LEXINGTON, Ky. - Atlantic Ocean seems to be doing everything exponentially.
She was bought for a mere $31,000 as a yearling, then sold five months later for an incredible $1.9 million, and Atlantic Ocean has shown a similar tendency for fast advancement as a racing prospect. Badly beaten in two races to begin her career, she won a maiden race at Del Mar, then made a quantum leap with a dominant victory in the Kentucky Cup Juvenile Fillies at Turfway Park.
NEW YORK - When New York trainer P.G. Johnson ventures across the Hudson River to The Meadowlands, he usually does it for a big race and usually for a big race he can win. It's no fluke that Johnson, 76, has won more stakes at the Big M (19) than any other trainer.
And he is making the trip again Friday night, for the Grade 2, $400,000 Meadowlands Cup at 1 1/8 miles, the marquee race of the meet. Returning with him is Volponi, who won the Grade 2 Pegasus for 3-year-olds at the Big M last year and looks like the horse to beat in the Cup.
EDMONTON, Alberta - Quincy Welch and Rickey Walcott have been battling all summer at the top of the Northlands Park jockey standings. And with only two weeks to go in the 2002 meet, the two are separated by a mere two wins.
Welch went into the weekend leading the standings with 67 wins in 393 starts, while accumulating $970,947 in purse winnings.
Walcott had 65 wins in 417 mounts and, like Welch, was pushing the $1 million mark in purse money won, with slightly more than $900,000.
ARCADIA, Calif. - Crackup left trainer Rafael Becerra shaking his head in amazement after an eight-length maiden win at Del Mar on Sept. 1.
"I knew going into that race I had the best horse," Becerra said. "He did it the right way, letting the speed go and then going around them. I really think he's a nice horse."
On Friday, Becerra's opinion will be tested when Crackup makes his stakes debut in the $75,000 Cavonnier Stakes for 2-year-old statebreds at Santa Anita.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario - Royal Dalliance, third in a recent restricted stakes at Fort Erie, should be a tough customer in Friday's Woodbine headliner, an $80,000 optional claimer for fillies and mares.
Royal Dalliance, who banked $126,540 in 2001, is in the midst of another productive campaign for trainer Joanna Iglar-Hughes. She struggled during the spring, but began to exhibit signs of life in June, and then finished a distant third in the July 14 Kamar Stakes.
ANDERSON, Ind. - A field of 10 3-year-old fillies, whose last starts span the country, have converged on Hoosier Park for Friday night's $300,000 Indiana Breeders' Cup Oaks. The field sports last-start past-performance lines from The Meadowlands, Del Mar, Belmont, Saratoga, Emerald Downs, and several Midwest tracks.
The Oaks, which for a second year has Grade 3 status, shares the spotlight in Hoosier's showcase weekend with Saturday night's Grade 3, $400,000 Indiana Derby.
ARCADIA, Calif. - Siphonic, one of the top 2-year-olds of 2001, died Wednesday, apparently of a heart attack, after finishing second in an optional claiming race at Santa Anita.
Siphonic was stricken in the receiving barn approximately 15 minutes after the race, according to trainer David Hofmans.
"He had just gotten off the wash rack when they got him in a stall and he fell over," Hofmans said. "Maybe he tried too hard."
An autopsy will be performed to reveal the cause of death, but the results are not likely to be known for several weeks.
CHICAGO - Plans for a section of temporary seating at Arlington Park for the Oct. 26 World Thoroughbred Championships have been scrapped because of slow ticket sales, Breeders' Cup and Arlington Park announced Wednesday.
Trackside Village, a large tent located at the end of the backstretch in front of Arlington's Trackside OTB, no longer will be built, and holders of the approximately 200 tickets already purchased in the area will be moved into Trackside itself. Trackside Village tickets were $20, while Trackside seating tickets are $25.