ARLINGTON HEIGHTS, Ill. - Duke University basketball coach Mike Krzyzewski's name has such an unusual spelling that people find it far easier to call him by nickname. Hence, Coach K.
That's why some racetrackers who hang with Chicago trainer Gene Brajczewski have taken to calling him "the Polish Plumber."
The unbeaten Cactus Ridge came to Ellis Park last year by way of his Chicago base and used a victory in the James C. Ellis Juvenile as a launching pad for a victory in the Grade 3 Arlington-Washington Futurity.
Now Straight Line follows a similar path. Perfect in two starts at Arlington, he heads a 10-horse field for Saturday's $100,000 Ellis Juvenile.
Carded at seven furlongs, the race offers a distance between the short ones he has been running - five to 5 1/2 furlongs - and the route races that take up the bulk of the fall stakes calendar for 2-year-olds.
SAN MATEO, Calif. - Sunday's $12,500-added C.J. Hindley Humboldt County Marathon at the Humboldt County Fair will have a Bay Meadows feel to it.
The 1 5/8-mile race attracted six runners, four of whom are based at Bay Meadows or Golden Gate Fields: Champagne Day, Dandi Candi, Potri Cacho, and River Getaway.
Trainers Bill Morey and Jeff Bonde are sending horses to the race this year, with Morey's Potri Cacho the possible favorite in a race in which horses pass the finish line four times.
AUBURN, Wash. - Trainer Bonnie Jenne arrived in this area at the age of 12 in 1961 when her father, trainer Ed Lewis, moved his operation from Montana to Longacres. Soon thereafter she met Wally Jenne, who would become her husband, and Wally's childhood friend, Frank MacDonald, whose father was trainer Chub MacDonald.
Jenne remembers the year not so much because she was about to enter junior high, but because that was the year that Sparrow Castle won the Longacres Mile. It's the way racetrackers throughout the Northwest measure time.
FARMINGTON, N.Y. - As Chris Englehart likes to put it, he didn't come to the racetrack, but the racetrack came to him.
Englehart, the leading trainer at Finger Lakes this meet, was born in Canandaigua in 1955. Seven years later Finger Lakes opened its doors in Farmington, about seven miles north of Canandaigua. It did not take long for Englehart to begin coming to this small track - first as a young fan betting $2 win tickets, then as a hotwalker, and eventually as a trainer when he turned 18.
Mighty Invictus set the fastest qualifying time for the $2,050,000 All American Futurity for Quarter Horses at Ruidoso Downs on Thursday, zipping 440 yards in 21.417 seconds. Mighty Invictus won the 18th of 21 time trials.
The 10 fastest finishing times from the 206 starters in the trials advance to the finals on Labor Day, Sept. 6.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - Last year at Saratoga, Ashado looked awesome winning the Grade 2 Schuylerville and Grade 1 Spinaway in consecutive starts, and there is good reason to believe she will wow fans again this year at the Spa.
Ashado, the undisputed leader of the 3-year-old filly division, seeks her third Grade 1 win of 2004 in Saturday's $750,000 Alabama.
The Alabama shares the card with the Grade 1 Hopeful. Both races will be televised on a 90-minute ESPN telecast that begins at 5 p.m. Eastern.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - Last Saturday, Jack and Laurie Wolf were on pins and needles. From Saratoga, they watched Hurricane Charley bear down on the West Coast of Florida and toward their Sarasota home. Fortunately for them, the storm took a right-hand turn and never reached their town.
