NORTH RANDALL, Ohio - Jeff Radosevich has been a Thistledown regular for the past 26 years - the first 16 as a rider and the last 10 as a trainer. Radosevich won his first meet training title at the recently concluded Thistledown meet when he won with 22 of his 73 starters and finished four wins in front of Rodney Faulkner. Gary Johnson was third with 18.
Radosevich's best year as a rider was 1988 when he was the winningest rider of the season here.
Run for Joy and Malvern Rose, who finished within a length of each other when they ran one-two a year ago, meet again in Friday night's $30,000 Missy Good Stakes for Pennslylvania-bred female sprinters at Penn National.
Although she is based at Philadelphia Park with trainer John McCaslin, the 7-year-old Run for Joy does her best running at Penn National, where she is 7 for 7. She made up a three-length deficit on the pacesetting Malvern Rose in the final eighth of a mile of the six-furlong Missy Good last season.
OMAHA, Neb. - Oglala Sue will carry high weight of 124 pounds in Friday evening's $27,500-added Falls Amiss Handicap at Horsemen's Park on the second day of Omaha's summer festival of racing.
Built and owned by the Nebraska HBPA, Horsemen's Park offers a short but lucrative meet geared toward rewarding horsemen who regularly compete in the state. This year's meet has been expanded to a four-day weekend with approximately $500,000 in purses distributed over 16 races. The weekend is highlighted by Sunday's $100,000 Omaha Handicap, which drew an impressive list of 54 nominations.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario - Illusive Force arrived from Vancouver this spring with designs on the Queen's Plate.
Although his quest began on a promising note with fourth-place finishes in both the Marine and Victoria Park, Illusive Force faltered badly to finish last of 12 in the 1 1/4-mile Plate.
But Illusive Force still has some unfinished business at Woodbine, and the 3-year-old gelding, trained by Rob VanOverschot, will try turf for the first time in Saturday's 1 1/8-mile Toronto Cup.
WINNIPEG, Manitoba - Three odds-on favorites were defeated in stakes races here last weekend.
In Friday's $35,000 Graduation for 2-year-olds, second choice Noble Halo used his natural speed to open up a lead early on favored Alberta shipper Ponoka and never looked back.
Noble Halo accomplished this despite having gotten loose the day before the race. He wore his shoes off in a run against traffic down the nearby perimeter highway.
ELMONT, N.Y. - Empire Maker, winner of the Belmont Stakes and the co-leader of the 3-year-old division with rival Funny Cide, returned to the track early Wednesday morning for a relatively slow four-furlong workout over the main track at Belmont Park.
Empire Maker was timed in 51.03, breezing, in the workout, which took place at 6:15 a.m., according to trainer Bobby Frankel. The time was the fifth-slowest of the 23 works at the distance on Wednesday.
INGLEWOOD, Calif. - Bob Baffert keeps most of his better Southern California-based horses at Santa Anita throughout the year, even when racing is being conducted at Hollywood Park, where he keeps the remainder of his runners. Baffert, however, has seen a number of the horses he trains at Santa Anita struggle over the deeper surface at Hollywood Park.
ARCADIA, Calif. - Can a seven-furlong sprinter stay two turns? That is the question facing Grade 1 Triple Bend Handicap winner Joey Franco, winner of three sprint stakes at the Hollywood Park meet. Joey Franco will stretch out to 1 1/16 miles when he runs next, in the Grade 2 San Diego Handicap on Aug. 3 at Del Mar. "We're thinking seriously about it. We'd like to see if he gets two turns as good as he runs seven, and seven and a half," assistant trainer Scott Chaney said Tuesday.
INGLEWOOD, Calif. - A 10-year-old gelding making the 70th start of his career is the horse to beat in the richest race Thursday at Hollywood Park, where later on the card two lightly raced 3-year-olds are just starting promising careers in allowance races.
