ELMONT, N.Y - When Roar Emotion runs in Saturday's $300,000 Mother Goose at Belmont Park, she will be ridden for the first time by Jose Santos.
John Velazquez has ridden Roar Emotion in all but one of her five career starts. Velazquez, who was aboard Roar Emotion when she won the Grade 2 Black-Eyed Susan in her last start and the Grade 2 Demoiselle in November, will ride Yell for trainer Shug McGaughey in the Grade 1 Mother Goose.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario - The Sweet Briar Too and the Charlie Barley, a pair of overnight handicaps, round out the four stakes on the Queen's Plate program at Woodbine on Sunday.
Both races attracted out-of-towners. Harmony Lodge goes in the $108,000 Sweet Briar Too for trainer Todd Pletcher. In the Charlie Barley, the Bill Mott-trained Silver Tree and a Tony Reinstedler charge, Moonshine Hall, were entered.
The Sweet Briar Too goes as the third race and the Charlie Barley as the fourth on the 11-race card.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario - It would seem fairly safe to say that none of the other locally based entrants can measure up to Mobil, Wando, and Rock Again, who are attracting most of the attention in the final hours leading up to Sunday's $1 million Queen's Plate.
But there is one relatively unknown quantity in the lineup, as Sircharlesschnabel checked in from his Belmont base Friday and will play the rare role of Plate invader.
Sircharlesschnabel, owned by Hard Eight Stable and trained by Phil Serpe, actually is far from a total stranger to Woodbine.
WINNIPEG, Manitoba - The best of the local 3-year-old fillies stretch out Sunday for the first time this year - but they're not all in the same race.
Chantilly Stakes winner Princess Muldoon meets five rivals, including Chantilly runner-up Halos Promise Land and the improving Alipalooza, in the seventh race at Assiniboia, an open allowance at seven furlongs for 3-year-old fillies.
Air Driver takes on older females in the third race, also at seven furlongs, in a two-other-than allowance that will be her prep race for the one-mile R.C. Anderson here July 5.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario - Owner Gustav Schickedanz and trainer Mike Keogh hold a pair of aces in the two uncoupled favorites, Wando and Mobil, in Sunday's $1 million , a 1 1/4-mile race for Canadian-bred 3-year-olds.
The 144th running of the Plate, the first leg of the Canadian Triple Crown, heads a blockbuster 11-race card at Woodbine. Sunday's supporting features are the Grade 2 Nearctic Handicap, and the Sweet Briar Too and Charlie Barley stakes.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario - The well-traveled Nuclear Debate will be back on one of his favorite turf courses Sunday at Woodbine when he defends his title in the Grade 2, $286,500 Nearctic Handicap.
The 8-year-old Nuclear Debate has competed in England, France, Italy, Dubai, Hong Kong, the United States, and Canada. He has been based in Southern California the last few years with trainer Darrell Vienna, who has run him throughout North America.
INGLEWOOD, Calif. - Mick Ruis, the 16-year-old apprentice jockey, was ready to celebrate the occasion of his first win before the finish line of Thursday's second race at Hollywood Park.
"At the quarter pole, I thought I was home," he said. "I could feel it under me."
Riding Aetha in a $8,000 claiming race for fillies and mares at 1 1/16 miles, Ruis knew he had to restrain his enthusiasm, at least for a few moments. On June 1, he seemed on his way to his first win when he was caught at the finish of a maiden claimer, losing by a head.
VANCOUVER, British Columbia - Trainer Rob VanOverschot will try to accomplish something no trainer in British Columbia has ever done when he saddles Illusive Force in the $1 million Queen's Plate this Sunday. If he's successful, Illusive Force would become the first British Columbia-bred horse to win the Plate.
It's a daunting task. Three-year-olds at Hastings are typically pointed toward the B.C. Derby, which usually runs in September, and at this point in the season, most of them haven't even gone beyond 6 1/2 furlongs.
MIAMI - The $1.7 million Summit of Speed is still three weeks away, but Calder racing secretary Bob Umphrey is already excited about the prospects for what has quietly become one of the biggest days on the summer stakes calendar nationwide.
"We really raised the bar last year and obviously are going to have a tough time duplicating the success we had bringing Eclipse Award winners Orientate and Xtra Heat down for the Smile and Princess Rooney handicaps," said Umphrey.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. - Two weeks from closing day, July 6, time is running out on Pat Day for what would be his eighth straight riding title at a Churchill Downs spring meet.
Not that he seems too worried about it.
Through the Thursday card, Day had 35 winners, six fewer than Cornelio Velasquez, who has led the standings for most of the 52-day meet while riding regularly here for the first time. Velasquez had accepted 257 mounts to only 158 for Day.