ELMONT, N.Y. - There's a good chance that Evening Attire, one of the leading handicap horses in the country last year, will make his 5-year-old debut in next Saturday's $250,000 Brooklyn Handicap at Belmont Park.
Evening Attire was entered main-track-only in the $400,000 Manhattan Handicap on the Belmont Stakes undercard. In the unlikely event that the Grade 1 Manhattan was moved to the main track, Evening Attire was expected to run.
ELMONT, N.Y. - The excitement surrounding Sunday's $250,000 Cab Calloway at Belmont Park was lost when Grey Comet, who stood to earn a $100,000 bonus for his owners if he won the race, fractured a leg in a workout last week and was euthanized.
The inaugural running of the 1 1/16-mile Cab Calloway, a race restricted to the progeny of New York stallions, drew a weak field of six 3-year-old males.
MIAMI - The filly Storm Flag, one of the fastest 3-year-olds of either sex to race here in recent memory, will take on older horses for the first time as the likely favorite in Sunday's $40,000 Toga Toga Handicap at Calder.
Storm Flag will be turning back to 5 1/2 furlongs for the Toga Toga and at that distance is the one to beat despite the fact she will be facing a field of older and vastly more experienced rivals. The group includes stakes winners Petrina Above, Tchula Miss, and Vague Memory, as well as the extremely quick How About It.
Louisiana Downs, which opened a 905-machine slots casino last month, has set purses at $200,000 a day for its summer meet, which will run from June 27 to Sept. 21.
During the fall season, which extends from Sept. 27 to Nov. 9, daily purses are budgeted at a record $150,000.
Overall, the track will run 80 dates. The stable area will open Wednesday.
The Grade 2, $500,000 Super Derby at 1 1/8 miles Sept. 20 is the richest of 45 stakes for Thoroughbreds worth close to $3 million this season.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. - Friday was the first day of the rest of John McKee's career.
Any other day, that platitude wouldn't mean much. But Friday was the first day that McKee was riding without the five-pound apprentice allowance that has partly enabled him to launch a sensational start to a career as a jockey. He is a bug boy no more.
"I've got the first stage over with," said McKee. "Now's the time to keep it going."
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. - The Downs at Albuquerque wraps up its spring meet Sunday with a nine-race card headed by the track's signature race, the Downs at Albuquerque Handicap, a $100,000-added race for 4-year-olds and up going 1 1/8 miles. The race, which has drawn six horses, matches local contenders Curve Ball and Funny Meeting against Nates Colony, a Southern California-based runner who won the race last year.
CHICAGO - Some racehorses reveal their gifts from the first moment a rider gets on, working fast and training with panache.
Before Herculated started racing, his people didn't know what to expect.
"We felt like he definitely wanted to go long, but we weren't convinced he would win right off the bat," said trainer Mike Stidham. "He was a little deceiving. He never impressed us as one that looked like a special horse. Then, when he ran, he painted a different picture."
ETOBICOKE, Ontario - The unbeaten Too Late Now, an impressive winner of the Grade 1 Selene Stakes, will try to write a new chapter to her rags-to-riches story Sunday at Woodbine in the $500,000 Labatt Woodbine Oaks.
The nine-furlong Oaks, for Canadian-bred 3-year-old fillies, is the first leg of the Canadian Triple Tiara. It will be followed by the July 1 Bison City Stakes at Fort Erie, and the Wonder Where Stakes here Aug. 4. A $350,000 bonus will be awarded if any filly sweeps the series.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario - When Heather Landymore decided she wanted to own a racehorse, little could she have dreamed that she would be embarking on a whirlwind ride that has brought her to Sunday's $500,000 Labatt Woodbine Oaks.
Appropriately, the filly who will carry Landymore's colors postward is named Kissed by a Prince, who will be looking to provide a fairy-tale ending to an already improbable story.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario - Sunday's $136,875 Victoria Park, an open race for 3-year-olds at 1 1/8 miles, is the final stakes prep on the road to the June 22 Queen's Plate.
Illusive Force, a British Columbia invader owned by Canyon Farm, will get his major test for the 1 1/4-mile Plate in the Victoria Park, carrying 121 pounds and spotting four pounds to his six rivals.
Illusive Force became a long-term candidate for the $1 million Queen's Plate by capping a four-race win streak in the 1 1/16-mile Ascot Graduation at Hastings last October in his final start as a 2-year-old.