PORTLAND, Ore. - There are some nice pots to shoot for at Portland Meadows on Saturday, when five stakes will highlight the Oregon-bred Day activities. Nobody, however, will be aiming higher than trainer Jonathan Nance and his partner, Allen Floyd.
Nance and Floyd own the undefeated juvenile Houston Shuffle, who will be gunning not only for the winner's share of the $28,345-added Oregon Futurity, but also for a bonus of $25,000.
Two months ago, River Cruise and Allens Blessing each won a race on the Maryland Million program at Laurel Park. They meet for the first time Saturday in Laurel's $60,000 Politely Stakes.
The Politely, a seven-furlong race for Maryland-bred 3-year-old fillies that was postponed by bad weather last weekend, heads a nine-race card that also includes the $40,000 H. Steward Mitchell Stakes for 2-year-olds. A third stakes, the $40,000 Toddler for 2-year-old fillies, failed to fill and will not be rescheduled.
LOS ALAMITOS, Calif. - AB What a Runner clinched the 2-year-old championship when she won the All American Futurity at Ruidoso Downs last year.
Saturday at Los Alamitos, she tries to become only the third All American winner to also win the prestigious Champion of Champions at Los Alamitos.
Run at 440 yards, the classic distance in Quarter Horse racing, the $500,000 Champion of Champions is likely to determine Quarter Horse of the Year.
Two weeks have passed since Journey Fever was beaten a neck in a controversial running of the Miss Mommy Stakes at Hawthorne. A 2-year-old filly trained by Brian Williamson, Journey Fever returns in Saturday's $100,000 Pat Whitworth Illinois Debutante for Illinois-breds at 1 1/16 miles.
In the Miss Mommy, Journey Fever advanced along the rail and cut into the lead of heavily favored Bad Kitty in the stretch. But Journey Fever never did get by Bad Kitty. Bad Kitty swerved in toward Journey Fever, and the inside lane perhaps was too narrow for Journey Fever to get through.
FLORENCE, Ky. - Trainer Tom Van Berg did not want to place Sonic West in a demanding race following an eighth-place finish in the Grade 2 Clark Handicap Nov. 28. So he decided to take an enter-and-look approach to Saturday's $50,000 Prairie Bayou Stakes at Turfway Park.
He should like what he sees. With the exception of stakes winner Ask the Lord, most of the entrants in the 1 1/8-mile Prairie Bayou are allowance horses, struggling stakes runners, or turf horses racing on dirt. That could put Sonic West in the starting gate.
Kool Humor, who has been facing top-tier 3-year-olds like Ten Most Wanted and Excessivepleasure, takes a drop in class Saturday night for the $35,000 Kingwood at his home track of Sam Houston Race Park.
The Kingwood, a mile and 70-yard stakes for 3-year-olds, also drew Record Assembly, dead-heat winner of the $100,000 Star of Texas.
Kool Humor faced some heavies in his last two races. He finished fourth to Ten Most Wanted in the Grade 2, $500,000 Super Derby and was fourth behind winner Comic Truth and runner-up Excessivepleasure in the Grade 3, $150,000 Oklahoma Derby.
Soot is the horse most likely to become a stakes winner Saturday night in the $40,000 Cocodrie, a 6 1/2-furlong race for Louisiana-breds who have never won a stakes. Also in the Cocodrie is Sanctuary's Omooni, who is shooting for his fourth straight win.
Soot, who will break from the rail, was a wire-to-wire winner in his last two starts. In his most recent race, Soot won an optional claimer against open company and earned a 91 Beyer Speed Figure, the top number among all starters in the Cocodrie.
Ricky Faul has the mount for trainer Herman Taylor.
PHOENIX - Knoll Lake hasn't made many friends lately. Trained by Kevin Lewis, Knoll Lake lost at 1-5 and at 2-5 in two recent Turf Paradise races. She attempts to make amends for those losses in Saturday's $35,000 Mesa Handicap.
The 6 1/2-furlong race has lured a field of seven, though only six are likely to go.
SUNLAND PARK, N.M. - Saturday's $50,000-added Yuletide Derby at 6 1/2 furlongs rematches This Cat's for You and Novel T Dreamer, the one-two finishers in the Albuquerque Derby in September
This Cat's for You is trained by Ramon Gonzalez and Henry Dominguez trains Novel T Dreamer. Gonzalez and Dominguez are the top two trainers on the New Mexico circuit, and they finished one-two in the standings at Sunland Park last year, with Gonzalez winning his sixth title here.
MIAMI - Silver Wagon came out of nowhere to assume leadership of the 2-year-old division with a decisive victory over the then-undefeated Chapel Royal in Saratoga's Grade 1 Hopeful Stakes. But when he missed the Champagne because of a minor respiratory ailment and was away from the races 15 weeks, some people jumped off the Silver bandwagon.
