ALTOONA, Iowa - Swingforthefences will be looking to hit a home run when he seeks his first stakes victory in Friday's $250,000 Iowa Derby.
The 11-race program also includes the Grade 3, $125,000 Iowa Oaks. Friday is the second day of the four-day Iowa Festival of Racing, which features two stakes races per day worth a total of more than $1.1 million.
ALTOONA, Iowa - Menifeeque looks to be on the verge of winning her first graded stakes Friday in the Grade 3 Iowa Oaks at Prairie Meadows.
Nine 3-year-old fillies run in the $125,000 Oaks, a 1 1/16-mile race that is part of the Iowa Festival of Racing and is being run as a graded stakes for the first time.
ELMONT, N.Y. - After pulling off a stunning upset in last month's Grade 1 Stephen Foster Handicap at Churchill Downs, Colonial Colony arrived in New York on Tuesday where he will try to upset another group of handicap horses in Saturday's Grade 1, $500,000 Suburban Handicap at Belmont Park.
Colonial Colony arrived on the same flight as Devil Time, an Ohio-bred based in Kentucky who is likely to be the longest shot in a probable field of eight for the Suburban.
ELMONT, N.Y. - As well as Seducer's Song was running on dirt, trainer Christophe Clement always felt her future would be on the turf. He should know. He trained the filly's mother, Seducer, to three turf stakes victories.
Seducer's Song made a strong turf debut on June 4, taking advantage of a fast pace to rally for a half-length victory in an entry-level allowance race. Friday, she makes her stakes debut in the $60,000 Fieldy Stakes, going one mile over Belmont's Widener Turf Course.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario - Florida shipper Turtle Drive appears to have found a cozy spot in Friday's Woodbine feature, a nonwinners-of-two allowance for Ontario-sired fillies and mares.
Turtle Drive was a troubled second for trainer Steve Owens when she debuted here last September. She got the winter off after finishing fifth in a 5 1/2-furlong maiden special for Ontario-sired runners in October.
EDMONTON, Alberta - Sweet Creek will be looking for her fourth win of the year when she heads a field of 10 fillies and mares in Friday's feature race at Northlands Park, a 6 1/2-furlong sprint for $22,000 claimers.
A 4-year-old trained by Dale Greenwood, Sweet Creek is coming off a victory at one mile, and was claimed from each of her two previous wins this year. Sweet Creek will be ridden by Quincy Welch from post 7.
Jadebquick also won her most recent start, but this will be her first outing in five weeks. Trainer Gerry Kipling again enlists Desmond Bryan to ride.
PLEASANTON, Calif. - Preparing for a three-day holiday weekend, Alameda County Fair racing secretary Greg Brent found himself up against it when drawing races for Friday, and the result was co-featured claiming races.
They are both for $12,500 claimers at a mile and 70 yards. One race is for fillies and mares, the other for males.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. - Easy Grades once bordered on being a marquee name, a horse fast enough to finish second in the San Rafael Stakes and Santa Anita Derby and earn a berth in the 2002 Kentucky Derby.
But ever since he ran 13th in the 128th Derby, Easy Grades has rarely been mentioned among the sport's elites, having won just once in eight subsequent starts. His star could start rising again Friday, however, when the 5-year-old gelding returns from a layoff and makes his first start for trainer Jimmy Baker in the feature race at Churchill Downs, a $52,900 allowance route.
CHICAGO - For $30,000, you could have bought a horse named Silverfoot out of a maiden-claiming race last November at Churchill Downs. Seven months and seven starts later, Silverfoot is a graded stakes winner, with the potential for more. The next phase of his out-of-the-blue career begins Sunday at Arlington, when he runs in the Grade 3 Stars and Stripes Handicap.