MUSKEGON, Mich. - The training title came down to the final day of the Great Lakes Downs meeting on Tuesday, but riding honors were already decided in August.
Terry Houghton rode 175 winners in the first 78 days of the meeting before suffering a season-ending concussion on Aug. 25. As it turns out.those were all the wins he needed to win the title.
Jockey Horatio Karamanos tied a 33-year-old Laurel Park record when he rode seven winners on last Saturday's 11-race card.
The only other rider to achieve the feat, Chuck Baltazar, did it on Dec. 15, 1969.
"I am very happy," said Karamanos, a native of Argentina who has been in the United States for 18 months. "The most I have ever won in one day was five at Colonial Downs and five in Argentina. I've been doing very well lately and would like to thank my agent, Ben Feliciano, for working so hard and getting me nice horses to ride."
Apprentice jockey Heather Irion will be out indefinitely as she recuperates from numerous injuries sustained in a spill at Philadelphia Park last week.
Although Irion was released from Frankford-Torresdale Hospital, she is still having problems with double vision and will not be able to resume riding for at least several weeks, according to her agent, Gary Yager.
"It's really going to be the doctor's call as to when she'll be able to return," Yager said.
ARCADIA, Calif. - Golden Apples has a score to settle, and will risk championship credentials to do so. While Golden Apples remains the top candidate for female turf champion after an unlucky fourth-place finish in the Breeders' Cup Filly and Mare Turf, trainer Ben Cecil is eager to remove all doubt from minds of voters.
ARCADIA, Calif. - Julie Krone will resume her riding career this week at Santa Anita. Krone's agent, Brian Beach, said Krone has a call with a Richard Mandella trainee Friday, and would ride if the race fills.
Otherwise, Krone will return Saturday in the $150,000 California Cup Distaff. Krone has a call on Mabel Kent, who is trained by Ian Jory, in the 6 1/2-furlong turf race. Krone, 39, is the all-time leading female rider with 3,545 career wins.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario - Trainer John Ross was doing some serious soul-searching here Tuesday after watching Arco's Gold, who is undefeated in two starts, work four furlongs in 47.40 seconds on a fast main track.
Arco's Gold, a 2-year-old colt owned by Alex and Steven DiIorio has won a 6 1/2-furlong maiden special on Sept. 8 and a seven-furlong, first-level allowance on Oct. 13.
SAN MATEO, Calif. - If ESPN's Sportscenter covered Thoroughbred racing at Bay Meadows, they would say trainer Bud Klokstad was "en fuego."
Klokstad has indeed been "on fire" this meet, having won with 11 of his first 26 starters.
Klokstad sends out two more more Thursday - stakes winner Neon Queen in the feature race, a six-furlong, $40,000 optional claimer, and Geardown in a 5 1/2-furlong, $40,000 starter allowance.
Klokstad brought 25 horses with him from Washington, and, as a word of warning, advises, "My good ones haven't run yet."
OZONE PARK, N.Y. - After a disappointing weekend in Chicago, trainer Todd Pletcher is hoping for a turnaround this weekend in New York when he will be represented in three of four stakes races at Aqueduct.
Last Saturday, Pletcher went 0 for 4 in stakes at Arlington Park, including Appleby Gardens's fifth-place finish in the Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies and Harlan's Holiday's ninth-place finish in the Classic.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. - The subtraction of blinkers and the addition of Richard Migliore have equaled a three-race win streak for River Rush. That streak will be severely tested Thursday when River Rush takes on nine rivals in a stakes-caliber, one-mile allowance race over the Aqueduct turf course.
Trainer Lisa Lewis decided to remove the blinkers from River Rush following a high-priced claiming race on July 13 in which River Rush was rank and finished third. Prior to that, he had been scratched out of a Belmont Stakes Day allowance race after breaking through the gate.
Red Bullet, the 2000 Preakness winner, has been entered in Saturday's $55,000 Foggy Road Stakes at Delaware Park, a race his connections hope to use as a springboard to the Grade 1, $350,000 Cigar Mile at Aqueduct on Nov. 30.
Red Bullet drew post 7 and will face 12 rivals in the six-furlong race. Michael McCarthy, Delaware's leading rider, has the call.
Trainer Joe Orseno said the Foggy Road was plan B after poor weather in New York two weeks ago affected his ability to get Red Bullet prepared for last Saturday's seven-furlong Sport Page Handicap at Aqueduct.
