LOUISVILLE, Ky. - It's back to basics Saturday for Sky Terrace. He was tested at a distance in July but faltered, so eight weeks later, trainer Vickie Foley turns Sky Terrace back to six furlongs in the $150,000 Kentucky Cup Sprint.
"I've freshened him up and got him feeling good again," Foley said Wednesday at her Churchill Downs base. "I thought this race at Turfway was as good a spot as any for him to come back in."
DEL MAR, Calif. - In attempting to strike a balance between presenting its closing-day card and paying tribute to the first anniversary of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, Del Mar played host on Wednesday to a nationwide tribute that was broadcast to tracks that were open for business.
AUBURN, Wash. - Apprentice Kevin Mangold appears well positioned to snap a frustrating drought Friday when he rides Los Pinos in the Emerald Downs feature, a one-mile race for $20,000 claiming 3-year-olds that has drawn a field of six.
Mangold entered this week's racing winless in 41 mounts since arriving here at mid-season from Southern California, and he is 0-for-141 for the year. It should be noted, however, that the hard-trying Mangold has had very few live mounts.
EDMONTON, Alberta - With the Northlands meet winding down and slim pickings on the stakes schedule, stakes-caliber horses are forced to seek other options.
That's the case in the eighth race Friday. Little Lolitta, Slewability, and Viva Ruckus will battle in the $32,000 optional claiming race that includes an allowance condition for nonwinners of two other than maiden or claiming this season.
Enjoying the best year of her career with $82,286 in earnings, Viva Ruckus is the morning-line favorite and will race for the $32,000 tag.
POMONA, Calif. - Against all odds, the bullring is back.
The $50,000 Foothill Stakes launches the Los Angeles County Fair race meet Friday at Fairplex Park, and the 10 runners in the six-furlong stakes must negotiate a second turn to which they are unaccustomed. Unusual? Not really. Fairplex, host to the L.A. County Fair since 1933, is a five-eighths-mile oval, unique on the Southern California circuit.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario - Southern Chance, who ran against an apparent track bias in his last start, has a realistic chance of landing the first allowance condition in Thursday's $63,500 Woodbine feature.
Southern Chance was claimed for $40,000 from a loss in conditioned company in June by owner-trainer Audre Cappuccitti, who didn't hesitate to run him back at the first allowance level on July 24.
He raced prominently throughout that six-furlong dash to be third, ending up 1 1/2 lengths behind next-out winner Classic Manner.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. - There are some big horseshoes to fill Saturday in the Kentucky Cup Juvenile, but Pat Byrne believes he may have the horse to do the filling.
Byrne will send out Private Gold in the $100,000 Kentucky Cup Juvenile at Turfway Park in Florence, Ky. The last two runnings of the Juvenile were won by Point Given - who was the Horse of the Year at 3 in 2001 - and by Repent, who is regarded as one of the top members of his class after being narrowly defeated last month in the Travers Stakes.
MIAMI - Last year, Flying Birdie was far and away the most dominant 3-year-old sprinter on the grounds, winning 6 of 7 starts, including three stakes, with her only setback a one-length loss to Fly Me Crazy in her 2001 finale. She was particularly unstoppable at five furlongs, both on turf and dirt, winning all three of her starts at the distance by an average margin of five lengths.
POMONA, Calif. - Trainer Mike Machowsky has been pointing Line Rider to the $50,000 Foothill Stakes for several weeks. While that fact alone does not guarantee victory for the 3-year-old on Friday, opening day of the Los Angeles County Fair meet at Fairplex Park, it does reveal positive intent.
"I think he'll be real tough against straight 3-year-olds, and he's a horse that should love that [five-eighths-mile] track," Machowsky said. "He's very agile, he's very coordinated."
ALTOONA, Iowa - Invaderfromtheeast heads a field of 11 in Friday night's $50,000-added Iowa Stallion Futurity at Prairie Meadows.
Invaderfromtheeast, one of four winners entered in the six-furlong race, finished third, beaten 7 3/4 lengths, to top Iowa-bred 2-year-old El Saddler in the Iowa Cradle Stakes here in his most recent start Aug. 31.
In the Iowa Cradle, Invaderfromtheeast experienced minor traffic trouble and was steadied approaching the stretch.