ETOBICOKE, Ontario - Wake at Noon already has added one new dimension to his game this year at age 6.
Wake at Noon, owned and bred by Bruno Schickedanz and trained by Abraham Katryan, had never won beyond seven furlongs before capturing the 1 1/16-mile Izvestia here July 20 and the 1 1/16-mile Seagram Cup two weeks later.
Now he will take another crack at a frontier he has yet to conquer, the turf - running in the Grade 1 Atto Mile here Sept. 14.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - As expected, both Funny Cide, the Kentucky Derby and Preakness winner, and Empire Maker, the Belmont Stakes winner, were officially scratched from Saturday's $1 million Travers due to illnesses, their connections announced Friday.
Bobby Frankel, trainer of Empire Maker, said his colt does not have a temperature but that he is not acting right and his coat looks dull.
DEL MAR, Calif. - Wins by two longshots in Thursday's pick six led to a carryover of $144,945 for Friday's eight-race program at Del Mar.
Gift of the Eagle ($38.60) and Zee Best ($29.40) was the most difficult winners to find during Thursday's pick six.
The Friday program starts at 3:30 p.m., with the pick six covering the third through eighth races.
There are few changes in Friday's pick six.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - Its business practices and management under attack by several government agencies, its marquee meet savaged by Mother Nature, the New York Racing Association may face one more indignity this summer.
Saturday's $1 million Travers - the showcase race of the Saratoga meet - may be losing its marquee names.
DEL MAR, Calif. - All jockey Julie Krone wanted Thursday morning was a chance to get acquainted with Candy Ride. All trainer Ron McAnally wanted was a nice, easy workout to set up the South American import for Sunday's $1 million Pacific Classic.
The work went fine, but then both Hall of Famers held their breath as Candy Ride and Krone deftly sidestepped a potentially calamitous situation unfolding before them.
OCEANPORT, N.J. - The $200,000 Philip H. Iselin Handicap comes at an ideal time for Tenpins and trainer Donald Winfree.
Winfree likes to give Tenpins at least a month between starts. With Winfree aiming for the Grade 2, $750,000 Hawthorne Gold Cup on Sept. 28, the Grade 3 Iselin Saturday afternoon at Monmouth Park offered an ideal interval. He considered the Grade 1, $500,000 Woodward at Belmont Park on Sept. 6, but the timing was a little snug for his taste.
DEL MAR, Calif. - There will no longer be any strategy experiments with Cee's Elegance, who will attempt to win her fourth stakes race since November in Saturday's $150,000 Rancho Bernardo Handicap at Del Mar.
When she has been sent to the front in recent starts, Cee's Elegance has been beaten, with performances ranging from a close second in the Sunshine Millions Distaff over 1 1/16 miles at Santa Anita in January to a poor sixth in the Desert Stormer Handicap over six furlongs at Hollywood Park on June 7.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - Jockey Jean-Luc Samyn was scheduled to have surgery on Friday morning for a fracture in his right leg, suffered when his mount clipped heels in Wednesday's seventh race.
Samyn, 46, wasn't believed to be seriously injured when he was initially examined by the first-aid doctors at the track after his mount, Vinthea, stumbled and dropped him while in traffic at the top of the stretch.
ARLINGTON HEIGHTS, Ill. - Cactus Ridge, one of the fastest 2-year-olds in the country, has returned to Arlington Park and is on course for a start in the Arlington-Washington Futurity here Sept. 27.
Sunday, Cactus Ridge won the $100,000 Ellis Park Juvenile by 6 1/2 lengths. His work in Henderson, Ky., done, Cactus Ridge boarded a horse van and rode back to Arlington on Sunday night.
"It was hot, and he was a little bit tired coming back," trainer Bret Calhoun said Thursday, "but he was raising hell again when we took him back to the track. He seems fine."
ARLINGTON HEIGHTS, Ill. - On the scale of Beyer Speed Figures, no 2-year-old of 2001 ran faster than Cashel Castle. For winning the $102,000 Hoosier Juvenile in November of his 2-year-old year, Cashel Castle was given a towering 108 Beyer, a figure he backed up with two powerful wins to begin his 3-year-old campaign.
But no formula for measuring Cashel Castle's speed can predict how he'll run Saturday in the $100,000 Arlington Sprint. The race will be Cashel Castle's first start since April of 2002, and his first since suffering a leg injury that nearly ended his career.
