SAN MATEO, Calif. - Jockey Joe Castro got off to a good start at the meet Wednesday with a victory aboard Madison Davis, who was a bit of a price at $12.80.
On Friday, Castro will ride Radon in a six-furlong $25,000 claimer for fillies and mares, and she also figures to be a decent price. Five others signed up for the race, including stablemates Tributetothatcher and Grand Carolyn, Irish Slew, Summer Lite, and Zen Diva.
HENDERSON, Ky. - Bare Necessities arrived Tuesday from Southern California and figures as a solid favorite when she runs Saturday in the annual highlight of the Ellis Park meet, the Grade 3 Gardenia Handicap.
Bare Necessities will be the starting highweight at 119 pounds in the $200,000 Gardenia, the only graded race at Ellis. Track officials are expecting a field of at least eight fillies and mares for the 1 1/8-mile race.
ARLINGTON HEIGHTS, Ill. - The Beverly D. Handicap picked up a leading West Coast contender Wednesday while losing its best potential European runner.
From California, trainer Laura de Seroux said Dublino now was slated to start in the Beverly D., one of three Grade 1 turf races here next Saturday, Aug. 16. De Seroux had planned to pass the race, but with her horse training forwardly and top contenders Golden Apples and Ipi Tombe having dropped out, de Seroux altered course.
Three 870-yard stakes winners at Los Alamitos this year - Available Credit, Harbor Beach, and Heros Call - will meet over that distance at the Southern California track in the $15,570 John Deere California Challenge on Friday night.
Available Credit, trained by Paul Jones, had a five-race winning streak broken in his latest start when he was third in the La Playa Handicap. He had won the Paul Ford Handicap, the Moonshiner Handicap, and the Calyx Handicap during his streak.
ALTOONA, Iowa - Former Polk County Supervisor Jack Bishop, businessman Leonard Reed of Norwalk, Iowa, and two Thorough-breds will be inducted into the Prairie Meadows Hall of Fame on Aug. 29.
The event will be held in the Prairie Rose Room on the fourth floor of the clubhouse at 4:30 p.m. Central.
MUSKEGON, Mich. - Trainer Dave Kueffner will send out Cantouchis and Magna Cum Laude, in Friday's $45,000 Ann Arbor Stakes. The one-mile race is for Michigan-bred 3-year-old fillies and will be the seventh race on the eight-race card.
Cantouchis got the best of her stablemate when she won the June 27 Plymouth Stakes by nearly five lengths over Rose of Edmore. It was another two lengths back to Magna Cum Laude.
Cantouchis, 3-for-6 lifetime, will be ridden by Wade Rini from the outside post in the seven-horse Ann Arbor field.
COLUMBUS, Neb. - Sunday's feature, the $15,000-added Amadevil Handicap, is expected to attract High Dice, the dominant older Nebraska-bred in training. High Dice, who is owned and trained by Herb Reicken, has been assigned high weight of 123 pounds.
Sunday's race offers the highest purse of the meet, equal to that of the Stevens Stakes, which will be run Sept. 14. Part of the Amadevil purse comes from the Nebraska Thorough-bred Breeders' Association.
Jockey Nena Matz and her husband, trainer Zachary Armstrong, are leading their respective standings at the Remington Park mixed meet, which runs through Aug. 17.
Matz won four races from seven mounts last Sunday to increase her advantage in the Thoroughbred rider standings, while Armstrong, who has won with two of three starters, is in a five-way tie atop the Thorough-bred trainer standings.
Matz has ridden at Remington since 1997, but said she has never employed an agent at the track until this meet, when she decided to team with former trainer Pete Caparelli.
MIAMI - Supah Blitz will attempt to do The Judge Sez Who one better when he journeys to Mountaineer Park for Saturday's Grade 3 West Virginia Derby.
Locally based The Judge Sez Who finished second, beaten a neck by Wiseman's Ferry, in the 2002 West Virginia Derby.
Supah Blitz has won two straight races since returning from a brief layoff following his 13th-place finish in the Kentucky Derby.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - The condition of the turf, more than the current form of the participants, may hold the key for the steeplechasers in Thursday's $75,000 A.P. Smithwick Memorial Stakes at Saratoga.
Persistent rain has left the course in soggy condition, which should help the chances of Trebizond but might hinder Anofferucantrefuse in a race that is treacherous to handicap because of so many questions regarding the leading contenders. The Smithwick, at 2 1/16 miles, is the first race on the card.
