CHICAGO - Call it feature-by-committee Sunday at Arlington Park.
With seemingly every good horse on the grounds rounded up to run on the Arlington Million program Saturday, the next day's racing cannot help but drop off sharply.
Instead of three Grade 1's on the grass, day-after fans are offered one helping of statebred allowance, one of open $50,000 claimers. These are good, bettable races - they just don't stir the heart.
SAN MATEO, Calif. - Despite the defection of several key management officials, Magna Entertainment is running the current Bay Meadows fair meet without a snag.
Bay Meadows general manager Bernie Thurman, Golden Gate Fields general manager Michael Scalzo, and Bay Meadows and Golden Gate racing secretary Tom Doutrich have all resigned from Magna since the Bay Meadows season ended in June.
Peter Tunney, who oversees Magna's operations in northern California, says that Scalzo and Doutrich agreed to help run the fair meeting.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. - Suave, runner-up to Rock Hard Ten in the Swaps Stakes at Hollywood Park, will make his next start in the Aug. 28 Travers Stakes at Saratoga, trainer Paul McGee said Friday.
In the weeks following the July 10 Swaps at Hollywood Park, Suave has been freshened. On Tuesday McGee tightened him for the Travers, breezing him seven furlongs in 1:25 at Churchill Downs.
"He's on top of his game," he said.
Prior to running second in the Swaps, Suave had won the Grade 3 Northern Dancer Stakes at Churchill Downs June 12.
Leslie's Love is not an easy mare to run down. A winner of 20 races, she is the one to catch Sunday in the inaugural running of the $50,000 Hallowed Dreams at Louisiana Downs.
A six-furlong race, the Hallowed Dreams is restricted to fillies and mares bred in Louisiana.
They will not beat Explosive Count in the $40,000 Chuck Taliaferro Memorial at Remington Park on Sunday if he runs back to his win July 1. That's when Explosive Count romped by 7 1/2 lengths in a $20,000 claiming race and earned a Beyer Speed Figure of 105.
He showed a high turn of foot in the race, when he ran the opening half-mile in 43.60 seconds and finished up six furlongs in 1:08. Explosive Count will go the same distance in the Taliaferro, where he will face five others, including Abbi's Choice, Silver Phone, and Ski Bum.
MIAMI - Sunday's one-mile Side Bar Stakes is billed as a prep for the Grade 3, $150,000 Miami Mile Breeders' Cup Stakes, which is scheduled for the turf course on Labor Day. But a week of steady rain and the peripheral effects of Hurricane Charley will likely prevent any of the turf specialists eyeing the Miami Mile from getting in a legitimate prep, as the Side Bar is almost certain to be switched from the grass to the main track.
AUBURN, Wash. - Emerald Downs and the Muckleshoot Indian Tribe began as adversaries, with the Muckleshoots opposing the construction of the track just a few miles from its casino in 1996 and Emerald opposing the Muckleshoots' plans to buy and operate Spokane's Playfair Race Course a few years later.
For those who remember those rancorous times, it was disconcerting to see Muckleshoot Tribal Chair John Daniels Jr. and Emerald president Ron Crockett holding a joint news conference on Thursday to announce a sort of partnership between the two groups.
VANCOUVER, British Columbia - Going into the British Columbia Day holiday weekend, trainer Dino Condilenios had won 17 races and held a one-win lead over Cindy Krasner in the trainers' standings. That gap has widened considerably.
Condilenios won his first training title last year, and after winning eight races over the past two weekends, it looks like he's on his way to another. Krasner didn't win a race over that period, but Harold Barroby, Hastings's all-time leading trainer, won five races and moved into second place, seven wins behind Condilenios.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario - Moonshine Justice, who won his maiden last out in the Clarendon Stakes, should be a major player in Sunday's $164,550 Vandal Stakes, a six-furlong dash for Canadian-bred 2-year-olds at Woodbine.
Moonshine Justice has run twice. Trained and co-owned by Dave Cotey, he was disqualified from second and placed fourth for interference in his June 13 debut, a five-furlong maiden special for Ontario-sired runners. The winner, Wholelottabourbon, subsequently took the Colin Stakes in a romp.