AUBURN, Wash. - Trainer Grant Forster and owners Mike and Amy Feuerborn capped off a magical week on Saturday when A Classic Life won the $49,500 Barbara Shinpoch Stakes for 2-year-old fillies to remain undefeated after three starts. Just seven days earlier, the same trio, plus co-owners John and Jane Maryanski, celebrated Bianconi Baby's victory in the $100,000 Washington Breeders' Cup Oaks.
"This is as good as it gets," Mike Feuerborn said Saturday. "I think somebody better pinch me."
ETOBICOKE, Ontario - Barbeau Ruckus was nominated to both the 1 1/16-mile Elgin and the six-furlong Kenora, but will not be in the lineup for either of those $125,000 yearling sales stakes here Sunday.
"He had a slight problem last week, and I decided to pack it in for a while," said Ross Armata, who trains Barbeau Ruckus for his daughter, Jennifer Armata, and Thavamalar Thayalan. "I'm just going to have to miss this race and see. He's been too good to me over the years, and I hope to have him for a couple more. Horses like him are too hard to come by."
In a surprising turn of events, Churchill Downs Inc. completed a $47 million deal late Tuesday night with the Fair Grounds Corp. and the Louisiana Horsemen's Benevolent and Protective Association that could give CDI control of the New Orleans track by October.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - On the morning of July 24, bloodstock agent Mark Reid sat in trainer Bobby Frankel's Belmont Park office and spoke of how much he was looking forward to spending the summer at Saratoga.
Reid was going to rent property from trainer Richard Dutrow Jr., and his method of payment would be to furnish the house. Reid, a former trainer, had not been to Saratoga for the meet for more than a decade, since he had a small string here.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - Pomeroy, who became a Grade 1 winner in Saturday's King's Bishop at Saratoga, will be pointed to the Grade 1 Cigar Mile against older horses at Aqueduct on Nov. 27.
Patrick Biancone, Pomeroy's trainer, ruled out a start in the $1 million Breeders' Cup Sprint at Lone Star Park on Oct. 30, but said it was likely that Pomeroy, a 3-year-old, would run before the $350,000 Cigar Mile, although he hasn't settled on a race yet.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - In the last two years, Praise the Prince has been the most dominant steeplechase horse at Saratoga. On Thursday, he will try win the $100,000-added New York Turf Writers Steeplechase Handicap for the second year in a row.
A Grade 1 race run at 2 3/8 miles, the New York Turf Writers drew eight runners and is carded as the third race.
Praise the Prince, who will be the favorite, has beaten every horse in the field, with the exception of Cherokeeinthehills, who will be facing Praise the Prince for the first time.
DEL MAR, Calif. - A bit older, a bit heavier, and, he believes, a whole lot wiser, jockey Garrett Gomez was at Del Mar on Tuesday morning, working horses in preparation for a return to riding for the first time in nearly two years.
Gomez, 32, last rode in Southern California at Santa Anita's Oak Tree meeting in October 2002. Beset by marital and substance-abuse problems, Gomez left this circuit and rode briefly at Sunland Park before going AWOL.
DEL MAR, Calif. - It has been nearly 17 months since Elloluv last won a race. Since then, she has raced six times, either in Grade 1 or Grade 2 stakes races, without success. This year, she has finished sixth in both of her starts since returning from a lengthy layoff.
Average daily handle dropped 10.3 percent for Pimlico Race Course's 28-day summer meeting, the track's owner, the Maryland Jockey Club, said Monday.
Average all-sources handle was $2.32 million daily for the meet, compared with $2.59 million last year during a 30-day meet. Total handle during the meet was $52.3 million, a 23.2 percent decline from the 2003 figure of $68.1 million.
