AUBURN, Wash. - Youth will be served at Emerald Downs on Thursday when four of the eight races on the card, including the feature, are for 2-year-olds.
The feature, which goes as the seventh race, will see a field of five juvenile fillies, each eligible to be claimed for $25,000 or $20,000, run over 5 1/2 furlongs.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - Puzzlement, winner of a second-level allowance race here on July 24, began preparations Tuesday for the $1 million Travers on Aug. 24 with an easy five-furlong move timed in 1:05.25 over the main track.
While the move was the second slowest of 23 at the distance, Saratoga's main track has slowed down considerably following a weekend that produced extremely fast times and tended to favor inside speed runners. Only two five-furlong works on Tuesday were timed in under 1:01.
DEL MAR, Calif. - The law of averages is one of the few angles working for Irguns Angel when she faces the red-hot Azeri in Sunday's $300,000 Clement Hirsch Handicap at Del Mar.
"Azeri doesn't have to win every single race she's in," said Ron Anson, who owns Irguns Angel.
A top contender for the Breeders' Cup Distaff in October, Azeri has won four consecutive Grade 1 races and will be heavily favored to win the Grade 2 Hirsch, run over 1 1/16 miles.
OCEANPORT, N.J. - Soon after watching his top juvenile, Valid Video, win his racing debut June 14 by an impressive 2 1/2 lengths and clock five furlongs in a rapid 57.11 seconds, trainer Dennis Manning made a statement that seems unusual in today's racing industry.
"You won't see him for a while," he said. "I'll give him a break and train him right up to the Sapling."
SAN MATEO, Calif. - Trainer Chuck Peery has no complaints about the northern California fair circuit. That's what 13 victories and a better than 30 percent win ratio will do.
Nonetheless, he's glad for the sake of Optic Diversion to be back at Bay Meadows.
Optic Diversion is a 3-year-old gelding with two wins and two seconds in eight starts. One win and two seconds have come in his three races on the Bay Meadows turf, where he will run in Thursday's co-feature at the Bay Meadows Fair.
AUBURN, Wash. - Horse of the meeting honors still might be up for grabs at Emerald Downs, but it appears safe to say that Colterkind nailed down the award for top claimer on Sunday with his hairbreadth victory in the $60,000 Governor's Handicap at 6 1/2 furlongs.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario - Hot Talent was a smash hit again here Monday, scoring her third win in as many career outings in the $250,000 Wonder Where.
But Hot Talent, a 3-year-old filly owned by Stronach Stable and trained by Malcolm Pierce, now may have to take her act on the road.
"We have no idea at all where we might run her next," said Pierce, after watching Hot Talent become a stakes winner in Monday's 1 1/4-mile turf feature for Canadian-bred
3-year-old fillies.
Sam Houston Race Park in Houston, which last month had requested drastic changes to its racing calendar for 2003, has amended its original request, reverting to a schedule similar to the one it has kept the past several years.
In its new request, Sam Houston asked for 84 dates of Thoroughbred racing in 2003, from Jan. 2 to March 30, and from Oct. 24 to Dec. 31.
The spinal injuries jockey David Guillory sustained in a spill Friday at Louisiana Downs apparently will force him to retire. Guillory has been one of the most respected jockeys on the Louisiana-Arkansas circuit since he began his career in 1983.
"I'm pretty sure I will retire from race riding," said Guillory, who turns 42 on Aug. 24. "This makes me decide earlier than I wanted."
Guillory was injured in the third race, when his mount clipped heels at the top of the stretch. "My horse stumbled and I went over his head," the rider said.
SANTA ROSA, Calif. - Channing Way ($4.40) battled on the front end with Hadl and had enough left late to hold off Onslaught by a neck as she won the $50,990 Elie Destruel Handicap on Monday at the Sonoma County Fair.
Channing Way, who won her second straight and eighth in 12 starts, clocked 1:09.45 for six furlongs.
"She loves that hooked stuff," winning rider Chad Schvaneveldt said. "She'd open by a length, then wait, then go on again."
Winning trainer Dan Morgan said, "She's a pro. She's tough. She knows where the wire is."