OCEANPORT, N.J. - A last-minute contract agreement between Del Mar and the 19 tracks of the Mid-Atlantic Cooperative was reached too late Wednesday for some tracks in the group to offer simulcast wagering on Del Mar's opening-day program.
Monmouth Park and The Meadowlands Racetrack, citing problems with program distribution, opted to wait until Thursday to add Del Mar. All the tracks in the cooperative were slated to have Del Mar on the betting menu Thursday.
The veteran jockey Ray Sibille announced his retirement following Wednesday's fifth race at Arlington Park. Sibille, 51, goes out unwillingly, but he must have hip-replacement surgery next month, and he will not be able to return from this setback.
"I just found out about the hip Monday morning," Sibille said. "I said to the doctor, 'All right. How long I'm going to be out?' He said, 'Wait a minute . . . you're out forever.' "
The work of Michael J. Marten, a two-time Eclipse Award-winning photographer whose work appears in Daily Racing Form, will be on display Saturday night after the Del Mar races at Axis Martini Bar and Restaurant, near the track. Also to be exhibited are the racetrack photographs of H. Montgomery-Drysdale.
Raylene has relocated to Woodbine, and without her at Northlands Park to scare anyone away, seven fillies and mares were entered for Friday's $40,000 John Patrick Handicap at one mile. The last two middle-distance filly/mare stakes races at Stampede Park, both won by reigning Alberta horse of the year Raylene, attracted fields of four and three, respectively.
AUBURN, Wash. - Everytricknthebook steps up in class and tries to repeat his last performance when he takes on six other 3-year-olds, each eligible to be claimed for $15,000, in Friday's one-mile feature at Emerald Downs.
Everytricknthebook, from the barn of trainer Aubrey Villyard, won over modest $8,000 maidens in his first try at a mile on
June 27. While he is stepping up sharply for his first try against winners, Everytricknthebook could scarcely have been more impressive in his maiden win, as he overcame a bad start to win by 7 3/4 lengths in 1:37.80.
DEL MAR, Calif. - Trainer Mike Mitchell finished the Hollywood Park meeting last weekend with a stakes win by Star Over the Bay in the $150,000 Sunset Handicap. Friday, Mitchell is hopeful to begin the first weekend of the Del Mar meeting with a victory by Pocketfullofpesos, a 4-year-old filly who is nearing the end of her career.
A stakes winner in 2002, Pocketfullofpesos starts in a $65,000 allowance race for fillies and mares over seven furlongs. The race could produce a few starters for the $150,000 Rancho Bernardo Handicap over 6 1/2 furlongs on Aug. 21.
ELMONT, N.Y. - Intercontinental, undefeated in three starts in this country for trainer Bobby Frankel, tuned up for the Grade 1 Diana Handicap on July 31 with a terrific six-furlong workout over Belmont's inner turf course Wednesday.
Working in company with Arvada, Intercontinental started about 1 1/2 lengths behind her stablemate and finished two lengths in front while covering the distance in 1:14.56. Richard Migliore was aboard for the work, but Jerry Bailey will ride Intercontinental in the Diana.
OCEANPORT, N.J. - The field has started to take shape for the $1 million Haskell Invitational on Aug. 8, the premier event of the Monmouth Park season.
The track extended invitations to 24 3-year-olds, and the race office is starting to get feedback from the connections.
Racing secretary Mike Dempsey expects the first three finishers in last weekend's Long Branch Stakes - Lion Heart, My Snookie's Boy, and Royal Assault - to come back for the 1 1/8-mile Haskell.
ARLINGTON HEIGHTS, Ill. - Trainer Mitch Shirota has won only three races this season. He is doing just fine, thank you.
There are seven horses in the Shirota barn, and one of them is named Shaconage. On Derby Day, she upset the Grade 3 Argent Mortgage at odds of 19-1. Last month, that win began to look less surprising when Shaconage scored a comfortable 1 1/4-length victory in the Grade 3 Locust Grove. Already this year Shaconage has earned
Trainer Danny Pish operates one of the largest stables in Texas, and his barn will move into what usually is one of its most prosperous periods of the year on Friday night with the opening of Retama Park near San Antonio.
Pish is an odds-on favorite to win his sixth straight training title at the track. He has 50 horses on the grounds, and another group of runners at his farm, about 10 miles from Retama.
"We usually keep 60 to 100 in training," said Pish. "We'll have about 65 to pull from to enter."