DEL MAR, Calif. - Our New Recruit went from being an also ran in graded stakes in California last winter to the winner of the world's richest sprint, the $2 million Golden Shaheen in Dubai last March.
Monday at Del Mar in the $75,000 Pirate's Bounty Handicap, Our New Recruit starts a late-season campaign that trainer John Sadler hopes will include a win in the $1 million Breeders' Cup Sprint at Lone Star Park on Oct. 30.
CHICAGO - If Summer Mis can stay on her feet, she should win the $50,000 Safely Kept Stakes on Monday at Arlington.
Summer Mis has the rail and the speed in the six-furlong Safely Kept. With a sharp break, she should be gone.
"When she has an outside post, you can look at taking back and tucking in," said trainer Tony Mitchell. "On the rail, you just have to go out there and let her do it."
SAN MATEO, Calif. - Ninebanks loves the Longden Turf Course at Bay Meadows, especially on Labor Day.
For the past two years, Ninebanks has won the $100,000 California Turf Championship, and on Monday he'll attempt to make it three straight in the one-mile turf race for Cal-breds.
Trainer Jerry Hollendorfer can't remember ever winning the same stakes race three years running with the same horse.
Mighty Invictus was a source of frustration earlier this year for top Quarter Horse trainer Jack Brooks. Mighty Invictus qualified for the Remington Park Futurity in April and the Rainbow Futurity in July, but was unplaced in the finals, partly because of poor starts.
Monday, that may be forgotten when Mighty Invictus starts as a leading candidate in the $1.9 million at Ruidoso Downs.
In time trials for the All American Futurity on Aug. 19, Mighty Invictus ran the best race of his career, zipping 440 yards in 21.41 seconds, the fastest qualifying time from 21 trials.
Oaklawn enhanced its 3-year-old program last meet for the track's 100th anniversary, and Smarty Jones went on to sweep the series by winning the Southwest, Rebel and Arkansas Derby. He then went on to win the Kentucky Derby and earn a $5 million bonus from Oaklawn for winning the Rebel, Arkansas Derby and Kentucky Derby. That bonus will not return for 2005, but the Arkansas Derby purse will remain at the $1 million level.
CINCINNATI - Trainer Bernie Flint said before the Bassinet Stakes was run Saturday at River Downs that he had no idea which of his three fillies would come out on top.
Apparently the wagering public knew.
Im a Dixie Girl became a lukewarm 2-1 favorite just before the field of 11 2-year-old fillies was sent away, and she was able to prove her backers correct when she outfinished her Flint stablemate Runway Model to win the $100,000 Bassinet over a fast track.
SAN MATEO, Calif. - Russell Baze, who has won 31 straight riding titles at Bay Meadows, took an early lead in the jockeys' race with five winners on opening day Friday.
Baze won with Crisane ($3.80) in the first, Ceez the Minute ($3.80) in the second, Factual Lady ($5.20) in the sixth, Royal Again ($6.60) in the seventh, and Won Ton Toosie ($3.60) in the eighth. He finished third aboard Mare Donna in the fifth with his only other mount.
FORT ERIE, Ontario - A shortened 81-day Fort Erie meet comes to an end Monday with a pair of 1 1/16-mile turf stakes on a 12-race program.
The Centre Stage Anne is for fillies and mares while the Puss N Boots is for male runners. Both carry a purse of $40,000, and both require three previous starts at the meet for eligibility.
WINNIPEG, Manitoba - Three stakes will be run on Monday's Labor Day program here at Assiniboia Downs.
The Distaff Stakes, for Manitoba-bred fillies and mares, goes at one mile.
There also will be two divisions - one for each gender - of the Canadian Thoroughbred Horse Society Sales Stakes for 2-year-olds who went through the 2003 Manitoba sale. Both of those races go at six furlongs.
Each stakes carries a purse of $40,000.
Wisdomisgold lived up to her billing at Fort Erie on Saturday, capturing the $75,000 Juvenile Stakes by two lengths.
The Juvenile, a six-furlong race for fillies who went through the open yearling sale or mixed sale at Woodbine last fall, attracted a field of five, and Wisdomisgold was the 1-2 favorite.
Trained at Woodbine by Sean Hall and ridden by Woodbine regular Slade Callaghan, Wisdomisgold had finished third in the Nandi Stakes on Aug. 8 and won her maiden Saturday while making her fourth career start.
