Trainer Cole Norman's goal each meet is to surpass his wins from the season before, and if he does that in the final five weeks of racing at Louisiana Downs, he will set a record for wins in a season.
Last year, Norman won 108 races at the track to break the record of 99 wins held by Frank Brothers since 1987. This year, he is 14 wins from breaking his own record, having won 95 races during the first 60 days of the 80-day meet at Louisiana Downs.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario - Lush Soldier, the talented turf specialist trained at Woodbine by David Bell, is scheduled to start in Saturday's Grade 1 Queen Elizabeth II Challenge Cup at Keeneland.
The Queen Elizabeth, a 1 1/8-mile turf race for 3-year-old fillies, has a purse of $500,000, and participation is by invitation only.
"It'll be a very tough race," said Bell. "But you don't get many chances to run 3-year-old fillies against 3-year-old fillies in a Grade 1. And she ran well there before."
MIAMI - After winning his first two starts impressively, Trust N Luck was generally regarded to be the best of the local 2-year-olds. But now, with three consecutive losses at odds of 4-5 or less, Trust N Luck has much to prove in Saturday's $400,000 In Reality Stakes.
ELMONT, N.Y. - Inactive the last three racing days, trainer Bruce Levine looks to continue his two-week hot streak Wednesday with a pair of runners, including Ms. Rapunzel in the featured eighth race, a second-level allowance race on the Widener Turf Course.
After going 2 for 32 at Saratoga, Levine is now challenging for the Belmont fall trainer title. His eight wins trail only Richard Dutrow Jr. and Todd Pletcher, who are tied for the meet lead with 10 wins apiece. In the last two weeks, Levine has saddled six winners from 13 starters.
LEXINGTON, Ky. - Trainer John Ward and jockey Edgar Prado both had sensational weekends at Keeneland.
Prado won eight races, including four of the six graded races: the Lane's End Breeders' Futurity with Sky Mesa and the A.P. Indy aboard Dixie Tactics on Saturday, and the Spinster with Take Charge Lady and the Shadwell Mile with Landseer on Sunday. Prado is atop the jockey standings, but his lead probably will be short-lived because he plans to ride mostly at Belmont Park the rest of the meet.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario - Trainer Jake Nemett lit up the tote board at Woodbine last Saturday, when he sent out Pacifico to win a $40,000 maiden race at 21-1. Pacifico was Nemett's third longshot first-time starter to win at the meeting.
The second of that trio, El Gran Maestro, will make his second start in Wednesday's Frost King Stakes, a seven-furlong test for Ontario-sired 2-year-olds.
ARCADIA, Calif. - Among Blushing Rahy, Dereck, and El Nuki, trainer Vladimir Cerin has big hopes for Wednesday's program at Santa Anita.
"All three are live," Cerin said. "I think they can all hit the board, and with a little luck they could win."
Blushing Rahy starts in Wednesday's feature race, a $49,000 allowance race over 1 1/8 miles on turf that drew six fillies and mares.
SAN MATEO, Calif. - Bay Meadows didn't make a blip on the San Francisco Bay Area sports radar screen last Sunday.
There were two baseball playoff series being contested in the Bay Area - the Oakland A's losing a fifth and final game to the Minnesota Twins and the San Francisco Giants winning and forcing a deciding fifth game against the Atlanta Braves. In the National Football League, the San Francisco 49ers were playing host to the St. Louis Rams.
Bay Meadows figures more prominently Saturday, when it joins the bobble-head doll promotional frenzy, with a twist.
Ryan Fogelsonger, a 21-year-old apprentice rider, closed out the 20-day fall meet at Pimlico Race Course in Baltimore with his first jockey's title and 49 wins, 27 better than the next closest rider.
Fogelsonger had two five-win days during the meet, which ended on Saturday. He leads the nation in wins among apprentice riders with 156.