WINNIPEG, Manitoba - Beausox will be going for her third win in as many local starts when she faces four other 3-year-old fillies in Sunday's $30,000 Assiniboia Oaks at 1 1/16 miles.
Trained by Karline Hunter, Beausox won the Jacky Hardy Stakes in her first start here Aug. 5 and then beat many of the same horses in an allowance race Aug. 27.
Rohan Singh will ride Beausox, who breaks from post 3.
AUBURN, Wash. - Latter Day Paula's current run of bad luck began in last year's Belle Roberts Handicap, the nine-furlong, $60,000 stakes for fillies and mares that will be renewed on Sunday.
"She broke a little slowly from the rail post that day and ended up having to check most of the way around the first turn," trainer Terry Gillihan said. "She got shuffled all the way back to last, but then she circled the field and got up for second. It was a race we thought she might have won with a little better racing luck."
NORTH RANDALL, Ohio - Hackendiffy seeks his third stakes win Sunday at Thistledown when he matches strides with nine Ohio-bred 2-year-olds over 1 1/16 miles in the $75,000 Juvenile Stakes.
Hackendiffy, a grey or roan son of Willowy Ambassador-Angel Puss, by Wolf Power, is a half-bother to U S S Tinosa, who won both this race and the Best of Ohio Juvenile last year.
U S S Tinosa further distinguished himself by winning the Sham Stakes at Santa Anita and finishing second in the Grade 2 San Felipe Stakes. In his last start, U S S Tinosa finished sixth in the Preakness.
SAN MATEO, Calif. - Trainer Cliff Delima hopes El Dorado Shooter is ready to fire after three bullet drills in preparation for his return to the races in Sunday's $60,000-added Big Jag Handicap at Bay Meadows.
"He'll give them hell for a while," said Delima about the 5-year-old gelding, who will make his first start since finishing last in the Ken Maddy Sprint Handicap at Golden Gate Fields on Feb. 23.
El Dorado Shooter has won eight of 14 starts and was northern California's top sprinter early in 2001 when he won the Montclair, Ken Maddy, and Danville handicaps.
FLORENCE, Ky. - Bill Connelly has been on the racetrack more than a quarter-century, so he knows that change can come at a moment's notice. Connelly wore a big grin on his face Wednesday night after sending out his third straight winner on the opening program of the Turfway Park fall meet, yet he was in the most somber of moods the following evening.
CHICAGO - "Scraping paint" is old racetrack jargon for saving ground by clinging to the inner rail. But in Galic Boy's case it describes literally what happened during his last race. Trapped in a pocket three furlongs from the finish Aug. 18 in The Bart Handicap here, Galic Boy and jockey Ray Sibille ducked to the inside in search of racing room, but what they found was more traffic - and the fence.
VANCOUVER, British Columbia - The Hastings meeting, scheduled to end Nov. 3, will be extended to Dec. 1, said Hastings Entertainment Inc. president Phil Heard.
The Horsemen's Benevolent and Protective Association asked for the extension because several days have been canceled because of schedule changes. Last weekend Hastings management said no to the request, but after discussions with the HBPA all week, management reluctantly agreed to the extension, which will be eight extra racing days (four Saturdays and four Sundays).
ELMONT, N.Y. - With career-ending ailments suffered by Left Bank and Street Cry, the handicap division is starving for a new leader. Saturday's $500,000 Woodward Stakes at Belmont Park affords Lido Palace - a handicap division leader in the summer of 2001 - the opportunity to regain his position.
In attempting to repeat his Woodward win of a year ago, Lido Palace will face a field made up of second- and third-tier older horses, many of whom were looking to run elsewhere before this field lost its luster.
ELMONT, N.Y. - Take Charge Lady and Bella Bellucci, two fillies who have been out of sight for most of the summer, will try to work their way back into the minds of Eclipse Award voters when they meet in Saturday's Grade 1 Gazelle Handicap at Belmont Park.
The $250,000 Gazelle also drew 2001 Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies runner-up Imperial Gesture, and Mother Goose winner Nonsuch Bay. Lost at Sea, Jaramar Rain, and Spring Meadow complete the field.
