CHICAGO - Hackendiffy may have gone a bridge too far this summer. He ran his heart out in the July 5 Ohio Derby, finishing second behind Wild and Wicked and beating Midway Road. It was the last, and perhaps the best, in a three-race skein of "A" races, and it may have been too much for Hackendiffy.
Two weeks later, facing the same kind of Ohio-breds he had trampled for two seasons, Hackendiffy finished a distant sixth.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario - Recent stakes winners Alpha Saphire and Heyahohowdy meet in Sunday's $109,000 Flaming Page Stakes, a 1 1/2-mile turf race for fillies and mares.
The other stakes race scheduled for Sunday at Woodbine, the Wilderness Song for 3-year-old fillies, was scrapped when it attracted just three entries.
AUBURN, Wash. - Angie's Legacy will attempt to remain undefeated at a mile on Sunday, when she takes on five other 3-year-old fillies in a $50,000 optional claiming race at Emerald Downs.
Angie's Legacy, a daughter of Jumron and Angie's Dream, woke up went sent a mile for the first time against $10,000 maidens on July 3, winning off by more than seven lengths in 1:37.60. Jumped to the $16,000 level in her first try against winners on July 31, Angie's Legacy proved an easy 4 1/2-length winner while improving her mile time to 1:36.40.
EDMONTON, Alberta - Jiffyjimmygee is eyeing another big payoff in the Sales Stakes series at Northlands Park that has been expanded this year to include 3-year-olds.
Jiffyjimmygee, trained by Floyd Arthur, will try to follow up on his Sales Stakes victory as a 2-year-old. He will face six rivals from post 2 in the inaugural $50,000 Sale Stakes at one mile for male 3-year-olds.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. - Offlee Wild, the Holy Bull Stakes winner who finished 12th in the Kentucky Derby in his last start, will run Saturday, Sept. 13, in the $100,000 Kentucky Cup Sprint, one of five races in the 10th annual Kentucky Cup series at Turfway.
Trainer T.V. Smith said he doesn't expect the six-furlong distance of the Sprint to be a major problem for Offlee Wild following the layoff of more than four months. Offlee Wild has plenty of natural speed but spent the winter and spring progressively stretching out in distance.
Juan Crawford will be back in the saddle at Assiniboia Downs on Sunday after serving a suspension of 12 racing days that resulted from an incident with fellow rider Ken Hendricks at the track on Aug. 15.
Crawford, a 24-year-old native of Barbados who is in his second season at Assiniboia Downs, originally had been suspended for the balance of the meeting, which concludes Sept. 28, after the stewards ruled he had injured Hendricks during "an unprovoked altercation" in the jockeys' room.
SAN MATEO, Calif. - Does the decision to run Saturday's $60,000-added Big Jag Handicap at Bay Meadows with only five entrants signal a new era for racing at northern California tracks?
Most stakes races are written as overnight handicaps so management has the option of canceling them if the field is not large enough.
New racing secretary Tom Doutrich said he never considered postponing the Big Jag.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. - Nearly a week after Ellis Park recognized her as their leading trainer with a trophy and a simple presentation in the winner's circle, Kim Hammond is still being congratulated by dozens of friends and colleagues throughout the racing industry.
"It's been wonderful, it really has," Hammond said earlier this week from Hoosier Park. "Trainers I do business with in Chicago and southern Illinois, and the folks here, they've all been great."
ETOBICOKE, Ontario - When trainer Brian Morgan gave rider Chad Beckon a leg up on Desert Wise, the No. 1 horse in Friday's first race at Woodbine, it was more than just a case of another "bug boy" setting out on his first career adventure.
Chad Beckon, 23, is the son of the late Dan Beckon, a prominent jockey on the Ontario circuit whose shocking death at age 35 on July 2, 1987, is still viewed in some quarters as the darkest unsolved mystery in the history of local horse racing.