VANCOUVER, British Columbia - There is what looks like an overload of speed in Saturday's Klondike Stakes, with Five Point Star, Roscoe Pita, and Gamblin Caper in the 6 1/2-furlong race for 3-year-olds.
Five Point Star and Roscoe Pita will be making just their third start in the Klondike. Gamblin Caper is the most seasoned horse in the field, having run 11 times, and is entering the Klondike with two straight wins.
ELMONT, N.Y. - Jose Santos couldn't help but to try and take a peek.
Positioned at the finish line on Belmont Park's muddy main track, and getting ready to breeze his 2002 Breeders' Cup Classic winner Volponi, Santos attempted to look across the track where his
2003 Triple Crown hopeful, Funny Cide, was getting ready to work under exercise rider and assistant trainer Robin Smullen.
"I wanted to know what was going on," Santos said.
ARCADIA, Calif. - The turf division in California will hardly be the same without Ladies Din, the popular 8-year-old gelding who has been retired following a sixth-place finish in the Shoemaker Mile at Hollywood Park Monday.
"Racing's going to miss him, but he just doesn't have the strength to go anymore," co-owner Bernie Schiappa said, adding, "it's been a phenomenal ride."
INGLEWOOD, Calif. - Win or lose, trainer Jeff Mullins will make news Friday night at Hollywood Park. Mullins figures to win the feature race with California-bred gelding Excess Summer and provide more fodder for conspiracy theorists who believe Mullins is feeding his horses something other than hay, oats, and water.
SAN MATEO, Calif. - Saturday's $60,000-added Sunnyvale Handicap will mark the return of A B Noodle.
Unraced as a 2-year-old, A B Noodle developed nicely as a 3-year-old in northern California last year, winning four races, finishing second twice, and third once in eight starts for trainer Chuck Jenda. The only time she finished off the board came in July when she finished 11th after setting the pace in the $500,000 American Oaks behind Dublino and Megahertz. A B Noodle has not started since finishing a strong second in the Palo Alto Handicap Oct. 19.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. - El Sysco Kid, a 2-year-old colt who finished second in the Grade 3 Three Chimneys Juvenile on the May 3 Kentucky Derby undercard, his only career start, was euthanized Tuesday after suffering from severe complications from colitis.
El Sysco Kid, by Sea of Secrets, was bred and raised by his trainer, Ernie Retamoza, who also owned 70 percent of the colt. Retamoza said El Sysco Kid was being treated for a low-grade temperature when the colt suddenly came down with colitis Sunday. Efforts to save the colt's life failed.
CALGARY, Alberta - Timely Ruckus was voted champion sprinter in Alberta four successive times, from 1998 to 2001, but he lost his crown to Tyko Tycoon last year.
Time seemed to have taken its toll on Timely Ruckus, who turned 10 this January. A recent optional-claiming score at six furlongs, however, sets the stage for Timely Ruckus to stretch out to a mile on Friday, in a $35,000 optional claimer with a $20,800 purse.
AUBURN, Wash. - The thorny question of whether it is wiser to play horses sporting sharp current form or those boasting back class will be debated in Friday's best race at Emerald Downs, a six-furlong race for $25,000 claimers that has drawn an intriguing field of five older sprinters.
WINNIPEG, Manitoba - If there was any question regarding 2002 Manitoba champion older horse Kalfaari's ability to recover from an injury, it was certainly dispelled last Saturday night at Assiniboia Downs.
After going 4 for 4 here last year with victories in the G Sydney Halter, Free Press, and Wheat City stakes, Kalfaari was laid up last August after winning the Wheat City. An old, unspecified injury was reportedly bothering him.
ARLINGTON HEIGHTS, Ill. - Ron Shenofsky has lived in limbo the last several years. Shenofsky had been training horses in Ohio and winning his share of races in the late 1990's, but purses on that circuit got so depressed Shenofsky pulled his stable to run for bigger money in Chicago.
Here, he may have found a home.
In just his second year on the circuit, Shenofsky is making hay. So far this season Shenofsky has won 16 races with only 57 starters, a 28-percent strike rate, and already at Arlington he has saddled three winners.