Los Alamitos' newcomers Get Solid and Tiny Chris La Jolla challenge local stalwart Available Credit in the Grade 3, $37,800 Pat Hyland Handicap over 870 yards at Los Alamitos on Friday night.
These three veteran geldings know how to compete, combining for 14 wins and five seconds in their last combined 20 starts.
Get Solid has six wins and two seconds in his last eight starts, including a win in the Governor's Cup Handicap at Sam Houston Race Park on Aug. 30, his most recent start.
King Rick Rack will have to overcome highweight of 126 pounds and the outside post position in the eight-horse $17,500 Red River Handicap over 870 yards at Lone Star Park on Friday night.
A 6-year-old gelding from the Pat Swan stable, King Rick Rack has maintained his career-long consistency - 28 top-three finishes from 39 starts - with three wins and three seconds in six 2003 starts. He comes off a win in the Covered Bridges Stakes at Prairie Meadows.
The two Challenge regional races at Turf Paradise on Sunday afternoon, the Grade 2, $66,870 MBNA America West/Southwest Challenge and the Grade 3, $40,050 American Airlines West Southwest Challenge, are the final opportunities for horses to qualify for the Challenge Championships at Los Alamitos on Nov. 1.
The winners of each race will qualify for their respective races in the Challenge Championships.
SAN MATEO, Calif. - For jockey Frank Alvarado, a working vacation this summer worked wonders.
Alvarado has returned to riding full-time at Bay Meadows after spending the summer at Hollywood Park and Del Mar.
"You have to ride horses at 100 percent," said Alvarado, a 34-year-old native of Panama. "When I left here in June, my head was not 100 percent right. Now, I'm ready to ride seven days a week."
Alvarado has more than 2,000 victories in a career that began in 1984.
LEXINGTON, Ky. - Mineshaft was vanned from Churchill Downs to Lane's End Farm on Monday morning, leaving a massive void in trainer Neil Howard's Churchill barn. No one can realistically compensate for the loss of a superstar from a stable, yet Howard will try, eagerly awaiting his next golden opportunity.
MIAMI - Thirteen 2-year-olds have entered the finales of the Florida Stallion Stakes with an opportunity to sweep their division since the twin three-race series began at Calder Race Course in 1982. But when French Village and Sir Oscar go postward Saturday for the $400,000 In Reality Stakes and the $400,000 My Dear Girl Stakes, it will be the first time that two horses have attempted to complete a sweep on the same day.
ELMONT, N.Y. - It now appears trainer Bobby Frankel will take two shots at Azeri in the Breeders' Cup Distaff later this month at Santa Anita.
Frankel on Tuesday gave every indication that Wild Spirit, the Chilean-bred mare who is 3 for 4 in this country, will be supplemented by her owner, Oussama Abou-Ghazale, to the $2 million Breeders' Cup Distaff at a cost of $400,000. Wild Spirit, who won the Grade 1 Ruffian in her last start, would join Sightseek, a four-time Grade 1 winner, as Frankel's representatives in the Distaff.
ELMONT, N.Y. - If Funny Cide returns to the races in the Discovery Handicap later this month at Aqueduct, one of his chief rivals could be Qais, an undefeated 3-year-old owned by Godolphin Racing.
Qais's participation in the Oct. 29 Discovery will depend on how he runs Thursday in the $65,000 Coronado's Quest, a one-mile overnight stakes race on Belmont Park's nine-race card.
ARCADIA, Calif. - Tradition Rocks will be seeking redemption for his owner, trainer, and jockey - not to mention bettors - on Thursday at Santa Anita, where he will start favored in a mile turf allowance that goes as the seventh race.
It was four days ago, Sunday, when Marty Wygod-owned Yankee Gentleman finished a dull fourth as the 6-5 favorite in the Grade 1 Ancient Title Handicap. Thirty minutes later, Julio Canani-trained Special Ring finished a dull fourth under jockey David Flores as the 7-10 favorite in the Grade 2 Oak Tree Breeders' Cup Mile.
LEXINGTON, Ky. - No one likes to go to a party and find four others with the same style. That is exactly what happened to Champali when he raced in last month's Kentucky Cup Sprint at Turfway Park.
Matched against a foursome of horses with similar front-running tendencies, he was unable to clear them and wound up hung five wide from an outside post. Despite the ground lost, he turned in a competitive effort in a fast race, finishing third behind Cajun Beat and Clock Stopper.
