AUBURN, Wash. - Last Sunday's Longacres Mile Day program was one for the record books.
First there was Sky Jack's performance in the Mile itself. Sky Jack's 44.40-second half-mile, 1:33 final time, and 6 1/2-length win margin are records in the 68-year history of the Northwest's premier race.
NORTHAMPTON, Mass. - With its quaint setting in the Berkshire Mountains, the Northampton Fair is a throwback to old-time rural New England. Officials are hoping that its 10 days of racing, beginning Friday, will be a throwback to the glory days of Massachusetts's vibrant fair circuit.
Hoosier Park ushers in the Labor Day weekend Friday when the Anderson, Indiana, track opens for a 70-day meet that runs through Dec. 4.
The track has reduced some of its higher-end purses and will offer a bottom purse of $7,000 for open company races. Purses for Indiana-breds took the biggest hit with $10,000 shaved from the track's standard scale of maiden, nonwinners of two, and nonwinners of three, which this year will go for $12,000, $13,000, and $14,000, respectively.
LAFAYETTE, La. - When the Evangeline Downs meet concludes on Monday, it will mark the end of an era.
It won't be a melancholy occasion, however, as good things lie ahead for Evangeline Downs, which will have a slots casino up and running by the time it begins its 2004 racing season next April 1. The present facility will host one more season of racing, while the casino will be located at Evangeline's new site 15 miles north on I-49. Racing is scheduled to begin there in 2005.
COLLINSVILLE, Ill. - Lanny Brooks was elected president of the local Horsemen's Benevolent and Protective Association last week, taking 70 percent of the vote to defeat Delmar Stortzum, Bob Lawrence, and Dawn Haught. Jim Watkins, who succeeded Louis O'Brien as president when he resigned in 2001, did not run.
MUSKEGON, Mich. - Sefas Rose, heads a field of six Michigan-bred females in the $45,000 Moonbeam Stakes Friday night. The Moonbeam is run at 1 1/16 miles and goes as the seventh race on the 6:30 p.m. Central card.
Sefas Rose, owned by Joan Sefa and the Estate of Farid Sefa, is trained by Brenda Hill and will be ridden by Freddie Mata, the meet's top rider. She is the 8-5 favorite in the morning line.
NORTH RANDALL, Ohio - Baba Gonzo, a 2-year-old daughter of Elusive Quality who won her maiden in the Miss Ohio Stakes here on Saturday, is a half-sister to stakes winners Big Bambu and Bolaro, who won the Miss Ohio last year. Baba Gonzo was bred and is owned by Edward Marshall and is trained by Alan Sobol.
Trainers were busy at the claim box last Sunday, when five horses changed barns. Trainer Dale Baird shipped four horses up from Mountaineer and three of them finished second. He had only one horse to ship back home as the other three were claimed.
At age 37, trainer Paul Jones is Quarter Horse racing's most celebrated trainer. Now he is staring at the sport's ultimate test - the Grade 1, $2 million All American Futurity on Monday at Ruidoso Downs.
Only 10 juveniles from the 176 that entered the 18 trials on Aug. 14 qualified to run in Monday's finals for the $1 million first-place prize. Three are trained by Jones.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario - Perfect Soul, coming off a close fifth-place finish in the Arlington Million, began his march toward the Sept. 14 Atto Mile here Wednesday by working four furlongs on the turf training track.
With assistant trainer Rachel Halden in the irons, Perfect Soul was clocked in 48.60 seconds.
Roger Attfield, who trains Perfect Soul for owner-breeder Charles Fipke, said Perfect Soul's tentative schedule called for a "decent work next Wednesday and probably a little blowout the following Wednesday."
Timing is everything. With slightly less than two months remaining before the Breeders' Cup races are to be run at Santa Anita, there is sill time for enough chaos to ensue to make playing the favorites a bad idea, but not enough time to make things wild and unpredictable enough to make betting the field an attractive option.
That leaves plenty of middle ground for futures enthusiasts to exploit. There are two categories of wagers that bettors should be able to locate at this stage of the game: cashable overlays, and potential home runs.