ETOBICOKE, Ontario - Outsider Early Wisdom lit up the tote board with a $69.90 payoff, when he won the Grade 3 Col. R.S. McLaughlin Handicap at Woodbine on Saturday.
Early Wisdom vied up front through moderate fractions with Mark One and New York shipper Center in the 1 1/8-mile race for 3-year-olds. Center dropped out of contention on the far turn, and Early Wisdom began to edge away from Mark One inside the three-sixteenths pole to score by 2 1/4 lengths, in a time of 1:52.19 seconds.
MIAMI - Gemma's Star continued his climb to the top of the local 3-year-old division with a convincing 2 3/4-length victory over Susie's Poker in Saturday's $50,000 Needles Stakes at Calder. The Needles was originally scheduled to be run on the turf but was switched to the main track because of several days of rain in the area.
Gemma's Star got a perfect rail-skimming ride from Manny Aguilar, who recorded his third victory of the day in the Needles. The winner paid $6 after covering 1 1/16 miles in 1:46.60 seconds over a fast track.
ARLINGTON HEIGHTS, Ill. - Breeders' Cup officials got a private helicopter tour from Dick Duchossois and made a hands-on inspection Thursday of Arlington Park's Breeders' Cup makeover. What they saw was a project in full swing and on schedule, with sets of stadium seats and the skeletons of vast tents springing up around the perimeter of Arlington's 1 1/8-mile main track.
ELMONT, N.Y. - New York's road to the Breeders' Cup for 2-year-olds begins in earnest on Sunday at Belmont Park with a pair of Grade 1 races, the $200,000 Futurity and $200,000 Matron.
The Futurity and Matron, along with the Grade 1 Champagne and Grade 1 Frizette on Oct. 5, are New York's most important preps for the Breeders' Cup Juvenile and Juvenile Fillies, which will be run at Arlington Park on Oct. 26.
ELMONT, N.Y. - Seven years ago, My Flag used the Matron and Frizette as stepping-stones to the Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies, which she won. On Sunday at Belmont Park, My Flag's daughter Storm Flag Flying will take her first important step toward the Breeders' Cup in the $200,000 Matron.
The one-mile Matron drew seven 2-year-old fillies. Storm Flag Flying, Fircroft, and Wild Snitch figure as the key players.
ELMONT, N.Y. - Medaglia d'Oro, in his second work since winning the Travers Stakes on Aug. 24, worked five furlongs Friday morning over Belmont Park's main track.
Medaglia d'Oro, under exercise rider Rudy Rodriguez, covered five furlongs in 1:02.83, breezing. The work came after the renovation break on a track labeled fast. Indicative of how slow the track was playing, the bullet for five furlongs was 1:02.18.
The clockers caught Medaglia d'Oro galloping out six furlongs in 1:17.60 after earlier fractions of 13 seconds, 25.60, and 37.60.
Race Horses Inc., which owns Blue Ribbon Downs in Sallisaw, Okla., filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on Sept. 6, officials from the track informed the Oklahoma Racing Commission. Racing operations at Blue Ribbon will continue during the bankruptcy proceedings.
Blue Ribbon's filing came three days before foreclosure proceedings on the track were expected to begin. Sallisaw Municipal Authority filed a foreclosure suit against Race Horses, Inc., in February after the ownership group missed a final deadline to pay four quarterly principal interest payments totaling $270,000.
ARLINGTON HEIGHTS, Ill. - The constitution of the Illinois Racing Board changed yet again this week with the dismissal of longtime board member Lorna Propes.
An 11-year member of the IRB, Propes was dismissed from the board this week by outgoing Illinois Gov. George Ryan, who replaced her with Robert Winchester. Winchester, a deputy chief of staff for Ryan, has no background in the horse racing industry.
AUBURN, Wash. - With archrival Knightsbridge Road sidelined by a fever, Bub figures as a solid favorite over a full field of challengers in Sunday's $100,000 Gottstein Futurity at Emerald Downs.
Bub, a 2-year-old son of Slewdledo who races for owner Art McFadden, will be attempting to put the icing on a stellar campaign that has seen him win four of five starts coming into the 1 1/16-mile Futurity. His only loss came by a head in the six-furlong Emerald Express to Knightsbridge Road, who finished second to Bub four times.
