GROVE CITY, Ohio - Beulah Park's 71-day fall meeting begins Saturday afternoon and will feature the return of the 7 & 7 alternating-race format with Thistledown.
Beulah will run stand-alone programs this weekend before beginning the 7 & 7 format with Thistledown on Wednesday. Under the 7 & 7, the two tracks will intersperse their respective seven-race cards and share a single simulcast signal.
SAN MATEO, Calif. - When a trainer such as Chuck Jenda gets high on a horse, it is worth paying attention.
The low-key Jenda is high, in his understated way, on AB Noodle, who will face seven rivals in Saturday's $60,000-added Carmel Handicap at Bay Meadows. The 1 1/16-mile turf race is for 3-year-old fillies.
"She's doing well," he said. "I couldn't be happier with her."
MIAMI - Bernard's Candy, one of the most promising 3-year-olds on the grounds, will get his first real class test on Saturday when he stretches out around two turns for the first time in the $50,000 Needles Stakes.
The Needles was originally carded at 1 1/16 miles on the turf, but several days of heavy rain forced racing secretary Bob Umphrey to switch the race to the main track.
Bernard's Candy had never run on turf so the change in venue is to his advantage. The key question now is whether he can carry his abundant speed around two turns.
It took more than six weeks, but Mike McCarthy has passed the injured Ramon Dominguez to take over first place in the jockey standings at Delaware Park.
Dominguez has been stuck at 104 winners since he fractured his wrist in a spill on July 24. McCarthy, who was 31 winners behind at the time of Dominguez's injury, moved into first by riding four winners on last Saturday's card, including two stakes.
SALEM, N.H. - Only three of the seven entrants in Saturday's $25,000 Floyd Duncan Memorial Stakes for 2-year-olds have won. As a result, handicapping the race is a tall task.
Farmer Inthe Dell is the likely favorite despite having lost his only race. His second-place finish last month was filled with trouble, but he ended up with a Beyer Speed Figure of 65. In this field of babies, that stands out as the top figure.
Harford Ghost, a runaway winner at Monmouth Park in her career debut, heads a group of 11 2-year-old fillies, all seeking their first stakes win, in the $75,000 Kindergarten Stakes at Philadelphia Park.
Based on Beyer Speed Figures, Harford Ghost, trained by Deborah Bodner and ridden by Carlos Cruz, towers over her opposition. Her Beyer Figure of 95, earned at the same six-furlong distance as the Kindergarten, is more than 20 points higher than any other horse in the field who has raced 5 1/2 furlongs or farther.
In her last six races dating back to late April, 3-year-old filly For Rubies has been in front after the first six furlongs, yet her record at that sprint distance is only 1 for 6 lifetime.
For Rubies, whose greatest success has come in races beyond six furlongs but no longer than a mile, shortens up for Saturday's Grade 3, $100,000 Safely Kept Stakes at Pimlico.
A two-time stakes winner for trainer Lynn Whiting this year, For Rubies will be asked to race six furlongs for the first time since she won the Goldfinch Stakes at Prairie Meadows on April 26.
ARLINGTON HEIGHTS, Ill. - Two Item Limit needs a confidence-building race right now, so for the first time in three seasons of racing Two Item Limit will take advantage of her Illinois-bred status. Shipped by van from New York to Arlington in midweek, Two Item Limit faces five statebred opponents on Saturday in the Unique Type, a $42,000 overnight handicap race run at one mile on dirt.
ARLINGTON HEIGHTS, Ill. - In one of the bigger upsets of the meet, Rene Douglas has gone a month without winning a stakes race. That can change Saturday. Douglas has landed the mount on Little Treasure, the favorite and horse to beat in the Grade 3 Pucker Up, a nine-furlong grass race for 3-year-old fillies.