she did again Monday when she rallied to an easy 2 1/2-length victory in the $125,000 at Calder.
The New York Racing Association has emerged from its premier summertime meet in Saratoga Springs, N.Y., without its No. 1 choice for a new chief executive officer, but with a solution that puts to rest a controversy over how it accounts for purses owed to horsemen.
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.
