SAN MATEO, Calif. - Two huge questions surround Saturday's running of the $55,000-added Saratoga Handicap at Bay Meadows.
The six-furlong race drew a field of nine, including the streaking 4-year-old filly Christmas Time and the venerable 7-year-old gelding El Dorado Shooter.
The questions concern those two.
Is El Dorado Shooter ready to fire after stopping badly in his first two starts this year?
Is Christmas Time weighted too high and will she scratch?
VANCOUVER, British Columbia - After two weeks without a stakes, three will be run at Hastings over this Victoria Day holiday weekend.
Sunday's feature, the $40,000 Hong Kong Jockey Club Sprint, shapes up as the best race of the meet to date. Ten horses are entered, and the Dino Condilenios-trained entry of Lord Nelson and Celt figure as the favorites.
Although there's a huge difference between a first-level allowance and a $500,000 stakes, it's not too soon for trainer Graham Motion to consider an ambitious long-range target for his 3-year-old filly Adventure.
The 1 1/16-mile Delaware Oaks on July 17 could be on Adventure's agenda after she scored her second consecutive victory last Saturday at Delaware Park. Facing winners for the first time since winning her maiden in a nine-furlong race at Keeneland last month, Adventure earned a Beyer Speed Figure of 83 in the two-turn allowance.
Casino gamblers and Miss America contestants aren't the only ones who visit Atlantic City. Three of the contenders in Saturday's $50,000 Ben Cohen Stakes prepped for the five-furlong turf sprint at Pimlico by running at seldom-used Atlantic City Race Course.
Quest of Fate, Tricky Storm, and Ghostly Numbers were separated by less than two lengths when they finished one-two-three in a five-furlong grass race contested under allowance conditions on May 12.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario - Honolua Storm may be coming in under the sonar for Saturday's Grade 3 Marine Stakes at Woodbine.
Trainer Roger Attfield holds Honolua Storm in high regard, however, and that's reason enough to give the colt a long look in his first start here.
"I think he's a very good horse," said Attfield, who also co-owns Honolua Storm with Bill Werner. "He has a tremendous amount of ability as far as I'm concerned."
FORT ERIE, Ontario - A little longer life may be in store for the 2004 Fort Erie meet, which is scheduled to end earlier than usual on Labor Day, Sept. 6.
Prompted by Nick Coukos, executive director of the Horsemen's Benevolent and Protective Association of Ontario, discussions have been taking place regarding the possibility of Woodbine hosting a Fort Erie program of racing on Mondays in the fall.
The Fort Erie meet was originally set for 117 days, but the final 36 days were canceled to ensure ample time for a major reconstruction of the dirt track.
Everheart, beaten at odds-on in a second-level allowance at Keeneland in her most recent start, may actually be in for an easier time of things on Saturday as she makes her stakes debut in the Wafare Farm Stakes at Lone Star Park. The six-furlong race for 3-year-old fillies drew a field of six that includes just one stakes winner, Bluegrass Sara, who has been idle since September.
BOSSIER CITY, La. - Yoursmineours and Josie G, classy stakes winners on the main track, will each be making her turf debut in Saturday's Chapel Belle Stakes. Throw in fellow stakes winner Topango and no fewer than four others who won their last start, and you have one bettable headliner.
A one-mile turf race for 3-year-old fillies, the Chapel Belle carries a $50,000 purse and will be run as the ninth race on the 11-race program, which begins at 2:05 p.m.
NORTH RANDALL, Ohio - Ohio's 2003 champion 3-year-filly, Oh So Easy, heads a field of nine Ohio-bred fillies and mares in Saturday's $40,000 Brent's Princess Stakes at Thistledown.
Oh So Easy, who will run coupled with Kiosk, was second, beaten a half-length, in a 7 1/2-furlong allowance on the turf at River Downs on May 7. In her only other start this year, she was unplaced in a middle-distance allowance at Mountaineer.