If you think the richest race in North America this weekend will be run at Saratoga or Del Mar, think again. Saturday's West Virginia Derby at Mountaineer Race Track tops all stakes with its $600,000 purse.
Mountaineer, which rests on the banks of the Ohio River in the sleepy town of Chester, W. Va., is offering a record purse for the 30th running of the West Virginia Derby. Two years ago, the West Virginia Derby's purse was half of what it is today.
COLLINSVILLE, Ill. - Two weeks after a horse infected with the West Nile virus was euthanized at Fairmount Park, two other horses on the grounds and another at an offtrack training facility in the area have been found to be infected with the virus.
DEL MAR, Calif. - Came Home, the winner of five stakes this year, will meet older horses for the first time, and top 3-year-old War Emblem, in the $1 million Pacific Classic at Del Mar on Aug. 25.
Came Home has not started since winning the Swaps Stakes over 1 1/8 miles at Hollywood Park on July 14. The Pacific Classic will be his first start at 1 1/4 miles since he finished sixth in the Kentucky Derby, losing by 10 1/4 lengths to War Emblem.
For the second straight year leading trainer Cole Norman has turned a former $25,000 claimer into a stakes winner in the Ark-La-Tex Handicap at Louisiana Downs, in Bossier City, La.
In 2001 he did it with Unrullah Bull, who after the Ark-La-Tex went on to win this year's Grade 3, $300,000 Texas Mile.
This year, Prince Iroquois turned the trick by winning Saturday's Ark-La-Tex, and as a result he will now be pointed to the Claiming Crown at Philadelphia Park on Aug. 31. His race, the $150,000 Jewel, is the richest of the six stakes that make up the Crown.
SAN MATEO, Calif. - Trainer John Anderson knows that there's not a high percentage in asking a horse to do too many new things at once.
So he is adding only one unknown into the equation when he brings Gyrene back to the races on Friday in the Bay Meadows Fair feature, a six-furlong allowance race for fillies and mares 3 years old and up.
The new part of the equation for the stakes-placed Gyrene, who won her maiden race in her last start at Pleasanton on July 6, is facing older horses for the first time.
OCEANPORT, N.J. - Trainer Patrick Biancone has already taken New York by storm this summer with 2-year-olds Zavata and Whywhywhy, who have combined for three graded stakes victories at Belmont and Saratoga, and he brings another juvenile from his arsenal - Le Notre - to Monmouth this Saturday for the Grade 3, $100,000 Sapling.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario - Just exactly where Bravely was in the early hours of last Sunday morning will never be known for certain.
But it's safe to say Saturday's Breeders' Stakes shapes up as a stroll in the park for Bravely compared with his unwilling participation in the mayhem following the fire that ultimately claimed the lives of 32 horses.
"We were very, very lucky," said Catherine Day Phillips, whose horses are located in Barn 6A, just across the road from the barns destroyed by the fire.
ARLINGTON HEIGHTS, Ill. - Mystery Giver's five-furlong turf work at Arlington on Wednesday moved him a step closer to running in the Arlington Million a week from Saturday.
An Illinois-bred who endured a frustrating trip when fifth in the Arlington Handicap, the local prep for the Million, Mystery Giver breezed in 1:02 around dogs placed far out into the turf course. He broke off sharply for the work under Rene Douglas, who never asked Mystery Giver for run in the stretch.
Trainer Dave Vance concedes that Caressing has been something of a disappointment since she posted her 45-1 upset in the 2000 Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies.
"But it'll be an even bigger disappointment when she goes home," Vance said.
Saturday, Caressing will make the final start of her career before being retired to owner Carl Pollard's Hermitage Farm outside of Louisville. Caressing is one of about eight fillies and mares expected at Ellis Park for the $200,000 Gardenia Handicap, the signature event of the annual summer meet at the Henderson, Ky., track.
WINNIPEG, Manitoba - Odds-on favorite Lord Shogun set leisurely fractions of 23.80 seconds, 49.00, 1:14.80, and 1:41.00 on his way to winning Monday's 1 1/8-mile Manitoba Derby in 1:54.20.
"It was all the horse," said jockey Quincy Welch, after guiding Lord Shogun to a 3 1/4-length tally. "I was just waiting for them throughout the entire race."
Sunday and Monday, rumors had been running rampant around the Assiniboia Downs backstretch that Lord Shogun would be scratched because of an injury.