ETOBICOKE, Ontario - Lush Solider and Cavalier Billie, both turf stakes winners, head a solid 10-horse field of 3-year-old fillies in Friday's allowance prep for the Aug. 25 Ontario Colleen Handicap at Woodbine.
Lush Soldier highlighted her 2-year-old campaign last year by winning a division of the Grade 3 Natalma Stakes in September. She subsequently ran second in the Green River Stakes at Keeneland, then capped her season with a fourth-place finish in the Hollywood Wildcat Stakes at Calder.
ALTOONA, Iowa - Sure Shot Biscuit became the first Iowa-bred to reach $1 million in career earnings by finishing third in an allowance race at Prairie Meadows on Tuesday.
Sure Shot Biscuit's $4,500 share of the purse gave him earnings of $1,000,500 for Okoboji Racing Stable, which has owned the 6-year-old gelding throughout his racing career. Kelly Von Hemel trains Sure Shot Biscuit, Iowa-bred horse of the year for the last three seasons.
SHAKOPEE, Minn. - The Minnesota Thoroughbred Association's yearling and paddock sale will be held Saturday following the races. A total of 65 yearlings, horses of racing age, and broodmares make up the main catalog, and an additional 15 horses have been supplemented to the sale. The 1992 Kentucky Oaks winner, Luv Me Luv Me Not, was sold at the Canterbury paddock sale in 1990.
LAFAYETTE, La. - Paw Paw's Pride's domination of the marathon series came to an end last Friday as he finished third while toting 124 pounds in the 1 5/8-mile feature. The race was won by Lucky Man, second to Paw Paw's Pride in the last three races in the series.
MUSKEGON, Mich. - Trainer Ronnie Allen capped off the racing week with victories by I Match Too in the Moonbeam Handicap and Above the Wind in the Michigan Breeders' Governor's Cup Handicap. Both races, worth $45,000 each, were contested at 1 1/16 miles and restricted to Michigan-breds.
Longshot I Match Too ($23.60) stayed close to the pace and was up to win by a neck over Tank Grrrl. Empress Livia was 1 1/2 lengths back in third. Roberto Perez was aboard for the win.
Hackendiffy, winner of the Hoover Stakes last weekend, will be pointed to the $200,000 Cradle Stakes at 1 1/16 miles on Labor Day, owner David Eigel said. Eigel said that Hackendiffy, who won the Cleveland Kindergarten at Thistledown before the Hoover, is following the same route Harlan's Holiday took to the Cradle last year.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - The light schedule that trainer Jonathan Sheppard mapped out for It's a Giggle this spring was designed to bring him into the Saratoga meet prepared to knock off this track's two main races for steeplechase runners in a bid for a year-end championship. It's a Giggle can clear the first of those jumps on Thursday, when he heads a field of six in the $75,000 A.P. Smithwick Memorial Steeplechase Handicap.
If you want to see them go up . . . and over, arrive early. The Smithwick is the first race on a nine-race card.
DEL MAR, Calif. - Dean Greenman has big expectations for his two starters on Thursday's card at Del Mar - Yet Anothernatalie in the second race and Groom on the Run in the featured seventh.
"I hope to win two," he said.
Neither horse is likely to be favored. Each runs in a turf race over 1 1/16 miles.
Yet Anothernatalie starts in a $62,500 claiming race, her first start for Tommy Town Thoroughbreds and Greenman after being claimed in a six-way shake for $50,000 on July 26. Thursday's race marks Yet Anothernatalie's first start around two turns.
CHICAGO - Trainer Dave Vance knew a year ago that Kiss the Devil was a long-term project. Yes, the filly could run, but she also was immature, growthy, and perhaps not the brightest horse in the world.
On July 25 at Arlington you got to see why Kiss the Devil was worth the time and effort. Eleven starts after she had cleared her first allowance condition, Kiss the Devil finally won again.
But she didn't just win. She aired, cruising away from eight rivals at the top of the stretch for a six-length victory, running the last of nine furlongs in less than 12 seconds.