ARCADIA, Calif. - Only the Best ($10.20) burst to the front and was long gone in the $96,900 Sunny Slope Stakes. The only California-bred in the field of nine 2-year-olds, Only the Best won the six-furlong stakes by two lengths over Domestic Dispute.
Pat Valenzuela rode Only the Best, whose 21.16-second opening quarter-mile was the second-fastest of the meet. Only the Best had a seven-length lead after the first quarter, led by 4 1/2 lengths after a half in 43.84, and finished in 1:09.12.
If Carl Nafzger is to be recognized as Keeneland's leading trainer when the fall meet ends Saturday, it will have to be in an absentee sort of way.
Nafzger was scheduled to leave Monday for Chicago, where on Saturday he will run Westerly Breeze in the Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies at Arlington. In the meantime, Nafzger's horses will carry on at Keeneland, where he and Nick Zito are tied for leading trainer with five wins with just four days remaining in the meet.
PHOENIX - Marshall Cassidy, former longtime voice of the New York Racing Association tracks, will return to the announcer's booth at Turf Paradise on Friday. Cassidy, 57, will call the races through Nov. 2 because regular Turf Paradise announcer Luke Kruytbosch will be calling the races at Churchill Downs.
Cassidy was the main NYRA race-caller from 1979 to 1990. Before his stint as the main announcer, he filled in as back-up announcer to Chic Anderson and Dave Johnson.
Eugene Joyce has been named interim general manager of Remington Park in Oklahoma City by Magna Entertainment following the resignation of Frank Deal.
Joyce also works as the director of product development for Lone Star Park near Dallas.
R.D. Logan, the director of security for Lone Star, has been named interim assistant general manager of Remington.
The staff changes come less than a week after the Texas Racing Commission approved the sale of Lone Star to Magna.
ARLINGTON HEIGHTS, Ill. - It has become standard operating procedure for the Breeders' Cup host site to stack its schedule around the main event, creating a short festival of high-class racing on Breeders' Cup weekend. Besides the eight Breeders' Cup races Saturday, eight more $100,000 stakes are on tap, three each Friday and Saturday and two on Sunday, closing day of this meet. Here's a brief look at how those races are shaping up.
Friday: Strong Gilded Time
ARCADIA, Calif. - The country's horseplayers will forsake Breeders' Cup handicapping on Wednesday, to focus instead on potentially lucrative gambling decisions on the West Coast.
A two-day carryover in the pick six has generated widespread interest in Wednesday's card here, where $520,536.71 is already in the pick six pool. Bettors are expected to wager close to $2 million more on Wednesday's pick six races (3-8) in which there are 560,000 possible combinations, before scratches, if any.
SAN MATEO, Calif. - Trainer Susan Murphy has greeted many horses in the winner's circle, but when Little Bird won at Bay Meadows on Thursday, she provided Murphy with her first victory as a trainer.
Murphy, the daughter of the late Chuck Murphy, got her assistant's license in 1979. She trained horses for her father while he ran Rancho Paraiso in Walnut Creek, Calif., and later Rancho Delta Paraiso near Stockton, Calif., with the horses always racing under her father's name.
Murphy, 46, said that after Little Bird won, her thoughts were with her father, who died in June.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. - There is a nip in the air and the trees are beginning to change color. That can only mean one thing on the New York Racing Association calendar: It's time for Aqueduct's fall meet.
Aqueduct opens its doors on Wednesday for a 48-day meet, which runs through Dec. 29. Post time for the opener is 12:30 p.m.
The feature on the opening-day card is the 58th running of the $100,000-added Discovery Handicap, a Grade 3 for 3-year-olds. The last two winners of the 1 1/8-mile Discovery, Left Bank and Evening Attire, went on to become top handicap stars.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. - Trainer Bobby Frankel has a plethora of stakes horses, so when he is really high on a particular horse, it's worth taking note.
On Sunday, closing day at the Belmont Park fall meet, Frankel's Empire Maker lived up to his prerace hype by easily winning his career debut. Now the 2-year-old Empire Maker, who is a half to Grade 1 winners Chester House, Honest Lady, and Chiselling, will be pointed to the Grade 2 Remsen at Aqueduct on Nov. 30.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario - Intoyourblues, a beaten favorite in her last outing, will try to make amends in the featured second race for Ontario-sired fillies and mares at Woodbine on Wednesday.
A field of five was drawn for the 6 1/2-furlong allowance, which carries a purse of $63,500.