ARCADIA, Calif. - Saturday's $100,000 Sen. Ken Maddy Handicap at Santa Anita offer a variety of challengers for Adoration.
A two-time stakes winner at Hollywood Park earlier this year, Adoration is making her first start since finishing sixth in the Delaware Oaks in July. In addition, the 3-year-old Adoration meets older fillies and mares for the first time in the Maddy, which is run over about 6 1/2 furlongs on the hillside turf course.
VANCOUVER, British Columbia - Bold'n Keen looks like the one to beat in the Saturday feature, a $50,000 optional claiming sprint for 3-year-olds that drew six horses.
Bold'n Keen looked like he could be one of the best 3-year-olds on the grounds when he won his maiden by 12 1/2 lengths June 1, but he hasn't won since and it appears that, at best, he's likely to be a very good sprinter. He has never won at a middle distance, and since he finished 10th in the 1 1/8-mile B.C. Derby Sept. 21, his trainer, Rob VanOverschot, has decided to look for shorter races for him.
EDMONTON, Alberta - Despite a stakes defeat at Woodbine that snapped her three-race winning streak, Raylene is expected to rule as a prohibitive favorite in a field of nine in the inaugural $40,000 Freedom of the City for 2-year-old fillies going a mile at Northlands on Saturday.
Raylene's dominating closing burst should stand her in good stead in her first race at a mile.
Trainer Rod Haynes claims that Raylene's recent defeat should not be seen as a deterrent by her local supporters.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario - Trainer Mike Keogh won Canada's most important 2-year-old stakes, the Grade 2 Grey Breeders' Cup, last Sunday with his rising star Wando.
Keogh could be loaded for bear again Saturday at Woodbine, when he sends out his second stringer, Mobil, in the Cup and Saucer Stakes, a 1 1/16-mile turf race worth $250,000.
ARLINGTON HEIGHTS, Ill. - Few associate midsummer in Virginia with the unveiling of promising 2-year-old talent. Yet that is when and where Newsbreak began his racing career, eking out a neck victory July 15 in a one-mile turf race at Colonial Downs. And while the victory was narrow, Newsbreak's win in a Sept. 13 turf allowance race at Belmont was emphatic. Closing from last with a rush, Newsbreak won going away by almost two lengths.
SAN MATEO, Calif. - No Seabiscuit promotion. No stakes. It's "simply Saturday" at Bay Meadows.
Only three fillies and mares entered the scheduled $60,000-added Charles H. Russell Handicap at six furlongs. The race was canceled and will not be rescheduled, although racing secretary Greg Brent will try to fill an allowance sprint for the Sunday card.
Brent said one reason the race was cancelled is a similar sprint stakes is tentatively scheduled for Nov. 10 at Golden Gate Fields.
ANDERSON, Ind. - Senorita Ziggy is not your ordinary Indiana-bred. While her nine rivals in the $40,000-added Merrillville Stakes have made the bulk of their starts and enjoyed their greatest success at Hoosier Park, Senorita Ziggy will be making just her second career start here and first against statebreds. The Merrillville is for fillies and mares at six furlongs.
Due to Win, who has won two Louisiana Downs stakes in her last two starts, and Cocoa Creek, who is perfect in three starts at the meet, should make for a competitive renewal of Saturday's $30,000 Old South Handicap.
The 1 1/16-mile turf race for fillies and mares drew nine, including Euryanthe, who appears to be nearing a victory; Chula, a razor-sharp 3-year-old; and Kentucky shipper Elaine's Booboo.
PHOENIX, Ariz. - There was a time Beyond Brilliant was good enough to run with such horses as Squirtle Squirt, last year's champion sprinter.
While those days appear to have passed for the 4-year-old Beyond Brilliant, he still possesses the talent necessary to be scary in Saturday's $30,000 Caballo del Sol Handicap. The six-furlong race has lured a field of seven.
ARCADIA, Calif. - The Breeders' Cup Mile must be approaching if a trainer named Canani has a turf miler worth following from California.
This year, Nick Canani, son of trainer Julio Canani, has the best prospect in the West with Night Patrol, the winner of the Oak Tree Breeders' Cup Mile at Santa Anita last weekend.
Nick Canani, 28, has a tough act to follow. Julio Canani twice won the Oak Tree Mile and Breeders' Cup Mile in a year with the same horse. First with Silic in 1999 and then with Val Royal two years later.