ETOBICOKE, Ontario - While the events of the next two weekends could have an impact on several Sovereign Award divisions, the turf categories are another story.
The turf season at Woodbine went out with a whimper last Sunday, with the Labeeb and River Memories stakes being moved to the main track.
And, with almost all of the Sovereign Award turf candidates done racing for the season, there will be no change in the hierarchy prior to the Nov. 16 cutoff for voting purposes.
INGLEWOOD, Calif. - Bobby Frankel's delayed honeymoon came two weeks after his marriage to Bonita Boniface, and it was just at the right time. He left town on Oct. 26, one day after he ran eight losing horses, including four favorites, in the Breeders' Cup.
Frankel returned to California on Monday night, and was back at work on Tuesday morning at Hollywood Park, with a week's leisure time in Barbados affording him the opportunity to view Breeders' Cup Day with some perspective, and to plot the course of his two best-known runners.
ARCADIA, Calif. - For most of the racing season, Ten Most Wanted was the fair-haired star at the Wally Dollase barn. But when Ten Most Wanted, winner of the Travers and Super Derby, returns from a 30-day vacation next month, he will discover the stable has become a little more crowded.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario - Dillinger, a very profitable claim for trainer Steve Attard in 2001, is the horse to beat in Thursday's Woodbine headliner, an $80,000 optional claimer for 3-year-olds and up.
Attard took Dillinger in October 2001 for $40,000 from Dillinger's second and final 2-year-old outing. Dillinger was winless in 12 starts in 2002, but he hit the board on nine occasions and banked $126,552 on the year. The highlight of his campaign was a close second-place finish on turf in the restricted Bold Ruckus Stakes.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. - Value Plus grabbed the quarter on his right front foot when he stumbled and dropped jockey John Velazquez coming out of the gate in Sunday's Nashua Stakes at Aqueduct.
Trainer Todd Pletcher said Value Plus lost his footing and clipped his front foot with his right hind foot. Velazquez was not injured.
ALBANY, Calif. - Stakes-winning I'm a Soccer Boy and stakes-placed At Dawn and Grandpa Chan will meet in Thursday's Golden Gate Fields feature, a 1 1/16-mile $40,000 optional claimer for 3-year-olds on the turf.
I'm a Soccer Boy, who won the Trooper Seven at Emerald Downs two starts back, and Club Forty One are the only two runners among the six entrants running for a tag. Banker Boy and Shadow Raider complete the field.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. - Literary Light is the one to beat when she returns to her favorite surface in a $56,000 money allowance race for filly and mare sprinters Thursday at Aqueduct.
There is a pick six carryover of $25,630.
Also entered in the six-furlong race are Silk Concorde, Lilah, Golden Made, Bonefide Reason, A. P. Andie, and Lights On.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. - For the first seven races of his career, Premium Saltine was a talented but inconsistent horse. A winner in fast time one day, he could just as easily finish up the track the next time.
That was during his former life - when he was a colt. Now a gelding, Premium Saltine is fast, game, and consistent. Thursday he aims to win his third consecutive win in the ninth race at Churchill Downs, a $58,500 four-other-than allowance at 6 1/2 furlongs.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. - La Reina, in a very game performance, won Tuesday's $110,700 Tempted Stakes on the Election Day card at Aqueduct before a crowd of 3,343.
La Reina repelled a challenge from the runner-up, Eye Dazzler, at the quarter pole and won by three lengths. It was another 5 1/2 lengths back to Sisti's Pride in third in the mile dirt race for 2-year-old fillies.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. - Crafty Shaw came out on the short end of a photo finish in the 2002 Clark Handicap. In Tuesday's $64,600 allowance prep for the Clark at Churchill Downs, Crafty Shaw won a tight photo.
Well rated by Craig Perret, Crafty Shaw pressed the pace of longshot Smoked Em through slow opening fractions of 24.42 seconds and 47.75. Leaving the backstretch he took command of the race with six furlongs in 1:11.83, and was quickly joined by Pass Rush.