ALBANY, Calif. - Golden Gate Fields opens a 109-day meeting Wednesday with a great deal of optimism thanks to an increased horse population in northern California.
"We had about 1,400 or 1,500 horses when we started Bay Meadows in late August," said Tom Doutrich, Golden Gate's racing secretary. "We now have between 1,800 and 1,900."
There are also more horses on the grounds at Golden Gate Fields than Bay Meadows simply because the barn area is bigger.
ALBANY, Calif. - Tom Doutrich's appointment as racing secretary for Bay Meadows and Golden Gate Fields in late August was unconventional, to say the least.
Doutrich, a 40-year-old former jockey agent who had never worked in a racing office before, completed his first meeting as racing secretary at Bay Meadows on Sunday, and will begin his first Golden Gate Fields meeting on Wednesday.
"I'd basically done it all," said Doutrich. "What I gave up was a very good livelihood for a new challenge."
ETOBICOKE, Ontario - I'm Speechless will continue his remarkable march up the class ladder as the probable favorite in Wednesday's Woodbine feature, a six-furlong preliminary allowance worth $61,600.
Trained by Bob Tiller, who purchased him for $5,000 at a Kentucky yearling sale, I'm Speechless won his lone 2-year-old start, against $62,500 maidens last November. He finished fourth as the favorite for $40,000 in his Aug. 21 season opener, and has won each of his four subsequent outings after leading at every call.
Business at Belmont Park's 38-day fall meet, which concluded on Oct. 26, was down across the board.
Daily average total handle, including incoming simulcasting, was down 4.5 percent, from last year's $11,106,494 to $10,606,675. Daily average attendance dropped 3.1 percent, from 6,122 during the 33-day meet in 2002 to 5,930 this year.
Blue Ribbon Downs in Sallisaw, Okla., was saved from the auction block on Monday when its owner, Race Horses Inc., settled a $3 million debt with the city of Sallisaw. The track was to be sold to the highest bidder at the Sallisaw courthouse on Tuesday.
The settlement, said Jim Hudgens, city manager of Sallisaw, "stops the sale. We released the deed to Race Horses Inc."
CHICAGO - Owner Frank Calabrese has been operating a claiming stable this season, but Calabrese has a few horses with quality and seems to have come up with a good 2-year-old filly.
Liz on Polk Street made her career debut Saturday at Hawthorne, winning a maiden sprint race by 4 1/2 lengths, and she has pedigree to go with her strong performance. Liz on Polk Street is by A.P. Indy and out of Calabrese's Grade 1-winning mare Silver Maiden.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario - As recently as a month ago, A Bit O'Gold wasn't even considered his own stable's No. 1 hopeful for the $250,000 Coronation Futurity, which is this country's premier test for Canadian-bred 2-year-olds.
On Sept. 21, trainer Catherine Day Phillips won the seven-furlong Swynford with Winter Whiskey, who defeated some talented American-bred opposition, and the Coronation was tabbed as Winter Whiskey's long-term target.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. - When Kentucky Derby time rolls around and Nick Zito is not involved, he gets a little melancholy. Having twice won the Derby, Zito tends to wax poetic and grow nostalgic whenever he misses the race, which has happened to him two of the last three years.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. - Value Plus, the 4-5 favorite in the $113,100 Nashua Stakes at Aqueduct on Sunday, stumbled at the start and dumped jockey John Velazquez. Read the Footnotes had no such trouble and cruised home a 2 1/4-length winner over Paddington in the Grade 3 Nashua for 2-year-old males.
It was another 6 1/2 lengths back to Who is Chris G. in third. Big Booster, Tsuzomin, Good Reward, Charismatic Rob, and Motivus completed the order of finish.
Value Plus, whom an outrider caught, did not appear to be injured. Velazquez was uninjured.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. - Trainer Nick Zito's bench of Kentucky Derby hopefuls grew again Sunday, when The Cliff's Edge rolled to a 7 3/4-length victory in the Grade 3, $113,700 Iroquois Stakes at Churchill Downs.
Confidently ridden by Shane Sellers, The Cliff's Edge broke well and settled in fifth down the backstretch, 3.5 lengths behind early leader War Image, who set splits of 22.57 seconds, 45.12 and 1:10.07. Midway around the turn, he began to advance rapidly three wide, and after taking command nearing the stretch, he quickly drew away from runner-up Korbyn Gold.
