DEL MAR, Calif. - The California Horse Racing Board on Tuesday denied jockey Patrick's Valenzuela's request for a stay of his suspension for failing to take a hair-follicle test in early July.
The board's decision will force Valenzuela to seek a temporary restraining order in Superior Court in an effort to return to riding. Valenzuela's attorney, Neil Papiano, is likely to seek relief in the courts in coming days. Valenzuela and Papiano were not available for comment.
DEL MAR, Calif. - Test the Waters caught trainer Jeff Mullins by surprise when she won an allowance race at Hollywood Park on July 11.
Mullins expected Test the Waters to run well in her second start after a two-year layoff, but not necessarily win. A loss would have allowed Test the Waters to return in a first-condition allowance race for California-breds. Instead, she rallied from last in a field of six to win by a length.
"I thought it was pretty impressive," Mullins said.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - Technically, the $65,000 Waya Stakes for fillies and mares at 1 1/2 miles on turf is the feature on Friday's nine-race card at Saratoga. In reality, the race to see is the seventh, a $58,000 classified allowance sprint featuring graded stakes winners Badge of Silver and Alke.
The 6 1/2-furlong race may serve as more of a prep for the Grade 1 Forego on Sept. 4 than Saturday's $200,000 Vanderbilt Handicap will. A field of 12 - 10 of whom are stakes winners - was entered for Friday's race.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario - Dance Smartly Handicap winner Mona Rose is the one to fear most in Friday's Woodbine headliner, a $100,000 optional claimer on the grass for fillies and mares.
Trained by Earl Barnett, Mona Rose is unbeaten in three starts at the meeting, all on turf with jockey Eurico Rosa da Silva aboard. Her streak began with a 3 1/2-length score in a May 22 preliminary allowance, and she doubled up at the second allowance category June 26, winning by a neck over Kabul.
EDMONTON, Alberta - A Shaky Start, topweighted at 124 pounds, looms as the heavy favorite when she takes on six rivals here in Friday's $40,000 Madamoiselle at 1 1/16 miles.
Leanne Painter will ride A Shaky Start, who will be seeking her third stakes victory of the campaign after taking the Marc Jenkins Memorial at Stampede Park and the John Patrick here July 23.
Two of her three defeats this year were to Alberta's 2003 horse of the year, Raylene, who now is racing at Woodbine, and the other was to Sly Lady, whose career was ended by an injury suffered in the Patrick.
AUBURN, Wash. - Trainers Tim McCanna and Frank Lucarelli, who are involved in a four-way battle for the training title, will both be represented in Friday's feature at Emerald Downs, a mile test for 3-year-old fillies eligible to be claimed for $25,000 to $20,000.
Personal Legend and Fast Cookie recorded victories in split divisions of Wednesday's De La Rose Stakes at Saratoga.
In the first division, worth $66,800, Personal Legend, the 13-10 favorite, ran down 6-1 longshot Lentil in the final strides to win by a head under Jerry Bailey. It was a neck back to Vespers in third.
Personal Legend ($4.60) , a 4-year-old daughter of Awesome Again owned by Edmund Gann and trained by Bobby Frankel, covered the one mile in 1:36.63 over good turf. It was the first stakes win of the meet for Frankel, who had been 0 for 7 in stakes at the meet.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - Ten years ago, Richard Migliore sat a young jockey down and taught him a lesson. The jockey was in the middle of a long Saratoga skid. Frustration reigned. Migliore knew where he was coming from.
"You try too hard," he said. "Relax, you can't pick them up and carry them. Next time you ride, go out there and give the horse a race. Do nothing. Believe me, when you get to the three-eighths pole you'll be exactly where you want to be."
Last week, that jockey - not so young and now retired from that side of horse racing - returned the favor.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - Bobby Frankel will let his actions speak louder than his words - and his horses - this weekend at Saratoga by pulling Ghostzapper out of Saturday's Grade 2, $200,000 Alfred G. Vanderbilt Handicap.
Instead, Frankel will now point Ghostzapper to the Grade 3, $200,000 Philip Iselin Handi-cap at Monmouth Park on Aug. 21.
Frankel wouldn't come out and say it, but part of what went into his decision is his dissatisfaction with the weight assignments for the race. Ghostzapper was assigned 122 pounds for the Forego, compared with 120 for Speightstown.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - It figures. It's Friday the 13th. It's Saratoga. And rain is in the forecast. It's a mix that concerns several trainers with horses entered in Friday's $65,000 Waya Stakes, because soft turf, or a forced switch from the turf to the main track, would significantly alter the composition of the 1 1/2-mile race.
