SAN MATEO, Calif. - Five older fillies and mares running 1 1/16 miles on the turf for a $32,000 claiming tag will meet in Thursday's Bay Meadows feature.
Claiming races are a double-edged sword for trainers, who place horses where they can win - but also where they may be attractive to rival trainers to claim.
Chuck Jenda, who trains Hazen, and Jerry Hollendor-fer, who trains No Peso No Dance, are loath to talk about their runners, who appear to be the ones to beat in the race.
Lone Star Park plans to construct a permanent 8,000-square-foot dining hall off the second floor of the grandstand that will accommodate additional patrons for the 2004 running of the Breeders' Cup World Thoroughbred Champion-ships, which the track will host on Oct. 30, 2004.
The hall, with a projected cost of more than $1.3 million, is a major part of $8 million in improvements to be made for the Breeders' Cup at Lone Star, which is in Grand Prairie, Texas. Including its existing 12,000 seats, the track will have an estimated 50,000 seats available for the championship day.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario - Perfect Soul is ready to roll.
Perfect Soul, coming off a closing third-place finish in the Atto Mile at Woodbine on Sept. 14, worked four furlongs in 49.40 seconds on a yielding training track turf course Tuesday in preparation for the $600,000 Shadwell Turf Mile, the Grade 1 feature at Keeneland Saturday.
With exercise rider Paul O'Sullivan in the irons and trainer Roger Attfield keeping a close eye on the work, Perfect Soul was clocked in fractions of 12.20, 24.60, and 37.40, and galloped out five furlongs in 1:06.60.
EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. - Dynever has joined the lineup for the Grade 2, $400,000 Meadowlands Cup.
Entries were scheduled to be drawn Wednesday for the showcase event of the meet, slated for Friday night.
Dynever enters a field that includes Breeders' Cup Classic winner Volponi, Bowman's Band, Jersey Giant, and Regal Sanction. Northern Rock and Saarland were still possibilities on Tuesday.
LEXINGTON, Ky. - The three-day opening of the fall meet will draw tens of thousands of fans to Keeneland Race Course this weekend, but no one will blame racegoers if their thoughts occasionally turn to closing day.
The 17-day Keeneland meet ends Oct. 25, which happens to be the same day as the Breeders' Cup World Thoroughbred Championships at Santa Anita - and no fewer than six races on Keeneland's opening weekend serve as potential stepping-stones for the Breeders' Cup.
ARCADIA, Calif. - After a whirlwind roundtrip from London to New York last weekend, Will Farish, the United States Ambassador to Great Britain, was back at his job on Monday morning, but he was still savoring the victory of his colt Mineshaft in the Jockey Club Gold Cup, and struggling over what to do next.
ELMONT, N.Y. - Silver Wagon, the impressive winner of the Grade 1 Hopeful Stakes at Saratoga in August, is sick and will not make the trip from Florida for Saturday's Grade 1, $500,000 Champagne Stakes at Belmont Park.
Monday, Silver Wagon worked five furlongs in 1:02.60 over a sloppy Calder main track. Afterward, an endoscopic examination showed the presence of mucus in Silver Wagon's trachea, trainer Ralph Ziadie said.
CHICAGO - Zosima, who won the Arlington-Washington Lassie on Saturday, was headed to California on Monday. Whether she will race there Oct. 25 in the Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies remains to be seen, but Everyday Angel, who finished second in the Lassie, is being pointed to the race, her trainer, Pat Byrne, said from Kentucky.
ELMONT, N.Y. - After competing in seven consecutive stakes races, Quick Tip takes a slight drop in class Wednesday when she meets six rivals in a $58,000 classified allowance race scheduled for nine furlongs over the Belmont Park inner turf course.
Wednesday's card, which marks the halfway point of Belmont's scheduled 38-day fall meet, includes a pick six carryover of $57,840.
ARCADIA, Calif. - Prep races for the Breeders' Cup are not the only important races in the first week of the Oak Tree meeting at Santa Anita.
On Wednesday, two $75,000 races - the Cavonnier Stakes and Cover Gal Stakes - are important preps to the California Cup program on Nov. 8. Both races are for 2-year-old California-breds at seven furlongs.
