Just a few races into their careers, most of the 2-year-olds in the Hopemont Stakes already have earned black type.
Several are stakes placed, and several are stakes winners. And one, Lismore Knight, already is a Grade 2 winner, having captured the Sept. 8 Summer Stakes at Woodbine in his last start. That accumulation of youthful talent should make for a terrific renewal of the $100,000 Hopemont, a 1 1/16-mile turf race that highlights the Friday program.
Sheza Nasty Lady finished third in her last start to two-time graded winner Bedanken, and that race makes her seem like a solid choice Friday night in the $30,000 San Antonio Oaks at Retama Park near San Antonio.
The 1 1/16-mile turf race for 3-year-old fillies also drew the up-and-coming Very Geri.
Bedanken beat Sheza Nasty Lady by 2 1/4 lengths in the $50,000 DeBartolo Oaks at Louisiana Downs on Sept. 21, and then went on to win the Grade 3, $100,000 Valley View at Keeneland last Saturday.
MUSKEGON, Mich. - Beau Classic heads a field of six juveniles in Friday night's $45,000-added Michigan Futurity as Great Lakes Downs enters the final week of its 2002 racing season. The race for Michigan breds has been shortened from a mile and 70 yards to seven furlongs this year and will be the opener on a nine-race card.
The easiest way to make money at Penn National Race Course last week was simply to bet every horse David Cora rode.
Cora, 22, tied a track record when he won six of the nine races on last Friday night's program, then followed up by riding five more winners Saturday night.
The two-night spree gave Cora 15 wins from 30 mounts for the week. A $2 win bet on all 30 of his mounts would have returned $116.40. Nine of Cora's winners were horses trained by meet leader Harry Thompson.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario - Cetewayo, one of the grand old men of North American turf racing, is slated to make his Woodbine debut in Sunday's Sky Classic.
The Grade 2 Sky Classic, a $250,000 handicap, will be run over 1 3/8 miles on an E.P. Taylor turf course that was rated soft Wednesday morning. Such conditions should suit Cetewayo, an 8-year-old horse owned and bred by Dr. John Chandler and based in Maryland with trainer Michael Dickinson.
Bred in Kentucky, Cetewayo has started just 28 times but has won 11 races and $1,058,118.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario - It has been three years since trainer Abraham Katryan sent out Wake at Noon as a promising 2-year-old. Wake at Noon won his maiden by 11 lengths and earned a whopping 97 Beyer Speed Figure.
Wake at Noon has gone on to bank more than $1.2 million, and is slated to make his next start Saturday at Arlington in the Grade 1 Breeders' Cup Sprint.
Whispered Warning could be the next top prospect in Katryan's barn, and should be a short-priced favorite in Friday's seventh race at Woodbine, a six-furlong allowance for 2-year-olds.
PHOENIX, Ariz. - Marshall Cassidy hopes it's like riding a bike.
Cassidy is linked to some of racing's greatest horses and to the important races he called as the longtime voice of the New York Racing Association. But Cassidy admits he's a bit nervous about getting back into the announcer's booth. When he begins a week's stint at Turf Paradise on Friday, he will be calling races for the first time in a dozen years.
"I hope you don't forget how to do it, that it's like riding a bike. But I guess we'll find out," he said.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. - Trainer Laurie LaFavers will be represented by her first stakes runner when she saddles Redhead Riot, a winner of five races this year, in Saturday's $150,000 First Flight Handicap at Aqueduct.
LaFavers, 49, worked as an assistant for trainer Lenny Imperio for three years, until last spring when Imperio died after a long battle with cancer. LaFavers took over a few horses who were trained by Imperio, including Redhead Riot, a 3-year-old filly owned by Ann Fustok.