AUBURN, Wash. - Emerald Downs will present the sparsest weekend card in its eight-year history on Saturday, when just 51 horses will contest only eight races.
The feature contributes to the disappointing totals, as only five older runners were entered to contest a one-mile race for $16,000 to $14,000 claimers.
DEL MAR, Calif. - In recent years at Del Mar, the juvenile stakes have been dominated by trainer Bob Baffert. But Baffert's streak was halted this summer by Richard Mandella, who made a clean sweep of the major stakes for 2-year-olds when Siphonizer captured the Grade 2, $250,000 Del Mar Futurity on Wednesday's closing-day card.
"I'm a 2-year-old trainer," the Hall of Fame trainer said, partly in jest.
DEL MAR, Calif. - Patrick Valenzuela confirmed his status as top jockey in Southern California this summer at Del Mar, overcoming a stiff challenge from Julie Krone to defend his riding title there and earn his third consecutive title on the circuit.
Valenzuela finished the meet, which concluded Wednesday, with 52 wins, three more than Krone. Valenzuela led by one entering Sunday's program but won five races in the final three racing days.
FLORENCE, Ky. - This year hasn't exactly worked out the way Elliott Walden had planned for Awesome Humor - but that doesn't necessarily mean it has been a bad year. In fact, if she can win Saturday at Turfway Park, Awesome Humor will have made up for quite a bit of lost time.
After winning all four of her starts last year at 2, Awesome Humor was supposed to return as a major force in her division - a more mature and versatile filly, albeit one who retained an eye-catching turn of foot. It just hasn't happened that way.
The transition from summer to fall marks something of a welcome tradition for intrepid fans of Kentucky racing. Road trips on southbound Interstate 65 from Louisville, Lexington, and other primary training bases have become commonplace at this time of year, as horses and horsemen converge on Kentucky Downs for a brief September meet at the turf-only track.
Saturday night at Retama, the Texas Stallion Stakes will be open to 3-year-olds and up for the first time since being introduced a few years ago. In the male division of the seven-furlong race, Most Feared will be making his first start since May, when he finished second to Dynever in the Grade 3, $500,000 Lone Star Park Derby.
Most Feared cuts back to one turn, which should suit him since his biggest win came under those conditions in the Grade 3 Arlington-Washington Futurity. Kerwin Clark has the mount for trainer Jack Bruner.
Before parimutuel racing was reinstated in Texas in the late 1980's, breeders in the state turned to neighboring Louisiana Downs to host their Friendship Stakes. That was 30 years ago, and the Texas-bred race, which is the oldest continuously run stakes race at Louisiana Downs, has since grown into two divisions, both of which will be renewed Saturday.
Texas racing itself has expanded so much the past decade that Louisiana Downs will not be the only track running stakes races for Texas-breds Saturday.
DEL MAR, Calif. - Patrick Valenzuela, the leading rider at Del Mar, and jockey Omar Berrio were each fined $500 by Del Mar stewards on Wednesday for fighting following Monday's third race.
The fight was preceded by the disqualification of Valenzuela's mount, Grinding It Out, from first to last place for interfering with Berrio's mount, Westward Star. The stewards gave Valenzuela a five-day suspension for careless riding for that incident.
MIAMI - Formal Miss and Dakota Light will likely vie for favoritism but it may be the up-and-coming Spectacular Lisa who proves the one to beat in Saturday's $75,000 Judy's Red Shoes Stakes at Calder.
The Judy's Red Shoes is carded for 3-year-old fillies at 1 1/16 miles on the turf. But with the availability of the grass course always a question mark here during the summer and no standouts in the division, the race lured a full field of 12, plus two also-eligibles.
GROVE CITY, Ohio - Beulah Park, Ohio's oldest racetrack, begins its 80th season of racing Saturday afternoon. The highlight of the 81-day fall meeting, which runs through Dec. 21, is the Best of Ohio Championships on Oct. 4.
The Best of Ohio is a series of stakes races for Ohio-breds in various divisions that rotates yearly between the state's three tracks - Beulah Park, Thistledown, and River Downs. The Best of Ohio was moved forward a week this year to avoid a conflict with the defending NCAA champion Ohio State football team. Oct. 4 is the Buckeyes' bye week this season.