NORTH RANDALL, Ohio - Thistledown-based trainers swept Monday's five Best of Ohio day stakes here while shutting out their counterparts at Beulah Park and River Downs, Ohio's other two Thoroughbred tracks.
Miguel Feliciano won two of the five stakes, taking the $100,000 Endurance for the second year in a row with Majestic Dinner and the $75,000 Juvenile with Forest Picnic, who upset 1-10 favorite Hackendiffy - the shortest-priced favorite ever to lose a Best of Ohio race.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario - Sam-Son Farm and trainer Mark Frostad have been represented in the Breeders' Cup for the past six years, with Chief Bearhart carrying the baton from 1996 through 1998, and Quiet Resolve taking over for the next three editions.
But that streak will come to an end at Arlington next Saturday, as Dancethruthedawn has been retired after emerging from her final prep for the Distaff with an ankle injury and Strut the Stage is heading back to Woodbine for the Oct. 27 Sky Classic Handicap.
ARLINGTON HEIGHTS, Ill. - Xtra Heat, that amazing little package of a filly, has settled in wonderfully at Arlington Park, according to trainer John Salzman, and is approaching the Breeders' Cup Sprint in peak condition.
Xtra Heat shipped to Arlington a day after she won the Phoenix Breeders Cup on Oct. 6 at Keeneland. Taking a seven-hour van ride the morning after a tough race would knock out many horses, but Xtra Heat seems to bounce back from everything.
Zabenz was running out of career opportunities last spring.
Based in Australia with trainer Robert Smerdon, Zabenz sported the unattractive record of one win in 22 starts and earnings of $9,719. With a family history heavy on stamina, Zabenz was no factor over a mile and was just getting warmed up over 1 1/2 miles.
With few options remaining, Smerdon and owner Michael Watt tried Zabenz in steeplechase races. Six months later, the 5-year-old horse's career has undergone a revival. The one-time throwout may finish the season as a major stakes winner on two continents.
ARCADIA, Calif. - Mention the Breeders' Cup to Mike Smith, and the memories come rushing back. There was Lure, the incomparable miler, and winning rides on six other horses, including champions Cherokee Run, Inside Information, and Skip Away.
Three times in the 1990's, Smith was a star on Breeders' Cup Day, winning two races on the nation's richest card. The success propelled his career to a new level, earned him two Eclipse Awards as the nation's outstanding jockey, and seemed to put him on the fast-track to the Hall of Fame.
"Things happened for me," he said.
ELMONT, N.Y. - Yes, trainer Barclay Tagg will admit, he was tempted. But when Tuesday's noon deadline passed for pre-entries for the Breeders' Cup World Thoroughbred Championships, Tagg resisted putting his exciting New York-bred Funny Cide in the $1 million Juvenile.
Thus, Tagg will stick to his original plan of running Funny Cide in Saturday's $100,000 Sleepy Hollow, one of seven stakes for statebreds on New York Showcase Day at Belmont Park. Funny Cide, who has won his first two starts by a combined 23 3/4 lengths, looms a heavy favorite against four or five rivals.
LEXINGTON, Ky. - With virtually the entire racing world looking forward to the Oct. 26 Breeders' Cup, stakes action throughout North America during the coming weekend will be relatively light.
That is only partly true at Keeneland, where two Grade 3 stakes should provide a welcome diversion. Those races are the $100,000 Valley View on Saturday and the $125,000 Thoroughbred Club of America on Sunday.
MIAMI - Saturday's Festival of the Sun program established an all-time record for mutuel handle during a Calder meet when $9,061,264 was wagered on the 13-race program. The previous mark of $8.8 million was established on the 2001 Festival of the Sun card.
The handle was the second highest in track history, surpassed only by the $9.4 million wagered on Dec. 29, 2001, on the Grand Slam II card, which included four stakes, during the Tropical-at-Calder meeting.
NORTH RANDALL, Ohio - Majestic Dinner became the first horse to win the Best of Ohio Endurance twice when he took the race for the second year in a row on Monday at Thistledown. The $100,000 Endurance was the centerpiece of Best of Ohio day, which featured five stakes for Ohio-breds.
Majestic Dinner made the lead after a half-mile in the 1 1/4-mile Endurance and drew off to a 1 1/4-length win over Bad Little Fellow, with Your Abc's third.
ARCADIA, Calif. - Bobby Frankel, the Hall of Fame trainer, and Kristin Mulhall, who at 20 is the youngest trainer in Southern California, both reached milestones on Monday at Santa Anita.
Both saddled winners of divisions of the Ramser Handicap for 3-year-old fillies. For Frankel, the win by Kithira in the first division gave him his first win in the Ramser and his 35th career stakes win at the Oak Tree at Santa Anita meeting. Frankel, 61, is third on the all-time Oak Tree list behind Charles Whittingham (68) and Ron McAnally (36).