ETOBICOKE, Ontario - Roger Attfield, currently the top trainer in money won here this year, has his sights set on cracking the $4 million mark at the meet.
Attfield, who was just a bit more than $100,000 shy of the goal heading into Wednesday's program, seems a pretty safe bet to reach that plateau.
But, he will have to do so without the help of Kabeeb, who would have been the one to beat here in Sunday's $150,000 Ontario Lassie, a 1 1/16-mile race for Canadian-bred 2-year-old fillies.
INGLEWOOD, Calif. - Trainer Rafael Becerra aims for an unlikely stakes double Saturday at Hollywood Park with a 2-year-old sprinter and a 4-year-old turf runner. Roll Hennessy Roll, whose first three starts were in New Mexico, is a leading contender in the Grade 3 Hollywood Prevue at seven furlongs. Special Matter, a former $12,500 claimer who won a Grade 3 race, runs 1 1/2 miles in the Grade 1 Hollywood Turf Cup.
INGLEWOOD, Calif. - What do you do with a 4-year-old turf filly who was 0 for 8 and running out of chances?
"I thought I had a good $40,000 or $50,000 filly on turf, but I needed to break her maiden to get her on grass," said trainer Mike Mitchell. It was a problem with a simple solution.
Mitchell ran Bush Triumph in a dreadful field of $25,000 maiden claimers. She won by 3 1/2 lengths, and gained much-needed confidence. By the time Bush Triumph was ready to run again, the season was nearly over. No problem.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. - Horseplayers frequently say they don't mind a little slip in quality, if only the quantity is there.
Loose translation: Full fields are fantastic, as long as you don't scrape the bottom of the barrel. If that's so, then horseplayers won't want to miss the nine-race Thursday card at Churchill Downs, where only one race drew fewer than 10 starters and the average field size, counting also-eligibles, is 12.
ALBANY, Calif. - If it's true that winning builds confidence in horses, it follows that losing erodes it.
And that's why Thursday's feature at Golden Gate Fields takes on extra significance for trainers Armando Lage and Jim Hilling.
Lage has entered Chic Domestique in the $40,000 optional claimer for 3-year-old fillies at one mile on the turf. Hilling has entered Doc's Lil Angel. Both fillies come off poor stakes tries on the dirt but return to their favorite surface Thursday.
MIAMI - While it may take the Florida Million a while to catch on among horsemen, Calder's newest multi-stakes day program should have been an instant hit with fans Saturday after exciting finishes in four of the six stakes races.
The $200,000 Elmer Heubeck Distaff Handicap may have provided the most drama. Coolbythepool won, rallying from far back to outfinish 26-1 Sara's Success by a neck, with Cellars Shiraz, the only 3-year-old in the field, a neck behind in third.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. - If all goes well next spring, Toccet will have to run three races in five weeks at three different racetracks. If all goes as planned, it will not be the first time he will attempt that difficult task.
Having bounced out of his 6 1/4-length victory in Saturday's $100,000 Laurel Futurity so well, Toccet is now being pointed to the Grade 2, $200,000 Remsen Stakes at Aqueduct Nov. 30.
"He came out of the race fine," trainer John Scanlan
LOUISVILLE, Ky. - The race for top trainer at Churchill Downs is highly competitive as of Wednesday, which starts the final third of the track's 30-day fall meet. Through Sunday, Carl Nafzger led the standings with 10 wins, followed by Ken McPeek and Dale Romans with nine each and Steve Asmussen with eight.
Nafzger has had the fewest starts among the leaders but is making the most of his opportunities. That theme could continue on Wednesday when Nafzger runs one horse in each of the day's two richest races on a program that starts at 12:40 p.m. Eastern.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario - Brass in Pocket could be money in the bank Wednesday at Woodbine in the $127,250 Classy 'N Smart, a 1 1/16-mile stakes for Ontario-sired fillies and mares.
The eight-race card also includes three other stakes - the Display, Bessarabian, and Sunny's Halo. All three races were originally scheduled for last weekend, when racing was canceled because of poor track conditions.
INGLEWOOD, Calif. - If you want to get a good line on Wednesday's first race at Hollywood Park, just punch up a tape of the third race on Oct. 17 at Santa Anita's Oak Tree meeting. Of the five runners entered Wednesday, three are exiting the same race, including runner-up Honestly Darling.
