ETOBICOKE, Ontario - The home team lost its major player for Sunday's $1.5 million Canadian International, as Strut the Stage will not race again this season because of injury.
The $750,000 E.P. Taylor Stakes for fillies and mares also will be run Sunday. Both are Grade 1 turf races.
EDMONTON, Alberta - The 2003 stakes schedule ended on Monday, Thanksgiving Day, and Tigger Bay finished his season well by winning the $75,000 Canadian Juvenile.
Tigger Bay, who was shipped from Assiniboia Downs in August after finishing third in the $40,000 Winnipeg Futurity, made an instant impression here when he stole the $40,000 Birdcatcher on Sept. 1.
On Monday, jockey Leanne Painter took Tigger Bay to the lead from the outside in the eight-horse field and they set a blistering pace with a first quarter of 23.20 seconds.
ELMONT, N.Y. - Trainer John DeStefano Jr. was thrilled as Compelling World crossed the finish line in second place in last year's Empire Classic. Then DeStefano watched the head-on video replay, which showed Compelling World taking a hard bump at the start, and realized his horse might have won the race with a clean break.
ARCADIA, Calif. - Musical Chimes, a French stakes winner now trained by Neil Drysdale, will be fitted with blinkers when she starts in the $1 million Breeders' Cup Filly and Mare Turf at Santa Anita on Oct. 25.
On Wednesday, Musical Chimes worked a half-mile in 49.20 seconds, going in company with two other horses from Drysdale's stable. Musical Chimes was one of several Breeders' Cup candidates to breeze at Santa Anita on Wednesday as training activity has begun to intensify.
Several long-priced winners Wednesday led the pick six to carry over for the sixth straight day at Keeneland, with the jackpot standing at $260,209 entering the Thursday card.
The pick six seemed destined to carry over almost as soon as it started on Wednesday: Foxy Bertie, who at 25-1 was the longest shot in a field of eight, won the fourth race, the first race of the pick six.
The New York State Racing and Wagering Board passed a rule on Wednesday that will enable trifecta wagering on nearly all Thoroughbred races in the state with five-horse fields.
The rule, which will take effect on Oct. 30, will allow Thoroughbred tracks to offer trifectas on any stakes, handicap, or allowance race that has a minimum of five horses. The previous rule required a minimum of six horses in all races but graded stakes.
STICKNEY, Ill. - Six months ago, False Promises was starting to live up to his name. A $37,000 2-year-old purchase in the spring of 2002, and a winner last December in his second start ever, False Promises began 2003 by losing four races by a combined 92 lengths.
The promise he had shown was vanishing, but trainer Tony Granitz had one more hope. "I told the owner [David Maracich] all along that this horse would be better going long on grass," Granitz said. "He had a sister that liked the grass, and he trained like he would be better on it, too."
ETOBICOKE, Ontario - It's not unusual for the name Collet to be associated with a winner of the E.P. Taylor Stakes.
Trainer Robert Collet, based in France, sent out Truly a Dream to win the 1994 Taylor at 7-2 and Choc Ice to capture the 2001 running at 31-1.
This year, Rodolphe Collet will be looking to follow his father's example when he saddles Tigertail, who should be among the favorites in Sunday's Grade 1, $750,000 turf race for fillies and mares at 1 1/4 miles.
SAN MATEO, Calif. - Another Friday night at Bay Meadows unfolds with the possibility of more action at the bandstand than on the racetrack.
The cards for the long-running Friday's Alive promotion are usually hard to fill, but this Friday took a particularly hard hit.
Only 46 horses were entered in the eight races on a program that begins at 7 p.m. No superfectas, which require eight entrants, will be offered, and only five races will have trifectas, which require fields of six.